Aegisthus
In
Greek mythology,
Aegisthus ("goat strength", also
transliterated as
Aegisthos or
Aigísthos) was the son of
Thyestes and his daughter,
Pelopia.
Thyestes felt he had been deprived of the
Mycenean throne unfairly by his brother,
Atreus. The two battled back and forth several times. In addition, Thyestes had an affair with Atreus' wife,
Aerope. In revenge, Atreus killed Thyestes' sons and served them to him unknowingly. After eating his own sons' corpses, Thyestes asked an
oracle how best to gain revenge. The advice was to father a son with his own daughter, Pelopia, and that son would kill Atreus.
When Aegisthus was born, his mother was ashamed of her incestuous act. She abandoned him and he was raised by shepherds and suckled by a goat. Atreus, not knowing the baby's origin, took Aegisthus in and raised him as his own. When Aegisthus reached adulthood, Thyestes revealed his true parentage, that he was both father and grandfather to Aegisthus, who then killed Atreus and seized the throne.
Aegisthus and Thyestes ruled over
Mycenae jointly, exiling Atreus' sons,
Agamemnon and
Menelaus to
Sparta, where King
Tyndareus gave the pair his daughters,
Clytemnestra and
Helen, to take as wives. At his death, Tyndareus gave his throne to Menelaus, who then helped Agamemnon overthrow Aegisthus and Thyestes.
After Agamemnon left Mycenae for the
Trojan War, Aegisthus wanted to seduce his wife, Clytemnestra (mother of
Erigone). Agamemnon had left Clytemnestra with a singer; as long as the singer was present, Clytemnestra resisted Aegisthus. Aegisthus then took the singer to a deserted island, and Clytemnestra was seduced. On the kings' return after the ten-year war, Aegisthus helped Clytemnestra kill Agamemnon (and his new concubine,
Cassandra); they subsequently ruled Mycenae for seven years.
Eight years later, Agamemnon's son,
Orestes, and his daughter,
Electra, returned to Mycenae and killed both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
Homer,
Od. iii. 263, iv. 517;
Hyginus,
Fab. 87.
Much later, when Orestes was visiting
Iphigenia in
Crimea, Aegisthus' son,
Alete, took over
Mycenae. Orestes killed him upon his return.
