Comparing Greek Mythology and Modern Science Fiction

The Greek myths, foreign as they might seem to a modern audience, are still prevalent in today's society and culture. We use the names of Greek gods and goddesses to advertise consumer products, to name our corporations, and even to name our children. We frequently incorporate their mythological narratives into our modern literature, television, and film. Frank Herbert's Dune, for example, is a popular novel, movie, and television miniseries that, while appearing futuristic, is simply the continuation of the story of the House of Atreus, or, House Atreides, a story that was written thousands of years ago.

The legend of the House of Atreus starts as a battle for the throne of Mycene. Rival brothers, Atreus and Thyestes, want not only to be king, but also the hand of Atreus' wife, Aerope. The throne is passed back and forth several times between the brothers, but eventually, when Atreus' power is restored, he discovers his wife's adultery and, in retribution, cooks Thyestes sons and feeds them to their father. Thyestes, then, fathers a son by his daughter; the child, Aegisthus, is said to be destined to murder Atreus, which he eventually does. When Atreus' son, Agamemnon, reaches adulthood, he banishes Thyestes and becomes ruler of Mycene. Aegisthus however, seduces Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, and the two of them join forces to kill him upon his return from the Trojan War. Orestes and Electra, Agamemnon's children, then murder both Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. (Atreus)

In 1965, Frank Herbert published his science fiction masterpiece, Dune; over the next half century, the novel grew in popularity. Along with the numerous sequals that make up the rest of the story, as well as the television miniseries and the film rendition, Dune has been noted as one of the most prominent works of literature of the twentieth century. The novel follows in detail the affairs of the warring House Atreides and House Harkonnen. The House Atreides, just as the name suggests, does indeed derive its heritage from the Greek myth. As Leto II states in one of the sequels to the original novel, God Emperor of Dune, "My paternal Grandfather was Leto Atreides, descendant of the House of Atreus and tracing his ancestry directly back to the Greek original." (Herbert). As shown in the series, the House Harkonnen, though very much at war with the House Atreides, was once actually part of the Atreides; this puts the House Harkonnen as the descendants of Thyestes and his family. Throughout the Dune chronology, we see that Frank Herbert intended his work not to parallel the original Greek story, but rather to be a continuation of it.

One of the most important ideas contained in the saga of Atreus and Thyestes is the theory of lex taliones, the law of retribution, or the law of retaliation. Under lex taliones, the punishment is equal to the crime. Therefore, when one member of Atreus' family was killed by a member of Thyestes' family, or vise versa, the family members were obligated to respond by killing a member of the other family. Similarly, throughout the Dune series, Herbert very closely follows this theme and patterns the killings and battles between the two contending houses in the same way outlined in the Greek legend.

In choosing to continue, rather than just parallel, Atreus' myth, Frank Herbert has brought the Greek saga into modern popular culture. Because the Dune series is popular, selling millions of copies of the novel itself, the general population is unknowingly familiar with the mythological Greek story of Atreus and Thyestes, as well as the theory of lex taliones.
Works Cited

"Atreus." Encyclopedia Mythica. 2006. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
28 Oct. 2006 http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/atreus.html>.

Herbert, Frank. Dune. New York: Ace, 1990.

Herbert, Frank. God Emperor of Dune. New York: Ace, 1987.