Who is ATREUS - The Most Cursed Man in Mythology?

God of War has us all hyped up, but here's one to bring down the mood. Kratos' son in the game was named after one of his Spartan soldiers, but Atreus in mythology is a much, much darker character.
Did you know that he is a descendant of Tantalus, one of the worst (and most punished) people in myth? Well, what Tantalus did, to serve up his son to the Gods on a plate, not only earned him his spot in Tartarus, but also set off a curse which would get progressively more and more damning to his family.
From Tantalus, through the wrongdoings of his son Pelops, through to his grandson Atreus, this curse just kept getting worse, leading to lives lost and depravities committed. But Atreus did nothing but make it worse. Offending several gods, killing his nephews and nieces, and worse, he did much to make the curse of Tantalus, the infamous "Curse of the House of Atreus". It wouldn't be over until his own grandson Orestes was freed from it many years later.
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Sources Used
Ancient Texts:
Aeschylus - The Oresteia (Ὀρέστεια)
Cicero - Tusculan Disputations (Tusculanae Disputationes)
Hygenus - Fabulae
Euripides - Orestes (Ὀρέστης)
Pindar - Olympian Odes (ΙΕΡΩΝΙ ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΙ
ΚΕΛΗΤΙ)
Pseudo-Apollodorus - Bibliotheca (Βιβλιοθήκη)
Robert Graves - 'The Greek Myths' (1955)
Credits
If you see any of your artwork in the video, please let me know so I can give you credit!
Film, TV & Game Clips:
'Braveheart' (1995) | Gibson | 20th Century Fox ©
'God of War Ragnarök' (2022) | Santa Monica Studio ©
'God of War III' (2010) | Santa Monica Studio ©
'God of War' (2005) | Santa Monica Studio ©
'God of War: Ascension' (2013) | Santa Monica Studio ©
'The Legend of Hercules' (2014) | Harlin | Lionsgate ©
Music:
All Music is licensed by Epidemic Sound
www.epidemicsound.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
1:06 The Curse Begins
4:41 Exile & Opportunity
6:53 Brothers become Kings (& Enemies)
11:28 The Massacre
13:14 Truly, the Most Dysfunctional Family
15:12 Will it Ever End?
#Atreus #GreekMythology #AncientHistory #Greece #GodofWar #godofwarragnarok #mythology #antiquityforall #antiquity #Classics

[@azazel166]

Greek here. Given how many times Kratos was cursed by the gods he killed, Atreus is in for a very wild ride in life.

[@Brainlessbian]

Finally! Someone talks about the curse on the house of Atreus here on KZbin!!!

[@iKingReaction18]

Great video I really enjoyed learning about atreus and his family story which is one of the craziest ones I've ever heard.

[@Thermopolis11]

I really like that you put both the English and Greek on the screen. From a student of Ancient Greek, thank you!

[@ceciliaayala3923]

Learning today that House of Atreides (Dune) is loosly inspired in Atreus , so I looked for more information and I found this great video

[@AntiquityforAll]

Always great to see antiquity back in modern thought ☺️

[@ewarrior9776]

The curse came back thousands and thousand of years later.

[@Extron901]

how have you got only 2k subs? This is insane quality

[@Zenitundnadir71]

Great content. Keep it up

[@henkstersmacro-world]

👍👍👍

[@Chessheromusic]

There is a lot of similarities in Loki and Atreus. As they are both born fighting for attention with their half brothers Well Loki is technically stolen this is why the first bridge between the giants and aiser is false. Baldur is the fulfillment of this prophecy as he is the legitimate son of freya and Odin More so baldur being what Odin actually wanted and not Loki Then Loki is responsible for baldurs death Of course baldur is resurrected after ragnorak to be the new god to lead them But Santa Monica didn’t honor this liked I hoped they would I hoped that Atreus would learn that killing baldur was wrong

[@neodelacruz895]

Boi

[@Proud_Sex_Dungeon_Owner]

They way you pronounce ancient Greek is not exactly right.

[@wankawanka3053]

He is trying at least

[@Proud_Sex_Dungeon_Owner]

@@wankawanka3053 I'll give him that. I'm guessing what he's doing is trying to read a version with Latin characters. I understand ancient Greek can translate some to English and I was pretty lost with what he was saying.

[@Official_NOM_]

Lol how is his father debated? It’s a fairytale story there has to be a factual answer it can’t be debated

[@daraghokane4236]

Myths and different versions of plays contradict

[@ThorfinnJaeger]

alot of these ancient myths begin as oral traditions which can have different versions dependent on time and place

[@1000Ducks]

For the longest time people thought Agamemnon and the city of troy did not exist until archeologists unearthed the city of troy and Agamemnon’s tomb. The stories have so much encoded in them and are never too far from the truth. Basically people thought of the illiad as a war mythology like the bagavad gita or the battles of the Old Testament because there had been up until that point no evidence of the mentioned cities or people except in what was thought to be “fairytales” But if stylistic flourishes are a basis for abandoning all credibility we should do away with science and just take pictures and disregard every politician who employs the use of language

[@allye4228]

The ancient people believed this was real so it was not a fairytale to them.