atreid

noun

1. (Greek)Any of the family and descendants of the mythical Mycenaean king Atreus, including either of his sons Menelaus and Agamemnon, who both feature in the Iliad.

   “Ancient tradition said that Mycenae was founded by the Perseid dynasty and that the Atreids (Pelops, Atreus, Agamemnon) were outsiders.”

   “While in the Oresteia sacrifice operated as a metaphor for the intrafamilial murders of the Atreids, among the Taurians the metaphor takes on materiality.”

   “The family history of the Atreids is so complicated you'd need a flow chart to get it; what's more, that chart would flow with the blood of doomed family members. Situated in Mycenae, the Atreids were a brutal and competitive bunch; they worked hard to outdo each other with generation after generation of heinous crimes.”