Editing Pleisthenes (section)

==Sources==
In [[Homer]]'s  ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'', Pleisthenes is nowhere mentioned, and Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of [[Atreus]]<ref>Gantz, p. 552; Armstrong, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12, with n. 39]. Although ''Atreides'', the standard Homeric epithet for Agamemnon or Menelaus, normally understood to mean "son of Atreus", can simply mean "descendant of Atreus", in some places Homer specifically refers to Agamemnon or Menelaus as a son of Atreus ("Ἀτρέος υἱέ") e.g. ''[[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], see also ''Iliad'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+2.104 2.104 ff.].</ref> However, from ancient commentators on the ''Iliad'' we are told of another tradition, followed by [[Hesiod]], [[Aeschylus]], [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]], and "others", in which Pleisthenes was the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus.<ref>For a detailed discussion of Pleisthenes, see Gantz, pp. 552&ndash;556.</ref> An ''Iliad'' [[scholium]] says that, according to Hesiod, Agamemnon was the son of Pleisthenes and [[Aerope]].<ref>Gantz, p. 552; Scholia on ''Iliad'' 1.7  (= [[Hesiod]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137a Most]).</ref> Another ''Iliad'' scholium, citing Porphyry and "many others", says that Pleisthenes fathered Agamemnon and Menelaus, did nothing of note, and died young, with Atreus raising his sons.<ref>Gantz, p. 552 (citing Scholia A to ''Iliad'' 2.249).</ref>

Neither, of these ''Iliad'' scholia say who Pleisthenes' parents were, but Tzetzes' in his commentary on the ''Iliad'', says that his father was Atreus and that, rather than being his wife, Aerope was his mother:<ref>Gantz, p. 552.</ref>
:According to Hesiod, Aeschylus, and some others, Pleisthenes was the son of Atreus and Aerope, and the children of Pleisthenes and Dias’ daughter Cleolla were Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia. Because Pleisthenes died young, they were brought up by their grandfather Atreus, and so they are considered by many to be Atreids.<ref>[[Tzetzes]], ''Exegesis in Iliadem'' 1.122 [= [[Hesiod]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137b Most]).</ref>

In a scholium on [[Euripides]]' ''[[Orestes (play)|Orestes]]'' (which has sometimes been attributed to [[Hellanicus of Lesbos|Hellanicus]]), Pleisthenes is again the son of Atreus, and the father of Agamemnon, Menelaus and Anaxibia, but Cleolla, rather than being Pleisthenes' wife, is his mother, and his wife is the otherwise unknown Eriphyle.<ref>Fowler, p. 435; Gantz, p. 553; Scholia to [[Euripides]], ''[[Orestes (play)|Orestes]]'' 4. For the possible attribution of this scholium to Hellanicus, see Fowler, p. 434.</ref>

The [[patronymic]] "Pleisthenides" occurs in several ancient sources. [[Stesichorus]] uses it twice, probably referring to Menelaus, in one fragment (209 ''[[Poetae Melici Graeci|PMG]]''), and Agamemnon, in another (219 ''PMG'').<ref>Gantz, p. 553.</ref> [[Ibycus]] refers to Agamemnon as "the king Pleisthenides, leader of men, son of noble father Atreus" (282 ''PMG''), which would seemingly make ''some'' Pleisthenes an ancestor of Atreus.<ref>See Gantz, p. 553, which says that "either the poet here heedlessly combines two conflicting descriptions (from different epic traditions?), or knows of a genealogy other than those we have found so far.</ref> [[Bacchylides]], in the same poem, refers to Menelaus as both "Atreides"  and "Pleisthenides".<ref>Gantz, p. 553; [[Bacchylides]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0064%3Abook%3DDith 15.6, 48].</ref> [[Aeschylus]]'s ''[[Agamemnon (play)|Agamemnon]]'', refers to Agamemnon's family as the Pleisthenidae ("house of Pleisthenes"),<ref>[[Aeschylus]], [[Agamemnon (play)|''Agamemnon'']] [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg005.perseus-eng1:1567-1576 1569].</ref> and the "race of Pleisthenes",<ref>[[Aeschylus]], [[Agamemnon (play)|''Agamemnon'']] [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg005.perseus-eng1:1577-1616 1602].</ref> although exactly which branch of Agamemnon's family is meant is unclear.<ref>Gantz, p. 554. Both [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg005.perseus-eng1:1567-1576 Weir Smyth], and [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-oresteia_agamemnon/2009/pb_LCL146.191.xml Sommerstein] in their notes to ''Agamemnon'' 1569, suggest that Pleisthenidae is being used here as a synonym of Atreidae.</ref>

Pleisthenes was also the subject of [[Euripides]]'s lost tragedy, ''Pleisthenes''.<ref>For a discussion and the surviving fragments of the play see Cropp 2008b, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.79.xml pp. 79&ndash;87].</ref> A possible plot for the play is found in [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 86:<ref>Gantz, p. 555; Collard and Cropp 2008b, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.81.xml p. 80]; Grimal, s.v. Pleisthenes.</ref>
:Because Thyestes, son of Pelops and Hippodamia, lay with Aëropa, Atreus’ wife, he was banished from the kingdom by his brother Atreus. But he sent Atreus’ son, Plisthenes, whom he had reared as his own, to Atreus to be killed. Atreus, believing him to be his brother’s son, unknowingly killed his own son.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#86 86].</ref>

The mythographer [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] gives an account of how Aerope came to be Pliesthenes' wife:
:And Catreus gave Aerope and Clymene to Nauplius to sell into foreign lands; and of these two Aerope became the wife of Plisthenes, who begat Agamemnon and Menelaus;<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.2.2 3.2.2].</ref>
However, elsewhere he has Aerope as the wife of Atreus,<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.Epit+E.2.10 E.2.10].</ref> and Agamemnon and Menelaus as the sons of her and Atreus,<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.Epit+E.3.12 E.3.12].</ref>

Scholia to [[Pindar]]'s ''Olympian'' 1 mention a son, or bastard son, of Pelops, named Pleisthenes, which some scholars have identified with the Pleisthenes who was the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus.<ref>Gantz, pp. 544, 554; Collard and Cropp 2008b, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.79.xml p. 79 n. 1]; Grimal s.v. Pleisthenes.</ref>