Verse tragedy · c. AD 50

Thyestes

by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Translated by Frank Justus Miller (1907)

The ghost of Tantalus and a Fury drive the house of Pelops to a new crime. King Atreus, pretending reconciliation, lures his exiled brother Thyestes home to share the throne. Atreus slaughters Thyestes’ sons, and at a banquet serves their flesh to their father, who learns what he has eaten only when the severed heads are shown to him. The play ends in Thyestes’ helpless curse upon his brother.

Contents · 6 parts

• Persons of the Play12 paragraphs
• Act Iabout 250 lines
• Act IIabout 310 lines
• Act IIIabout 310 lines
• Act IVabout 350 lines
• Act Vabout 330 lines

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