From Agamemnon to Atreides - The Dune / Odyssey Connection

[00:00:00]watch Dune later this year. I think it's important to keep in mind that in that universe the Atreides family traces their roots all the way back to Agamemnon with Atreides being used in this case just to mean distant descendants of Atreus. The family that was cursed by the gods and with that in mind I think it's interesting to consider how this is a family that was defined by ego, by thirst for power, by violent revenge under the guise of justice and maintaining their honor.

[00:00:21]Agamemnon's great great grandfather was Zeus himself who with a woman named Pluto had a son named Tantalus. Tantalus would consistently have meals with the gods. He also had a son named Pelops. He decided one day to kill his son and serve him to the gods to see if they were actually omnipotent. Gods saw through this with the exception of Demeter. They brought Pelops back to life and they sent Tantalus to the underworld in a pool of water with fruit above him. Every time he tried to drink the water, it went further down. Anytime he tried to grab the fruit, it gets further away. This is where we get the English word tantalizing. The incarnated son Pelops would go on to have a chariot race with the king in the balance hand of a woman that he and the king both wanted to marry, Hippodamia. Pelops would bribe the king's chariot driver Myrtilus with a night with Hippodamia if he threw the race. Myrtilus went through with it. The king was killed in a crash.

[00:01:04]After the race though, Pelops threw him off of a cliff. As he was falling, he cursed Pelops and his family forevermore. Pelops would have Agamemnon's father, Atreus, and his twin brother, Thyestes. They would murder their half-brother out of jealousy before being exiled by their father. The twin brothers would go on to have a power struggle over the throne in Mycenae. Also, Atreus would disrespect Artemis which would come back to haunt his family. Atreus would eventually take the throne and exile his brother before calling him back from exile saying he wanted to be friends again and then chopping up his sons and feeding them to him unknowingly. Thyestes would then go back into exile and have a son with his own daughter who would then grow up and kill Atreus so he could take back the throne. Eventually, Agamemnon grows up, avenges his father Atreus, drives out Thyestes, and becomes king himself.

[00:01:46]Menelaus goes to Sparta and becomes king there. Agamemnon, like his father, would disrespect the goddess Artemis out of pride. He bragged about his father not carrying out the sacrifice he had said he was going to and he bragged about being a better hunter than Artemis herself. Agamemnon was leader of the Greek army during the Trojan War.

[00:02:01]Artemis said your ships are not going to sail. She basically quieted down the winds so they couldn't move. Achilles and Odysseus had very little interest in being a part of this war and one of the reasons was what Agamemnon did to his own daughter. Agamemnon told his daughter Iphigenia that she would be marrying Achilles but when he brought her out for the ceremony instead he sacrificed her to Artemis. This is a monstrous individual who did this action for the sake of war and his wife Clytemnestra never forgave him for this when she went and had her affair was because she was angry at this. A big deal is made out of that affair and betrayal at times but Agamemnon did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to. Basically his falling out with Achilles was over a slave girl that he wanted to claim for himself. I bring up his falling out with Achilles because it's a great example of who Agamemnon was whether it be Ajax or Achilles. Many other warriors he was constantly butting heads with these individuals over ego.

[00:02:47]This is why they were losing the war and without the ingenuity and scumbaggery really of Odysseus who didn't want to go in the first place and had to be threatened into the fight. They never would have won. Achilles never would have come back. Ironically never would have died had it not been for his own ego after the murder of Patroclus.

[00:03:02]Agamemnon was an egotistical child killing tyrant who was relying on the men below him for his military victories. He used to walk around in this film and have the feeling of Darth Vader. He shot really big. He's framed really big despite never showing the actual fighting prowess we see from Vader. It was purposeful to not have some huge jacked guy in this role. To have Benny Safdie who has a bigger frame but still is just a pretty normal looking dude. Again, it's like he's wearing this armor like he's a child to purposefully inflate himself and his ego like he is an action figure. This being said, in the world of Dune all these years later there's a member of the House Atreides who becomes Agamemnon the Cymek. This part machine dominates humanity through the use of machines till the Butlerian Jihad and he is killed by his own son. Many years later his descendant Paul will lead his own Jihad because just like Agamemnon this is a man who thought he could control and shape history. Just like Agamemnon he's full of pride. He does not treat individuals like they're anything more than pawns, and it all starts with an unquenchable desire for revenge. Just like Agamemnon, Paul loses his humanity because of the sacrifices he chooses to make for his own greatness.