In the Greek Mythology, Égisthe (in Greek old Αἴγισθος / Aigisthos ) is the son of Thyeste and its Pélopée daughter, of the house of the Atrides. He was the murderer of his adoptive father Atrée, his half-brother Agamemnon and was killed in his turn by his nephew Oreste.

Its birth

Thyeste, outlaw of Mycènes, wanted to be avenged for his/her brother Atrée who had made assassinate all his wire. The oracle of Delphes predicts to him that only the newborn of the union which it would have with his daughter, Pélopée, could avenge it. Thyeste thus went to Sicyone, where the young girl was priestess of Athéna and pupil of the king Thésprotos. One evening, carrying a mask to dissimulate its face, it awaited it in a thicket close to the temple, where it forced it. Mud dauber however succeeds in seizing the sword of its attacker, which it hid in the statue of Athéna.

A few weeks later, Atrée which had made disappear Aéropé, met Pélopia at the court of king de Sicyone and married it. Become mother, it gave up the child, who was collected by chevriers and accepted the name of Egisthe (Égisthe comes from aigos , “goat” in Greek). When Atrée learned what had occurred, he believed that this wire was it his and then made it seek. Once found, it raised it with the palate like its third wire with Agamemnon and Ménélas.

The murder of Atrée

Several years later, on the order of Atrée, Agamemnon and Ménélas left in Delphes to find their uncle Thyeste. They found it by chance, captured it and brought back it to Mycènes. The king then gave the order to Égisthe - seven years old and that he always believed to be his son, to go to kill Thyeste in its prison. However, at the time of the parricidal act, Thyeste recognized the weapon of Égisthe (that there even which was hidden in the statue of Athéna by Pélopée). He then asked this last to make come his mother and the secrecy of its filiation revealed to them. Seized of horror, Pélopée seized the sword and killed itself.

After the death of his/her mother, Égisthe then brought back the sword ensanglantée to Atrée like proof of the execution, which made it possible to kill it later some time whereas it was in full offering: prophecy had been just carried out… It placed then his Thyeste father on the throne and banishes his brothers Agamemnon and Ménélas.

A few years later, Agamemnon, the legitimate king, Thyeste with the assistance of the king Sparte Tyndare reversed, driving out Thyeste on Cythère but Égisthe saver and forgiving him even.

The Trojan War

Opposed to Greek forwarding, Égisthe did not follow Agamemnon to the Trojan War. On the contrary, this one entrusted even its kingdom to him during Achaean forwarding! Égisthe benefitted then from the absence of the king to allure the queen Clytemnestre and became his/her lover. It reigned from now on without division on Mycènes.

The finished war, the two lovers killed the king and his slave Cassandre on his return. Several versions of died of Agamemnon exist: for certain authors, it would have been killed in the Mégaron of the palate of Mycènes, or when it took a bath to celebrate its return, for others finally, the murder would have taken place after a well sprinkled banquet. Nevertheless, all meet to affirm the same will of the two lovers of débarasser of the awkward king.

He still directed the city during seven years before Oreste, the son of Agamemnon, pushed by his/her sister Electra, does not avenge finally his/her father by killing them both.

See too

Sources

• (II, 14; VI, 23);

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• ], XI, v.385 sqq.

External bonds

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Aegisthus.html