Editing Aerope (section)

==Sources==
===Early===
Mentions of Aerope apparently occurred as early as "[[Homer]]" and "[[Hesiod]]".<ref>For a discussion on sources on Aerope's story see Gantz, pp. 545&ndash;550, 552&ndash;553.</ref> 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?].<ref>Scholia on ''Iliad'' 1.7  (= [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137a Most]). Compare with Scholia on [[Tzetzes]]' ''Exegesis in Iliadem'' 1.122 (= [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137c Most]), which says the same thing. That the scholiast means that Aerope was also the mother in Hesiod, is assumed by Armstrong, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 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, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.79.xml?rskey=eCbMAb&result=1&mainRsKey=ZJxzLz p. 79], says that in the Hesiodic tradition, "Pleisthenes and (probably) Aerope ... were the parents of Agamemnon and Menelaus".</ref>

Since Aerope is not in [[Homer]]'s Iliad or ''[[Odyssey]]'' (where Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus, with no mother mentioned),<ref>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]]'' [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> the scholiast is presumably taking the Homeric reference from somewhere in the [[Epic Cycle]], which was also attributed to Homer.<ref>Gantz, p. 552; Armstrong, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12].</ref>

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?).<ref>Gantz, p. 552; [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.229.xml fr. 138 Most] = fr. 195 MW.</ref> While the [[Byzantine]] scholar [[John Tzetzes]] says that according to "Hesiod", Aerope was, by [[Atreus]], the mother of [[Pleisthenes]].<ref>Gantz, p. 552; [[Tzetzes]], ''Exegesis in Iliadem'' 1.122 [= [[Hesiod]] ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-catalogue_women/2018/pb_LCL503.227.xml fr. 137b Most], which also cites "Aeschylus, and some others".</ref>

===Fifth century BC===
The story of Aerope, Atreus and Thyestes, was popular in Greek tragedy, however no complete plays on the story survive.<ref>Gantz, pp. 546&ndash;547; Wright, pp. 83&ndash;84; Armstrong, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 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, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12 n. 38].</ref> [[Aeschylus]]' play ''[[The Oresteia#Agamemnon|Agamemnon]]'' contains several obscure allusions to the story, which indicate that, by at least 458 BC, the story was well known.<ref>Gantz, p. 546; [[Aeschylus]], ''[[The Oresteia#Agamemnon|Agamemnon]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aesch.+Ag.+1191 1191&ndash;1193], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aesch.+Ag.+1219 1219&ndash;1222].</ref> 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".<ref>Gantz, p. 546; [[Aeschylus]], [[Agamemnon (play)|''Agamemnon'']] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aesch.+Ag.+1191 1191&ndash;1193] with Weir Smyth's note.</ref>

There are many references to Aerope in the plays of Euripides. She was apparently an important character in his lost tragedy ''Cretan Women''.<ref>Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.517.xml p. 516]. For discussions of the play, see Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.517.xml pp. 516&ndash;527] (including testimonies and fragments); Webster, pp. 37&ndash;39.</ref> The play told how Aerope was "secretly violated by a servant", and that when her father discovered this, he gave her to Nauplius to be drowned, but instead Nauplius gave her in marriage to Pleisthenes.<ref>Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.517.xml p. 516]; Webster, pp. 37&ndash;38; [[Euripides]], ''Cretan Women'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.521.xml test. iiia].</ref>  According to the scholiast on [[Aristophanes]]' ''[[Frogs (play)|Frogs]]'' 849, her behavior in the play was "like a whore's".<ref>Collard and Cropp 2008a, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.517.xml p. 516].</ref> This, along with Euripides treatment of other "profligate women" suggests that the play dealt with Aerope's seduction of Thyestes, rather than Thyestes' seduction of Aerope.<ref>Gantz, pp. 546, 547; Webster p. 38.</ref> Although she was given to Pleisthenes as his wife, in his ''Cretan Women'', in his plays [[Orestes (play)|''Orestes'']], and [[Helen (play)|''Helen'']], Euripides  has Agamemnon and Menelaus as the sons of Aerope and Atreus.<ref>[[Euripides]], [[Orestes (play)|''Orestes'']] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Orest.+16 16], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Hel.+390 390&ndash;392].</ref> Also in his ''Orestes'', he refers to the "treacherous love of Cretan Aerope in her treacherous marriage",<ref>[[Euripides]], [[Orestes (play)|''Orestes'']] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Orest.+1009 1009&ndash;1010].</ref> while in his [[Electra (Euripides play)|''Electra'']], he tells us that Thyestes, "persuaded Atreus' own wife to secret love, and carried off to his house the portent; coming before the assembly he declared that he had in his house the horned sheep with fleece of gold."<ref>[[Euripides]], [[Electra (Euripides play)|''Electra'']] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+El.+720 719&ndash;725].</ref> Euripides possibly also wrote a play ''Thyestes''.<ref>Gantz, p. 546; Armstrong, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12, n. 40].</ref>

[[Sophocles]], in his play [[Ajax (play)|''Ajax'']], refers to Aerope being found in bed with a lover, and ordered drowned by someone's "father". As the text stands, the "father" is Aerope's, and the reference is to Catreus giving her to Nauplius to be drowned, as in Euripides’ ''Cretan Women''.<ref>Gantz, pp. 554&ndash;556; [[Sophocles]], '[[Ajax (play)|''Ajax'']] 1295&ndash;1297, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Soph.+Aj.+1295 (Jebb)]: [Teucer addressing Agamemnon] "you yourself were born from a Cretan mother, whose father found ..".</ref> However, a small "correction" to the text would make the father Agamemnon's, and the reference would then be to Atreus finding Aerope in bed with Thyestes.<ref>Gantz, p. 555;  Jebb's note to ''Ajax'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0024:text=comm:commline=1296 1296 '''ὁ φιτύσας πατήρ''']; [[Sophocles]], '[[Ajax (play)|''Ajax'']] 1295&ndash;1297, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/sophocles-ajax/1994/pb_LCL020.149.xml (Lloyd-Jones)]: "you yourself are the son of a Cretan mother, whom your father, finding  ...". The Greek text has Aerope being found in bed with an ''epaktos'' ('alien'), which, as Gantz points out, "would more naturally refer to an adulterer".</ref> There were several other plays by Sophocles, all lost, which presumably also dealt with the story: ''Atreus'', ''Thyestes'' (possibly more than one), and ''Thyestes in Sicyon''.<ref>Gantz, p. 546; Armstrong, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12, n. 40].</ref>  Byzantine scholia to Euripides' ''Orestes'' 812, possibly referring to the passage from the ''Ajax'' noted above, say that in some (unnamed) play by Sophocles, Atreus "revenged himself on his wife Aerope (both because of her adultery with Thyestes and because she gave away the lamb) by casting her into the sea".<ref>Gantz, pp. 548, 555; Jebb's note to ''Ajax'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0024:text=comm:commline=1296 1296 '''ὁ φιτύσας πατήρ'''].</ref>

[[Agathon]], wrote a play titled ''Aerope'' (and a ''Thyestes''), and perhaps so did the younger Carcinus.<ref>Gantz, pp. 546&ndash;547; Wright, pp. 83&ndash;85 110&ndash;111; Armstrong, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12, n. 40].</ref> We are told that in some such play,  Alexander of Pherai was moved to tears by the performance of the actor Theodorus as Aerope, suggesting a sympathetic portrayal.<ref>Gantz, pp. 546&ndash;547.</ref>

===Late===
The Roman mythographer [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] has Agamemnon as the son of Aerope and Atreus<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#97 97].</ref> and Tantalus and Plethenes as the sons of Aerope and Thyestes, with these being the children that Atreus fed to Thyestes.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#246 246].</ref>
 
In [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Ars Amatoria]]'', Aerope is given as one of several examples of "women's lust" being "keener" than men's and having "more of madness":<ref>Armstrong, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA112 112], [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2wTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA114 114&ndash;115]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Ars Amatoria]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-art_love/1929/pb_LCL232.35.xml 1.327&ndash;330], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-art_love/1929/pb_LCL232.37.xml 1.341&ndash;342].</ref>
:Had the Cretan woman abstained from love for Thyestes (and is it such a feat to be able to do without a particular man?), Phoebus had not broken off in mid-career, and wresting his car about turned round his steeds to face the dawn.

The mythographer [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] gives the following account:
:Catreus, son of Minos, had three daughters, Aerope, Clymene, and Apemosyne, and a son, Althaemenes. When Catreus inquired of the oracle how his life should end, the god said that he would die by the hand of one of his children. ... 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]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.2 3.2].</ref>

However elsewhere he says that Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Aerope and Atreus<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.Epit+E.3.12 E.3.12].</ref> and that
:the wife of Atreus was Aerope, daughter of Catreus, and she loved Thyestes. And Atreus once vowed to sacrifice to Artemis the finest of his flocks; but when a golden lamb appeared, they say that he neglected to perform his vow, and having choked the lamb, he deposited it in a box and kept it there, and Aerope gave it to Thyestes, by whom she had been debauched.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.Epit+E.2.10 E.2.10&ndash;11].</ref>