Aegisthus
mythological figure · 8 works · 14 mentions · 23 anchored passages
her husband · Aegis · bedfellow · blood-guilty one · father's murderer · foe · glorious bridegroom · man · murderer · son of Thyestes
in the texts
Orations
Lover of Clytemnestra who kills Agamemnon upon his return and is made king of Argos.
And Agamemnon plainly was despised by his wife because of the defeat, and Aegisthus attacked him and mastered him easily, and the Argives, taking up the matter, appointed Aegisthus king—which they would not have done had he killed Agamemnon coming with such repute and power, having mastered Asia.
And the children of Thyestes were cut to pieces, and the father lay with Pelopia and begot Aegisthus;
And Aegisthus killed Agamemnon "having feasted him, as one slays an ox at the manger.
Electra
Thyestes's son, Clytemnestra's lover and Agamemnon's murderer, who rules Argos and is the first target of Orestes's vengeance.
but Aegisthus rules the land, possessing Agamemnon’s wife, the daughter of Tyndareus.
So if strangers must join in the sacrifice with citizens, Aegisthus, we are ready and will not refuse, lord.
When Aegisthus heard that, he said, You must be my guests for the feast with us now, for I happen to be sacrificing an ox to the Nymphs;
Orestes
Clytemnestra's secret lover who helped her kill Agamemnon and was killed by Orestes.
She deserves to die even more than you, for it was she who embittered you against your mother, always carrying tales to your ear to increase your hate the more, announcing dreams from Agamemnon, and Aegisthus’ bed, may the gods in Hades loathe it!
Aegisthus was her secret husband in the home;
and all the while he was darting lively glances at the friends of Aegisthus.
Electra
Clytemnestra's consort and Agamemnon's co-murderer, now occupying royal power in the house.
My accursed bed in that house of suffering there knows well already how I observe my night-long rites—how often I bewail my miserable father, whom bloody Ares did not welcome with deadly gifts in a foreign land, but my mother and her bedfellow Aegisthus split his head with murderous axe, just as woodmen chop an oak.
And then think what manner of days I pass, when I see Aegisthus sitting on my father’s throne;
Now by our mistress Artemis, you shall not escape the consequences of this audacity once Aegisthus returns.
Against Alcibiades
Figure from Greek myth (the house of Atreus) invoked as a comparison for the unnatural circumstances of the birth of Alcibiades's son by a Melian captive.
that is why our old men fight our battles, while our young men make speeches— they take Alcibiades as their model, Alcibiades who carries his villainy to such unheard-of lengths that, after recommending that the people of Melos be sold into slavery, he purchased a woman from among the prisoners and has since had a son by her, a child whose birth was more unnatural than that of Aegis—thus, since he …
On the Mysteries
Mythological figure invoked as a comparison for confused kinship relations.
Oedipus, Aegisthus, or what?
On the Nature of the Gods
Mythological figure notorious for adultery with Clytemnestra and the murder of Agamemnon.
nor, when we see the lust of Aegisthus or that of Paris, do we ask a cause sent by a god, when we almost hear the voice of guilt itself;
The Rights of War and Peace
Mythological figure who murdered Agamemnon and was later honored in burial.
for we are told, in the third book of the Odyssey, that Ægisthus, who had added the crime of murder to that of adultery, was honoured with funeral ceremonies by Orestes, the son of the murdered king.