Thyestes by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

First produced: c. 40-55 c.e. (English translation, 1581)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Tragedy

Time of plot: Antiquity

Locale: Greece

Principal characters

• Atreus, the king of Argos
• Thyestes, his brother
• Thyestes’ Three Sons,

The Story:

Megaera, one of the Furies, summons the ghost of Tantalus to return from Hades to Argos, where Tantalus in life had been king, to watch revenge, hate, and havoc spread across that kingdom. Tantalus does not want to be reminded of the part he played in the story of his royal house, but Megaera forces him to witness the fate of his descendants.

The grandsons of Tantalus, the sons of Pelops, whom Tantalus sacrificed to the gods, are at war with each other. The elder of Pelops’s sons, Atreus, is the rightful ruler of Argos, but his brother, Thyestes, has seduced Atreus’s wife and carried her away. With them they have taken the golden ram, the symbol of power held by the ruler of the kingdom. Civil war breaks out, and Thyestes is defeated. After his defeat, he is exiled by Atreus.

Exile is not sufficient punishment for Thyestes. The fierce hatred of Atreus, burning over his brother’s crimes and his own misfortune in the loss of his wife, demands greater revenge. A tyrant who believes that death is a comfort to his subjects, Atreus broods over fierce and final vengeance upon his younger brother. He feels that no act of revenge can be a crime when committed against a man who has worked against him as his brother has. Moreover, he feels that he, as a king, can do as he wishes; private virtues are not for rulers. When an attendant suggests that Atreus put Thyestes to the sword, Atreus says that death is only an end. He wants Thyestes to suffer torture. Atreus finally decides on a punishment: He will feed Thyestes’ own children to him at a banquet.

Atreus takes the first step toward accomplishing his revenge. He sends his own sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, as emissaries of goodwill to Thyestes and asks the exile, through them, to return to a place of honor at his brother’s side. Fearing that if his sons know his plans they might lack the discretion they need to act as friendly ambassadors, he does not tell them the part they are playing in his scheme of revenge.

Thyestes, trusting the king, returns to Argos with his three sons, including one named Tantalus, for his great-grandfather of famous memory. When Thyestes looks again on familiar landscapes, he feels a sense of foreboding. His footsteps falter, and his sons note his apparent unwillingness to return. The offer of peace and half the kingdom seems to Thyestes unlike his brother’s earlier hatred and fury. He fears that there has been too much hate and bloodshed between them for real peace to be possible. His sons, silencing his doubts, lead him on to the court of Atreus. Atreus, seeing his brother and nephews in his power, apparently unmindful of the revenge plotted against them, is overjoyed and acts as such, concealing his hatred and welcoming them to the kingdom once again.

Atreus announces a great feast to celebrate his brother’s homecoming. Then, taking the three sons of Thyestes aside, he leads them to a grove behind the palace, where he slays them with all the ceremony of a sacrifice to the gods. The first he stabs in the neck, the second he decapitates, and the third he kills with a blade thrust through the body. Thyestes’ sons, knowing that appeals are useless, suffer death in silence. Atreus draws off their blood and prepares the carcasses like so much beef. The limbs he quarters and places upon spits to roast; the bodies he hacks into small pieces and places in pots to boil.

The fire seems reluctant to burn as an accomplice to his deed, but Atreus stands by and acts as cook until the ghastly banquet is ready. As he cooks, the sky grows dark, and an unnatural night settles across the face of the earth. When at last the banquet is prepared, Atreus feels that he is the equal of the gods themselves.

The feast begins. After the banquet has progressed to the point that the guests are glutted by all they have eaten, Atreus prepares for Thyestes a drink of wine and blood drained from the bodies of Thyestes’ sons. All the while, a premonition of evil has hung like a cloud in the back of Thyestes’ mind. Try as he might, he cannot be happy and enjoy the feast, for vague terrors strike at his heart. When Atreus gives him the cup of blood and wine, he cannot lift it to drink at first, and when he does try to drink, the wine seems to roll around the brim of the cup rather than pass through his lips. Filled with sudden fears, Thyestes demands that Atreus produce his sons.

Atreus leaves and then shortly returns with the heads of Thyestes’ three sons on a platter. Thyestes, chilled with horror at the sight, asks where the bodies are. He fears that Atreus has refused them honorable burial and has left them for the dogs to eat. Atreus tells Thyestes that he has eaten his own children. Then Thyestes realizes why unnatural night has darkened the skies. Still Atreus is not satisfied. He is disappointed that he did not plan to force Thyestes to drink some of his children’s blood while they were yet alive.

The king brags of what he has done and describes how he himself committed the murders and spitted the meat before the fires. Atreus, enjoying his revenge, can never believe that the greatest weight on Thyestes’ mind is his regret that he did not think of such revenge and cause Atreus to eat his own children.

Bibliography

Davis, P. J. Seneca: “Thyestes.” London: Duckworth, 2003. Argues that the savage violence and human bestiality in the drama are Seneca’s response to Nero’s tyrannical rule. Discusses the drama’s context, performance history, themes, reception, and impact on subsequent playwrights, including William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

Griffin, Miriam T. Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics. Rev. ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1991. Definitive study of Seneca evaluates the man who had so many lofty ideals and whose life was so full of less-than-lofty facts. Dramatizes the problem of public service in a corrupt state.

Harrison, George W. M., ed. Seneca in Performance. London: Duckworth, with the Classical Press of Wales, 2000. Collection of twelve essays examines ancient and more modern productions of Seneca’s plays. Includes discussions of the acting, characterization, and physical settings of his drama.

Henry, Denis, and Elisabeth Henry. The Mask of Power: Seneca’s Tragedies and Imperial Power. Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1985. Examines Seneca’s tragedies and places them within the context of the times in which they were written.

Holland, Francis. Seneca. 1920. Reprint. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1969. Thorough, readable, and still authoritative biography explores the events of Seneca’s life.

Littlewood, C. A. J. “Images of a Flawed Technical Genesis: Thyestes.” In Self-Representation and Illusion in Senecan Tragedy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Chapter devoted to Thyestes is part of a larger examination of Seneca’s dramas as works of Neronian literature. Traces the influence of Greek and other Roman literature, and of Stoic philosophy, on Seneca’s plays.

Motto, Anna Lydia. Seneca. New York: Twayne, 1973. Offers a clear presentation of Seneca’s life and work. A good starting place.

Rosenmeyer, Thomas G. Senecan Drama and Stoic Cosmology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Argues that one must study Seneca’s Stoicism, as expressed in his philosophical works, to understand his plays fully.

Schiesaro, Alessandro. The Passions in Play: “Thyestes” and the Dynamics of Senecan Drama. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Uses modern critical approaches and psychoanalytic theory to analyze the play. Points out common themes and stylistic characteristics in Thyestes and other Senecan tragedies.

Sutton, Dana Ferrin. Seneca on the Stage. New York: Brill, 1986. Argues against the long-held idea that Seneca’s tragedies were written to be read rather than performed. Supports this claim by showing how the playwright included stage directions in the form of clues in the characters’ speeches.