In Greek mythology, AeropeSmith, s.v. Aerope. (The name is derived from Ἀήρ (aēr) meaning "air," "mist," or the "lower atmosphere" and Ὤψ (ops) meaning "face," "countenance," "eye," or "look".) was a Cretan princess as the daughter of Catreus, king of Crete. She was the sister of Clymene, Apemosyne and Althaemenes. After an oracle said he would be killed by one of his children, Catreus gave Aerope to Nauplius to be sold abroad. Nauplius spared her, and she became the wife of Atreus or Pleisthenes (or both). By most accounts, she is the mother of Agamemnon and Menelaus. While the wife of Atreus, she became the lover of his brother Thyestes, and gave Thyestes the golden lamb that allowed him to become king of Mycenae.Grimal, s.v. Aerope; Tripp, s.v. Aërope; Bell, pp. 9–10; Smith, s.v. Aerope; Parada, s.v. Aerope.
Family Aerope's father was Catreus, son of Minos, and king of Crete. Catreus had two other daughters, Clymene and Apemosyne, and a son, Althaemenes.Hard, p. 354; Apollodorus, 3.2.1. For Catreus as the son of Minos see also Diodorus Siculus, 4.60.4. Pausanias, 8.53.4 says that, while the Cretans claim Catreus was the son of Minos, according to the Tegeans, Catreus was the son of Tegeates.
In most accounts, Aerope was the mother of Agamemnon and Menelaus, fathered by Atreus. However, their father is occasionally named as Pleisthenes.Gantz, p. 552; Hard, pp. 355, 508; Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 517; Tzetzes, Allegories of the Iliad Prolegomena 508–511. Sources which have Aerope as the mother of Agamemnon and Menelaus include: (by Atreus) Euripides, Helen 390–392, Orestes 16; Hyginus, Fabulae 97; Apollodorus, E.3.12; Scholia on Iliad 1.7 (citing "Homer" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137a Most) and Scholia on Tzetzes' Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (citing "Homer" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137c Most); and (by Pleisthenes) Apollodorus, 3.2.2, Dictys Cretensis, 1.1; (no father mentioned) Sophocles, Ajax 1290–1297. Without naming a father, fragmentary lines from the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 138 Most = fr. 195 MW) seem to make Aerope the mother of three sons Agamemnon, Menelaus (and Anaxibios?), see Gantz, p. 552. See also Scholia on Iliad 1.7 (= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137a Most), which says that, "according to Hesiod", Agamemnon was the son of Pleisthenes, with Aerope possibly implied as the mother (see below). Compare with Tzetzes, Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137b Most), which says that, "according to Hesiod, Aeschylus, and some others," Cleolla, the daughter of Dias, was the mother (by Pleisthenes) of Agamemnon and Menelaus. In other retellings, Aerope was instead the mother of Pleisthenes by Atreus. When Pleisthenes died young, his sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, were adopted by Atreus.Gantz, p. 552; Hard, p. 508; Tzetzes, Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137b Most); Compare with Scholia on Iliad 2.249, which has Pleisthenes dying young and his sons raised by Atreus; Hyginus, Fabulae 86, which has Aerope as Atreus' wife and Pleisthenes as Atreus' son; Scholia on Iliad 1.7 (= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137a Most), which says that, according to Hesiod, Agamemnon was the son of Pleisthenes; and Dictys Cretensis, 1.1, which has Agamemnon and Menelaus, as the sons of Aerope and Pleisthenes, being adopted by Atreus. In others, Aerope was the wife of both Atreus and Pleisthenes, having married Atreus after Pleisthenes died, with Atreus adopting her children from the first marriage.Gantz, pp. 552–553. According to Webster, p. 38, Euripides' Cretan Women probably had "Pleisthenes die young and leave his sons (and his wife) to Atreus". Such accounts were perhaps attempts to reconcile separate traditions.Collard and Cropp 2008b, pp. 79–80; Fowler, p. 435 n. 28; Grimal, s.v. Aerope.
According to Hyginus, Aerope was the mother of two sons, Tantalus and Pleisthenes, fathered by Thyestes. He claims these were the children that Atreus famously fed to Thyestes.Gantz, pp. 546–547; Hyginus, Fabulae 88, 246; For Atreus feeding the children of Thyestes to him, see Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1219–1222, 1590 ff.; Euripides, Orestes 15, 810 ff., 995 ff.; Sophocles, Ajax 1293–1294; Plato, Cratylus 395b. Gantz, p. 547, suggests the possibility that Aerope was also the mother of these children in Euripides' lost Cretan Women. See also Webster, p. 38. Additionally, Aerope has also been named as the mother of a daughter, Anaxibia.Parada, s.vv. Aerope, Anaxibia 3; Pausanias, 2.29.4; Compare with Tzetzes, Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 [= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137b Most, which says that Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia were the children of Pleisthenes and Cleolla, the daughter of Dias, see Gantz, p. 552.
Mythology In Crete According to the tradition followed by Euripides in his lost play Cretan Women (Kressai), Catreus found Aerope in bed with a slave and handed her over to Nauplius to be drowned. Instead, Nauplius spared Aerope's life and she married Pleisthenes.Hard, p. 355; Gantz, p. 271. Euripides' treatment of the story is according to the Scholia on Sophocles, Ajax 1297, citing Euripides' Cretan Women, see: Collard and Cropp 2008a, pp. 520, 521; Webster, pp. 37–38; Jebb's note to Ajax 1295 Κρήσσης. Sophocles, in his play Ajax, may also refer to Aerope's father finding her in bed with a man and handing her over to Nauplius to be drowned. However, the potentially corrupt text may instead refer to Aerope's husband Atreus finding her in bed with Thyestes, and having her drowned (see below).Gantz, pp. 554–555; Jebb's note to Ajax 1296 ὁ φιτύσας πατήρ. The possible Sophoclean reference is found in lines 1295–1297, spoken by Teucer to Agamemnon. Here, by way of insulting Agamemnon, Teucer malign's Agamemnon's mother Aerope as having been found in bed with a strange man, by a "father" who then has her drowned. The difficulty arises in knowing whose "father" is meant, Aerope's, or Agamemnon's. Compare Jebb's: "a Cretan mother, whose father (i.e. Catrues) found ... ", with's Lloyd-Jones's: "a Cretan mother, whom your father (i.e. Atreus), finding ...".
The mythographer Apollodorus followed a different tradition, with no mention of any sexual transgression. In his account, Catreus gave Aerope and her sister Clymene to Nauplius to be sold off in foreign lands after an oracle prophesied that he would be killed by one of his children. Aerope's brother Althaemenes also found out about the prophecy, and fearing that he would be the one to kill Catreus, fled to Rhodes with Apemosyne.Collard and Cropp 2008a, pp. 516–518; Apollodorus, 3.2. In this telling, Aerope eventually becomes the wife of Pleisthenes.
In Mycenae From Crete, Aerope was taken to Mycenae. There, while the wife of Atreus, she became the lover of Atreus' twin brother Thyestes, involving herself in the brothers' power struggle for the kingship of Mycenae.Gantz, pp. 545– 556. For Aerope as lover of Thyestes, see Gantz, pp. 546–547; Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1191–1193; Euripides, Electra 719–720, Orestes 1009–1010; Apollodorus, E.2.10; Hyginus, Fabulae 86; Ovid, Ars Amatoria 1.327–330, 1.341–342. A small "correction" of the text would make Sophocles, Ajax 1295–1297 a reference to the adultery of Aerope with Thyestes, see Gantz, pp. 554– 555.
Atreus and Thyestes were the sons of Pelops and Hippodamia, king and queen of Pisa.Gantz, pp. 543–544. For Apollodorus' account of their story see E.2.10–12. Their desire for their father's throne led to the murder of their half-brother Chrysippus, for which they were banished, and sought refuge in Mycenae.Gantz, pp. 489, 544–545; Thucydides, 1.9; Plato, Cratylus 395b; Hyginus, Fabulae 85. According to Hyginus, the brothers were encouraged to commit the act by their mother Hippodamia, who killed herself upon being accused of doing so. When the Perseid dynasty came to an end, the Myceneans received a prophesy saying they should choose a son of Pelops as their king. Aerope stole the golden lamb (a portent linked to the kingship of Mycenae) from her husband Atreus and gave it to Thyestes, so that the Myceneans would choose Thyestes as their king.Gantz, p. 547; Hard, p. 506; Euripides, Electra 699–725, Orestes 810 ff., 995 ff.; Plato, Statesman 268e; Apollodorus, E.2.10–11; Pausanias, 2.18.1. The golden lamb was perhaps included in Sophocles' Atreus, and Euripides' Cretan Women, see Gantz, p. 546, and, regarding Cretan Women, Webster, p. 38. For a discussion of the golden lamb, with many other sources, see Frazer's note to Apollodorus, E.2.12.
From Byzantine period annotations to Euripides' Orestes, we learn that, in some unspecified Sophocles work, Atreus cast Aerope into the sea in revenge for her adultery and theft of the golden lamb.Byzantine scholia at Orestes line 812, see Gantz, pp. 548, 555 and Jebb's note to Ajax 1296 ὁ φιτύσας πατήρ.
Sources Early Mentions of Aerope apparently occurred as early as "Homer" and "Hesiod".For a discussion on sources on Aerope's story see Gantz, pp. 545–550, 552–553. An Iliad scholium tells us that: 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 [and Aerope?].Scholia on Iliad 1.7 (= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137a Most). Compare with Scholia on Tzetzes' Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137c Most), which says the same thing. That the scholiast means that Aerope was also the mother in Hesiod, is assumed by Armstrong, p. 12, while Gantz, p. 552, simply says that according to the scholium, "while Homer makes Agamemnon the son of Atreus and Aerope ... in Hesiod he and his brother are the sons of Pleisthenes". Collard and Cropp 2008b, p. 79, says that in the Hesiodic tradition, "Pleisthenes and (probably) Aerope ... were the parents of Agamemnon and Menelaus".
Since Aerope is not in Homer's Iliad or Odyssey (where Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus, with no mother mentioned),Gantz, p. 552. Although Atreides, the standard Homeric epithet for Agamemnon or Menelaus, normally understood to mean "son of Atreus", can also mean simply "descendant of Atreus", in some places Homer specifically refers to Agamemnon or Menelaus as a "son" of Atreus ("Ἀτρέος υἱέ") e.g. Iliad 11.131, Odyssey 4.462, see also Iliad 2.104 ff.. the scholiast is presumably taking the Homeric reference from somewhere in the Epic Cycle, which was also attributed to Homer.Gantz, p. 552; Armstrong, p. 12.
Fragmentary lines from the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women seem to make Aerope, (without naming a father) the mother of three sons Agamemnon, Menelaus (and Anaxibios?).Gantz, p. 552; Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 138 Most = fr. 195 MW. While the Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes says that according to "Hesiod", Aerope was, by Atreus, the mother of Pleisthenes.Gantz, p. 552; Tzetzes, Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 [= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137b Most, which also cites "Aeschylus, and some others".
Fifth century BC The story of Aerope, Atreus and Thyestes, was popular in Greek tragedy, however no complete plays on the story survive.Gantz, pp. 546–547; Wright, pp. 83–84; Armstrong, p. 12, with n. 40. However, the story seems not to have been popular for the visual arts, and no representation of Aerope is found in the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, see Armstrong, p. 12 n. 38. Aeschylus' play Agamemnon contains several obscure allusions to the story, which indicate that, by at least 458 BC, the story was well known.Gantz, p. 546; Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1191–1193, 1219–1222. In that play, Cassandra hints at Aerope's affair with Thyestes, where he is referred to as "the one who defiled" his "brother's bed".Gantz, p. 546; Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1191–1193 with Weir Smyth's note.