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Cannibalism, murder and revenge are at the heart of the complex of myths surrounding the House of Atreus, a family cursed to exact violence on one another from generation to generation. This lecture investigates the way that the murder of Agamemnon is treated in both Homer’s Odyssey and Aeschylus’ Oresteia, and discusses how each version of the myth reflects contemporary concerns. In particular,Aeschylus’ trilogy deals with themes which were significant to the political culture of democratic Athens, which gave power to civic institutions ratherthan to the household, and put authority firmly in the hands of Athenian males. Copyright 2013 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.