The Greatest Betrayals in Greek Mythology
When Trust Was Broken
Betrayal is one of the most powerful themes in Greek mythology. The myths are full of broken promises, violated hospitality, and treachery that echoed through generations.
Clytemnestra's murder of Agamemnon is the defining betrayal — she killed her husband in vengeance for his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia. But was it betrayal or justice? Medea's murder of her own children to punish Jason's abandonment remains the most horrifying act of vengeance in mythology. Theseus abandoned Ariadne on Naxos after she helped him escape the Labyrinth — a betrayal so cold that Dionysus himself took pity and married her. Zeus broke faith with virtually every agreement he made, yet punished mortals severely for the same behavior. The gods' treatment of Prometheus — chaining him to a rock for eternity for the crime of helping humanity — represents the ultimate betrayal by those in power against those who serve them.
Betrayals That Cursed Whole Families
The house of Atreus is built on broken trust from its very first generation. Tantalus, invited to dine with the gods, repaid them by serving his own son Pelops as the meal to test whether they could tell. His grandson Atreus quarrelled with his brother Thyestes over the throne of Mycenae. Thyestes seduced Atreus' wife Aerope, who secretly handed him the golden lamb that conferred the kingship. Atreus took revenge by killing Thyestes' sons and serving them to their father at a banquet. Thyestes' surviving son Aegisthus later became Clytemnestra's lover and helped kill Agamemnon, so the murder in the bath is the latest link in a chain of betrayals rather than an isolated crime. Aeschylus' Agamemnon makes this explicit: Cassandra sees the ghosts of the murdered children on the palace roof.
Thebes has its own version. Polynices, exiled by his brother Eteocles, bribed Eriphyle with the necklace of Harmonia to persuade her husband, the seer Amphiaraus, to join the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, even though Amphiaraus knew he would die there. He did, swallowed by the earth, and his son Alcmaeon later killed Eriphyle to avenge him.
Betrayed for Love
A recurring pattern is the princess who betrays her father for a foreign hero and is then discarded. Ariadne gave Theseus the thread; Medea helped Jason take the Golden Fleece from her father Aeetes and, in most versions, killed her own brother Apsyrtus to delay the pursuing Colchians. Ovid adds Scylla, daughter of King Nisus of Megara, who fell in love with the besieging Minos and cut the purple lock of hair on which her father's life and kingdom depended. Minos took the city but was disgusted by her and sailed away; she clung to his ship and was turned into a seabird.
In Euripides' Medea, Jason's offence is specifically breaking his sworn oaths. Medea reminds him that he swore by the gods, and the chorus sings that faith and oaths have vanished from Greece. That is why the audience can feel horror at Medea and still understand her grievance.
Ovid's story of Tereus is darker still. The Thracian king married Procne, then raped her sister Philomela and cut out her tongue to keep her silent. Philomela wove the story into a tapestry, and the sisters took a revenge as terrible as Atreus': they served Tereus his son Itys. All three became birds.
Gods Betrayed and Betraying
The gods' own history starts with betrayal. Gaia, angry that Uranus kept their children trapped inside her, gave Cronus the sickle to castrate him; Rhea later deceived Cronus with the swaddled stone. In Iliad 1 Achilles recalls a plot by Hera, Poseidon and Athena to put Zeus in chains, foiled when Thetis brought the hundred-handed Briareus to Olympus.
Mortals cheated the gods too. King Laomedon of Troy hired Apollo and Poseidon to build the city walls and then refused to pay, even threatening to sell them as slaves (Iliad 21). He later cheated Heracles of the immortal horses promised for rescuing his daughter Hesione, and Heracles sacked Troy in return. Ixion murdered his father-in-law to avoid paying the bride-price and, after Zeus purified him and welcomed him to Olympus, tried to seduce Hera. He ended bound to a fiery wheel.
Odysseus himself is a betrayer in the wider tradition. When Palamedes exposed his pretended madness to avoid the war, Odysseus later took revenge by forging a letter from Priam and planting gold in Palamedes' tent, so the Greeks stoned him as a traitor. Homer never mentions this; it comes from the lost epic tradition and later mythographers. See more in rivalries in Greek mythology and famous punishments.
Ancient sources
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Clytemnestra's murder of Agamemnon, set against the crimes of Atreus and Thyestes.
- Euripides, Medea — Jason's broken oaths and Medea's revenge.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 6 and 8 — Tereus, Procne and Philomela; Scylla's betrayal of Nisus to Minos.
- Homer, Iliad 1 and 21 — the plot to bind Zeus; Laomedon cheating Apollo and Poseidon.
- Homer, Odyssey 11 — an early variant in which Ariadne is killed by Artemis on Dia because of Dionysus' testimony.
- Apollodorus, Library and Epitome — Eriphyle and Amphiaraus; Odysseus' framing of Palamedes.
Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest betrayal in Greek mythology?
Clytemnestra's killing of Agamemnon is the most famous, but many readers would name Atreus serving Thyestes his own children, which set the family curse in motion.
Did Theseus mean to abandon Ariadne?
The sources disagree. In some versions he deserts her deliberately; in others he forgets her, or Dionysus claims her and orders Theseus to leave. Plutarch collects several of these variants.
Who betrayed Zeus?
Hera, Poseidon and Athena once tried to bind him, according to the Iliad. Prometheus also tricked him over the sacrifice and stole fire for humans.
Why did Medea kill her children?
In Euripides' play she kills them to inflict the greatest possible pain on Jason after he leaves her for the daughter of the king of Corinth. In an older tradition, the Corinthians killed the children.