Editing Pleisthenes (section)

==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.<ref>Gantz, p. 552 describes him as the "most perplexing member of the house of Tantalus"; Sommerstein, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_agamemnon/2009/pb_LCL146.191.xml p. 191 n. 327] says that "Pleisthenes is a shadowy name in the family to which Agamemnon belongs, found at several different points in its genealogy". Fowler also calls him "shadowy" (p. 435), and, while discussing the descendants of [[Pelops]], says: "Genealogically, matters are complicated by the unknown position of the baffling Pleisthenes" (p. 439). See also Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA355 p. 355] ("obscure"), [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA508 p. 508] ("shadowy"), Collard and Cropp 2008b, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.79.xml p. 79] ("obscure"). Tripp, s.v. Pleisthenes, says that the conflicting versions regarding the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus "seemed to have confused ancient writers".</ref> 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]].<ref>Grimal, s.v. Menelaus; Hard, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA355 355], [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA507 507], [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA508 508]; Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.517.xml p. 517]; Gantz, p. 552; Parada, s.v. Agamemnon; [[Euripides]], ''[[Helen (play)|Helen]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Hel.+390 390&ndash;392], ''[[Orestes (play)|Orestes]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=57514F65526E804C8BAABD84924B4C06?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0116 16]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#97 97];  [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.Epit+E.3.12 E.3.12]; Scholia on ''[[Iliad]]'' 1.7  (citing "Homer" = [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137a Most]) and Scholia on [[Tzetzes]]' ''Exegesis in Iliadem'' 1.122 (citing "Homer" = [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137c Most]). They are also the sons of Atreus, in the ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'', see for example ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+11.131 11.131], ''[[Odyssey]]''  [http://nlp.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Hom.+Od.+4.462 4.462], although Aerope is not mentioned (see Gantz, p. 522). See also [[Euripides]], ''[[Iphigenia in Tauris]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+It.+1 4&ndash;5], (Atreus as father, no mention of mother); Hesiod ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.229.xml fr. 138 Most] [= fr. 195 MW], and [[Sophocles]], ''[[Ajax (play)|Ajax]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Soph.+Aj.+1295 1295&ndash;1297] (Aerope as mother, no mention of father).</ref> However, according to another tradition, Pleisthenes, the son of Atreus (or [[Pelops]]?) was the father, probably by Aerope, of Agamemnon and Menelaus,<ref>Hard, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA355 355], [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA508 508]; Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.517.xml p. 517]; Collard and Cropp 2008b, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.79.xml p. 79]; Gantz, pp. 552&ndash;553; Scholia on ''[[Iliad]]'' 1.7  (citing "Hesiod" = [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137a Most]) and Scholia on [[Tzetzes]]' ''Exegesis in Iliadem'' 1.122 (citing "Hesiod" = [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137c Most]); [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.2.2 3.2.2]; [[Dictys Cretensis]], [http://www.theoi.com/Text/DictysCretensis1.html 1.1]. Some scholars (see for example Grimal, s.v. Pleisthenes) have equated this Pleisthenes with the Pleisthenes who was said to be a son of [[Pelops]], and so a brother of Atreus, see Gantz, p. 554.</ref> although some accounts have the mother  as [[Cleolla]]<ref>Gantz, p. 552; Grimal, s.v. Pleisthenes; [[Tzetzes]], ''Exegesis in Iliadem'' 1.122 (citing "Hesiod, Aeschylus, and some others" = [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137b Most]).</ref> or Eriphyle.<ref>Gantz, p. 553 (citing Scholia on [[Euripides]] ''[[Orestes (play)|Orestes]]'' 4).</ref>

According to varying accounts, Pleisthenes' wife was Aerope, who he had received from the mariner hero [[Nauplius (mythology)|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.<ref>Collard and Cropp 2008b, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.79.xml pp. 79&ndash;80]; Fowler, p. 435 n. 28; Grimal, s.vv. Pleisthenes, Aerope.</ref>