Atreus: The Original Curse
First of all, we have two brothers: Thyestes and Atreus (my dad!). Now, Atreus is the king of Argos/Mycenae, and a great one he is, too. But he and his brother are always fighting. This is because Thyestes is an evil, lying snake who started everything. Now, to make it all worse, Thyestes decides to seduce Atreus' wife, Aerope (me mum) to take over. Things get ugly when my father finds out. He kidnapps his nameless nephews and boils them up, then serves the dish to the unwitting Thyestes. Thyestes makes a big fuss out of it, and visciously kills Atreus! Then he curses my father's whole family, sending the Furies (evil goddesses of revenge that drive you mad) after all of Atreus' line, especially the firstborn males (me...). So Thyestes steals the throne, my mum, and sends Atreus' sons into exile. That's Menelaus and Agamemnon (me). But don't worry! It ends happily when my brother and I return when we grow up and kill our uncle. That way, we restore the throne to the rightful king--me--and avenge our father's death, as the gods commanded us to do. Unfortunately, I inherit The Curse of Atreus.
Curse: The Next Generation
Even worse, I somehow get married to an evil axe-murderess, Clytemnestra. For you dolts out there, marriages in those days often weren't to the liking of either party (see the 3rd-Generation Curse). Strange that my brother Menelaus managed to be actually chosen by his bride out of all her suitors, and ended up marrying Helen (grr). Then Paris comes along and bad things happen. If you really want the details, go read Homer--or if you're really feeling braindead, the musical provided by the Neohomeridae. The point is that I end up trapped on a tiny island with all my troops, and the Goddess Artemis threatens to destroy us with storms unless I sacrifice my daughter, Iphigenia. This is not good. I can't go home or on to Troy. My troops would be destroyed. So, I had to kill her to save the lives of my thousands of men (well, 1200 ships with a crew of about 50 each...). So I sacrifice her. Or try. Artemis rescues her and sends her off to be a priest (almost as bad). I'm glad. I mean, I had nothing against the girl. But Clytemnestra doesn't hear of the rescue thing. So more bad things happen when I get back from Troy. Even worse, when I get back from Troy with Cassandra, a charming Trojan girl I'd brought back from the wreck of Troy. She was always saying strange and cryptc things, like "You fool! You're going to die!" etc. I guess I should have
Curse: Deep-Seated Anguish (Gen 3)
Remember Iphigenia? Well, she's got siblings. These are my darling Electra and my boy Orestes. 'Fraid they both got the Atrean hereditary Furies as well as Atrean depression. But who wouldn't be with such a great dad gone? So what happens is, Clytemnestra tries to kill her son Orestes, but Electra saves him at the last minute. Clytemnestra has been sleeping with a worm-man named Aegisthus (son of Thyestes) whom everyone agrees is just too girly. He's been her concubine for years now--ever since I left for Troy (so you see, it wasn't all my fault our marriage was terrible!). Unknown to her, Aegisthus is really manipulating her (too girly to do the dirty work himself) into hating her children, so she tries to kill Orestes. Electra barely manages to save his life and send him into exile instead. But now Clytemnestra beats Electra and is generally one really horrid mum. She reminds me of my own mom, Aerope. Just look at the parallels. But anyhow, things just get worse and worse for Electra, especially as she seems to be the only one mourning my death. So she sends for her brother, who comes in disguise. They kill their mum and their step-mum to avenge me. Orestes is normally quite a passive boy, so he never would have murdered anyone--except that the god Apollo ordered him to kill Clytemnestra. Unfortunately, right after the murder, the Furies hit, full force. Apollo made a mistake. Great. So now Orestes is being tormented by these evil goddesses. He takes refuge in Apollo's temple, and he gets a free trial in front of Athena to determine guilt. Athena proclaims him innocent. Thus, the Curse of Atreus is supposedly broken. But just watch what happens next.
Curse: Voyages (Aftermath)
My boy saves Iphigenia from a gruesomely boring life as a priest, and they sail off together. Then he meets Hermione. Hermione is the daughter of Menelaus and Helen, and Orestes is very much in love with her. There's a horrible love-circle involving the son of Achilles and Andromache (dead Hector's wife), but to make a long and sappy story short, Achilles' son gets stabbed by my son, Andromache and Hermione commit suicide, Orestes goes mad again and thinks he commits suicide, and Electra gets married to Orestes' mime friend (who up until now has done nothing), Pylades.