thinking abt aegistus
Talking about the atreides so tw rape incest ect
So yeah he is an asshole as an adult but have you ever thought about his birth and childhood because that makes me feel a little bad for him.
Aegistus is born to fulfill a prophecy. He is the product of Thyestes hate and desire for revenge of Thyestes
Let's remember that he was 7 years old when Pelopia and Atreus died. Atreus sent him to go kill Thyestes , then Thyeste reveals himself as the father of Aegisthus. Pelopia- Aegisthus’ mother- kills herself in front of her kid and father. Then, just after, Aegistus follows Thyeste's order and goes to kill Atreus.
What is really interesting is the way Aegistus doesn't question what Thyeste is saying, and immediately goes to kill Atreus - the man who raised him and who he thinks is his biological father in some version.
Aegistus embraces the curse. He is the direct product of it. The product of Thyestes decision to rape his own daughter - just to be sure someone will avenge him of what Atreus did.
The way Aegistus is sometimes represented as a more feminine role is also interesting- he comes to take the throne after Clytemnestra but let her do the hard work (in some version, like the Oresteia or Euripides’ or Seneca’s plays, not in homer works for example) . But he is the one pushing Clytemnestra to do the murders. He is partially deprived of a good number of heroic qualities and will be later represented as androgynious or effeminate
If Thyestes is using the curse to justify the awful action he is doing to obtain the power (cf the play Agamemnon of Seneca) , Pelopia just a way to let the curse spread, something the curse hurt on its way - a collateral victim- Aegistus is the embodiment of the curse, not running nor hiding for it but doing the thing as he is supposed to do for the beginning, according to thyestes's will : the eradication the atreides .
He is bound to hate and inter-familials fight from his conception.