About Atreus and Thyestes      After Atreus and Thyestes kill their half brother Chrysippus they flee to Mycenae (see About Hippodamia).  In Mycenae Atreus acquired a golden fleece.  Aerope, Atreus' wife, was seduced by Thyestes and helped him steal the golden fleece from his brother.  Atreus, not knowing that Thyestes had the fleece, was tricked into stating that the owner of the golden fleece was the rightful king.  Thyestes, now king, agreed that if the sun should move backward in its course Atreus could take over the throne.  Zeus sent the sun backward across the sky, and Atreus acquired the kingdom of Mycenae.  Atreus  finds out about his wife's involvement with his brother, to get revenge he kills Thyestes's sons and serves their boiled flesh to him at a banquet.  Thyestes has a son, Aegisthos, with his own daughter Pelopia.  Aegisthos and his father go on to kill Atreus, and Thyestes returns to the throne. Back to Family Tree Back to Literature Index