Tradition attributes the foundation of Mycenæ to Perseus, son of Danaë and Jove, who had by Andromeda a son Sthenelus, to whom he left the kingdom. Sthenelus married Nicippé, the daughter of Pelops, by whom he had a son Eurystheus, who succeeded him. The dynasty of Perseus ended with Eurystheus, who was succeeded by his uncle Atreus, the son of Pelops. The latter left the kingdom to his brother Thyestes, who left it to his nephew Agamemnon, son of Atreus. According to tradition, Atreus and his brother Thyestes contended for the dominion of Mycenæ. Atreus was married to Aëropé, who was seduced by his brother Thyestes. Atreus, in revengeful fury at this, butchered the two (or three) sons of Thyestes, and served them up at a banquet to their father. When Thyestes learnt the fact, in his horror he overturned the table, vomited the dreadful meal, and ran off, cursing the whole race of the Pelopids.[142] Aëropé is thrown into the sea. Thyestes consults the oracle how he can revenge himself on his brother, and gets the answer that, if he begets a son by his own daughter, Pelopia, this son will avenge him. To avoid the incest, he intended to leave for Lydia; but when he was sacrificing in the night to Athena at Sicyon, his daughter joined him there, and unwittingly he begat by her the future avenger, Ægisthus, who, exposed by his mother immediately after his birth, was found by shepherds, and was nursed by a goat, whence his name.[143] He was afterwards sought for by Atreus, who brought him up as his son, for Atreus had married Pelopia in the very beginning of her pregnancy and thought the child belonged to him. But Ægisthus killed Atreus when he was sacrificing on the sea-shore, because Atreus, thinking him to be his own son, had ordered him to kill his brother Thyestes. Ægisthus then, with Thyestes, took possession of the realm. But Homer knows nothing at all of the bloody brawl in the house of the Pelopids, for according to him[144] Jove sent the royal sceptre to Pelops, by Hermes, as a symbol of dominion; Pelops gave it to Atreus, who dying left it to Thyestes; Thyestes left it to Agamemnon, and there is not even an allusion to dispute or violence. Hesiod speaks of the proverbial wealth and the royal majesty of the Atridæ, but he knows nothing of their crimes. Homer knows only the outrage of Ægisthus and Clytemnestra. During Agamemnon's absence in Troy, Ægisthus had succeeded in seducing Clytemnestra, and he was insolent enough to make thank-offerings to the gods for having succeeded.[145] To avoid being taken unawares by Agamemnon, he stationed a watchman on the shore, and when at length he heard of the king's arrival, he invited him to a meal and, in concert with Clytemnestra, killed him at table.[146] Ægisthus then reigned seven years over Mycenæ, until in the eighth, as the gods had foretold to him,[147] Orestes appeared and avenged his father by killing Ægisthus and his own mother Clytemnestra.[148]