Editing Aerope (section)

===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>