Agamemnon
- 1568–1573 [Sommerstein]
- I am willing to make a sworn agreement
- with the spirit of the Pleisthenids327
- that I will be content with what has happened,
- hard though it is to endure, but that for the future it
- should leave
- this house and vex some other family with internecine killings.
- 327 Pleisthenes is a shadowy name in the family to which Agamemnon belongs, found at several different points in its genealogy (see Gantz 552–6). Most often, Pleisthenes is a son of Atreus who dies young and whose children, Agamemnon and Menelaus, are brought up by Atreus who comes to be regarded as their father. However, on the version of events that is assumed in this play, the curse or evil spirit originated not with this Pleisthenes but with Atreus (and Thyestes), and both this passage and 1602 will make most sense if “Pleisthenes” is assumed to be here merely an alternative name for Atreus himself (cf. the doubly named Paris/Alexander); such an equation will have been encouraged by the practice of some lyric poets (Ibycus, PMG 282; Bacchylides 15.6, 48) who speak of Agamemnon and/or Menelaus both as “Pleisthenids” and as “Atreids” or “sons of Atreus”.
- 1568–1573 [Weir Smyth]
- [Clytaemestra:] As for me, however, I am willing to make a sworn compact with the Fiend of the house of Pleisthenes1 [1570] that I will be content with what is done, hard to endure though it is. Henceforth he shall leave this house and bring tribulation upon some other race by murder of kin.
- 1 The Pleisthenidae, here apparently a synonym of Atreidae, take their name from Pleisthenes, of whom Porphyry in his Questions says that he was the son of Atreus and the real father of Agamemnon and Menelaus; and that, as he died young, without having achieved any distinction, his sons were brought up by their grandfather and hence called Atreidae.
- 1590–1602 [Weir Smyth]
- [1590] But Atreus, the godless father of this slain man, with welcome more hearty than kind, on the pretence that he was cheerfully celebrating a happy day by serving meat, served up to my father as entertainment a banquet of his own children's flesh. [1595] The toes and fingers he broke off ... sitting apart. And when all unwittingly my father had quickly taken servings that he did not recognize, he ate a meal which, as you see, has proved fatal to his race. Now, discovering his unhallowed deed, he uttered a great cry, reeled back, vomiting forth the slaughtered flesh, and invoked [1600] an unbearable curse upon the line of Pelops, kicking the banquet table to aid his curse, “thus perish all the race of Pleisthenes!"
- 1602 [Weir Smyth]
- ... thus perish all the race of Pleisthenes!
3.2.2
- And Catreus gave Aerope and Clymene to Nauplius to sell into foreign lands; and of these two Aerope became the wife of Plisthenes, who begat Agamemnon and Menelaus; and Clymene became the wife of Nauplius, who became the father of Oeax and Palamedes.
E.2.10
- The sons of Pelops were Pittheus, Atreus, Thyestes, and others. Now the wife of Atreus was Aerope, daughter of Catreus, and she loved Thyestes. And Atreus once vowed to sacrifice to Artemis the finest of his flocks; but when a golden lamb appeared, they say that he neglected to perform his vow,
E.3.12
- Of the Mycenaeans, Agamemnon, son of Atreus and Aerope: a hundred ships. Of the Lacedaemonians, Menelaus, son of Atreus and Aerope: sixty ships.
15.6 (Castriota, p. 233)
- [5] of the Argives, to Odysseus [son of Laertes] and Menelaus, the royal son of Atreus,
15.48 (Castriota, p. 234)
- [45] and raising their hands to the immortal gods, they prayed for an end to their griefs. Muse, who was the first to begin the words of justice? Menelaus son of Pleisthenes ...
1.1
- Also Menelaus and his older brother Agamemnon, the sons of Aerope and Plisthenes, came to get their share. (They had a sister, Anaxibia, who at that time was married to Nestor.) People often thought that their father was Atreus, because when their real father, Plisthenes, died young without having made a name for himself, Atreus, pitying their plight, had taken them in and brought them up like princes.
Cretan Women
- test. iiia
- 'You (Menelaus) were yourself born from a Cretan mother, whom her own father (Catreus) caught with a man taken into her bed, and sent her to death and destruction by dumb fishes': the story is in Euripides' Cretan Women, that when (Aerope) had been secretly violated by her servant her father handed her over to Nauplius with orders to drown her; Nauplius did not do this, however, but pledged her in marriage to Pleisthenes.
- The scholiast on the reference to Aerope in ‘’Ajax’’ 1297 says ‘the story is in Euripides’ ‘’Cretan Women’’ that when Aerope had been seduced by a servant, her father (Katreus of Crete) handed her over to Nauplios with instructions to drown her, but he failed to do so and engaged her to Pleisthenes’.
fr. 137 Most [= fr. 194 MW]
- 137 (194 MW)
- 137
- a Schol. D in Hom. Il. 1.7 (p. 21 van Thiel2)
- a Scholia on Homer’s Iliad
- According to Homer, Agamemnon was the son of Pelops’ son Atreus, and his mother was Aerope; but according to Hesiod he was the son of Pleisthenes.
- b Tzetz. Exeg. Il. 1.122 (p. 68.19 Hermann)
- b Tzetzes’ commentary on Homer’s Iliad
- Agamemnon, and Menelaus likewise, are considered to be children of Atreus’ son Pleisthenes according to Hesiod and Aeschylus, but according to the poet (i.e., Homer) and everyone they were simply sons of Atreus himself. . . . According to Hesiod, Aeschylus, and some others, Pleisthenes was the son of Atreus and Aerope, and the children of Pleisthenes and Dias’ daughter Cleolla were Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia. Because Pleisthenes died young, they were brought up by their grandfather Atreus, and so they are considered by many to be Atreids.
- c Schol. in Tzetz. ad loc. (p. 11 Papathomopoulos)
- c Scholia on Tzetzes’ commentary on Homer’s Iliad
- According to Homer, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Pelops’ son Atreus and of Aerope from Crete, Catreus’ daughter; according to Hesiod they were the sons of Pleisthenes, a hermaphrodite or lame, who wore women’s clothing.
fr. 138 Most [= fr. 195 MW]
- 138 (195 MW; 91 H) 1–Scutum 18: P. Oxy. 2494A; 1–Scutum 5: P. Oxy. 2355
- 138 1–Shield 18: Oxyrhynchus papyrus; 1–Shield 5: Oxyrhynchus papyrus
- from Crete] he1 led off [
- the daughter of Catreus] and of the beautiful-haired Naead
- ] beautiful-ankled Aeropea
- ] to his home, to be called [his dear wife. [5]
- she bore]bius, and warlike Menelaus and godly Agamemnon, who over spacious [Argos
- to his father, was lord and ruler. [5]
- 1 Pleisthenes
-
- fragmentary lines of that poem [the Ehoiai] just preceding the tale of Alkmene appear to attest that Aerope (not Kleola) is the mother of Agamemnon and Menelaos (and a third son: Anaxibios?), although whether by Atreus or Pleisthenes we cannot tell (Hes fr 195 MW).
Fabulae [Grant]
- 86
- Because Thyestes, son of Pelops and Hippodamia, lay with Aëropa, Atreus’ wife, he was banished from the kingdom by his brother Atreus. But he sent Atreus’ son, Plisthenes, whom he had reared as his own, to Atreus to be killed. Atreus, believing him to be his brother’s son, unknowingly killed his own son.
- 88
- Atreus, son of Pelops and Hippodamia, eager to take vengeance on his brother Thyestes for his injuries, made peace with him, brought him back into his kingdom, and after slaying his infant sons, Tantalus and Plistheens, served them to Thyestes at a banquet.
- 246
- Those Who Ate Their Own Sons at Meals
- ...
- Thyestes, son of Pelops, his children by Aerope – Tantalus and Plisthenes.
Scholia on Sophocles, Ajax
1297a (= Euripides, Cretan Women test. iiia)
- 'You (Menelaus) were yourself born from a Cretan mother, whom her own father (Catreus) caught with a man taken into her bed, and sent her to death and destruction by dumb fishes': the story is in Euripides' Cretan Women, that when (Aerope) had been secretly violated by her servant her father handed her over to Nauplius with orders to drown her; Nauplius did not do this, however, but pledged her in marriage to Pleisthenes.
Scholia on Iliad
1.7 [= Hesiod fr. 137a Most = fr. 194 MW]
- According to Homer, Agamemnon was the son of Pelops' son Atreus, and his mother was Aerope; but according to Hesiod he was the son of Pleisthenes.
- Gantz, p. 552
- Iliad scholia tell us that while Homer makes Agamemnon the son of Atreus and Aerope (she is not mentioned in the Iliad or Odyssey; presumably the scholiast gets this from the Epic Cycle), in Hesiod he and his brother are the sons of Pleisthenes (ΣA Il 1.7 = Hes fr. 194 MW).
2.249
- Gantz, p. 552
- Another Iliad scholion repeats this idea, although without mentioning Hesiod; it does cite Porphyrios and "many others" for it, and adds that Pleisthenes died young, having done nothing of note, whereupon his sons were raised by Atreus (ΣA Il 2.249)
Scholia on Orestes
4
- But in the scholia to Orestes (where Dias is again a brother of Atreus), we find just the opposite: here Atreus marries Kleola, daughter of Dias, she who was the wife of Pleisthenes in Tzetzes, the two of them become the parents of the (infirm of body) Pleisthenes (Σ Or 4).
Thyestes
- 726
- Then that savage drags Plisthenes to the altar, and adds him to his brother.
Scholia on Tzetzes' Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122
- Hesiod fr. 137c Most [= fr. 194 MW]
- According to Homer, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Pelops’ son Atreus and of Aerope from Crete, Catreus’ daughter; according to Hesiod they were the sons of Pleisthenes, a hermaphrodite or lame, who wore women’s clothing.
- Gantz, p. 553
- Tzetzes offers one other curious bit of information, not in his Exegesis but in his scholia to that work: while in Homer Agamemnon and Menelaos are the sons of Atreus, son of Pelops, in Hesiod they are the sons of Pleisthenes, the hermaphrodite or lame one, who wore a woman's mantle (addendum to Hes fr. 194 MW).24
Servius
Servius, Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil 1.458
- ATRIDAS Atrei filios, Agamemnonem et Menelaum; sed usurpatum est, nam Plisthenis filii fuerunt.
- Translation (according to Cynwolfe):
- the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus; but this is to make an unjustified assertion, for they were the sons of Pleisthenes.
Allegories of the Iliad
- Prolegomena
- 508–511
- The Greeks were commanded by two kings:
- the famous Agamemnon and Menelaos
- sons, according to most authorities, of Atreus and Aerope;
- according to others, the children of Pleisthenes and Kleole.
Exegesis in Iliadem
- 1.122
- Hesiod fr. 137b Most
- Agamemnon, and Menelaus likewise, are considered to be children of Atreus' son Pleisthenes according to Hesiod and Aeschylus, but according to the poet (i.e. Homer) and everyone they were simply sons of Atreus himself. ... According to Hesiod, Aeschylus, and some others, Pleisthenes was the son of Atreus and Aerope, and the children of Pleisthenes and Dias' daughter Cleolla were Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia. Because Pleisthenes died young, they were brought up by their grandfather Atreus, and so they are considered by many to be Atreids.
- (Evelyn-White pp. 202–203)
- Agamemnon and Menelaus likewise according to Hesiod and Aeschylus are regarded as the sons of Pleisthenes, Atreus' son. And according to Hesiod, Pleisthenes was a son of Atreus and Aerope, and Agamemnon, Menelaus and Anaxibia were the children of Pleisthenes and Cleolla the daughter of Dias.
- Gantz, p. 552
- Tzetzes (in his Exegesis in Iliadem) explains further what we will have already guessed, that in this version Pleisthenes is the son of Atreus. He goes on to say that for Hesiod, Aischylos, and others, Pleisthenes is born of Aerope, and that this Pleisthenes, wed to Kleola, daughter of Atreus' brother Dias (she is thus his own first cousin), begets Agamemnon and Menelaos, and Anaxibia (pp. 68-69 Hermann, reproduced in part as Hes fr. 194 MW).23 [Pelops' children here (which in fact match perfectly those reported by Σ Or 4) are in part omitted by Merkelbach and West. For the form "Kleolla" actually reported by Tzetzes, see West 1985.111-12.]