Pleisthenes


In Greek mythology, Pleisthenes or Plisthenes, is the name of several members of the house of Tantalus, the most important being a son of Atreus, said to be the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Although these two brothers are usually considered to be the sons of Atreus himself, according to some accounts, Pleisthenes was their father, but he died, and Agamemnon and Menelaus were adopted by their grandfather Atreus.

Father of Agamemnon and Menelaus

The Pleisthenes who was said to have been the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus is a puzzling figure, with a confused genealogy, complicated by the existence of other members of the house of Tantalus with the same name. According to the usual version of the story, followed by the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Atreus, the king of Mycenae was the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, by Aerope, the daughter of the Cretan king Catreus. However, according to another tradition, Pleisthenes, the son of Atreus was the father, probably by Aerope, of Agamemnon and Menelaus, although some accounts have the mother as Cleolla or Eriphyle.
According to varying accounts, Pleisthenes' wife was Aerope, who he had received from the mariner hero Nauplius. Aerope's father Catreus, either because, he found her in bed with a slave, or because of an oracle which said that one of his children would kill him, gave Aerope to Nauplius, to be either drowned, or sold as a slave. However, in both versions of the story, Nauplius spared Aerope and gave her to Pleisthenes.
According to this tradition, apparently, Pleisthenes died young, and Agamemnon and Menelaus were raised by their grandfather Atreus. Such accounts were perhaps attempts to reconcile contradictory traditions.

Other Pleisthenes

There were apparently other members of the house of Tantalus also named Pleisthenes:
  • Pleisthenes, the son of Pelops. Some scholars have equated this Pleisthenes with the Pleisthenes who was the father of Agamenmnon and Menelaus.
  • Pleisthenes, along with his brother Tantalus, were the infant sons of Thyestes and Aerope, who Atreus killed and served to Thyestes at a banquet.
  • Pleisthenes, the son of Menelaus and Helen, who travelled with a son of Helen and Paris to Cyprus. It is not mentioned when this happened, but is usually assumed to have occurred when Helen and Paris left for Troy. However, Jonathan Burgess believes a dating after the war to be more likely.