408 THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
Adrastus and Thyestes at Sicyon. Apulian red-figure krater by the Darius painter, ca. 325 B.c.;
height 25V4 m- A scene from Sophocles' (lost) tragedy Thyestes at Sicyon. Adrastus, king of
Sicyon, central figure in the lower register, commands Thyestes (wearing a cap) to give up
the baby Aegisthus to the huntsman (extreme lower left) for exposure. On the lower right,
the baby's mother, Pelopia, is comforted by the queen of Sicyon, Amphithea. In the top reg-
ister, Apollo (with a swan and a panther) sits in the middle looking toward a Fury (right cen-
ter): Apollo had commanded the incest of Thyestes, and the Fury foreshadows the further
working out of the curse on the house of Atreus if Aegisthus survives. On the right is the fig-
ure of Sicyon, representing the city bearing his name, and on the left Artemis (protectress of
the young) orders Pan to see that Aegisthus is saved, perhaps (like Zeus on Crete) through
being suckled by a goat. The vase shows that other traditions of the myths of Thyestes and
Adrastus existed as well as those known from Aeschylus. Here Adrastus is ruler at Sicyon,
having fled from Argos, and Aegisthus is born at Sicyon, where Pelopia had been sent for
safety after the "banquet of Thyestes" at Argos. (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.)AGAMEMNON, CLYTEMNESTRA, AND AEGISTHUS
Thus the curse of Myrtilus affected the first generation of Pelops' descendants.
The quarrel of Thyestes and Atreus was continued by their sons. In his second
exile, Thyestes lay with his daughter Pelopia, as he had been advised to do by
an oracle, and became the father of Aegisthus, who continued the vendetta in