There are many references to Aerope in the plays of Euripides. She was apparently an important character in his lost tragedy Cretan Women.Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 516. For discussions of the play, see Collard and Cropp 2008a, pp. 516–527 (including testimonies and fragments); Webster, pp. 37–39. The play told how Aerope was "secretly violated by a servant", and that when her father discovered this, he gave her to Nauplius to be drowned, but instead Nauplius gave her in marriage to Pleisthenes.Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 516; Webster, pp. 37–38; Euripides, Cretan Women test. iiia. According to the scholiast on Aristophanes' Frogs 849, her behavior in the play was "like a whore's".Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 516. This, along with Euripides treatment of other "profligate women" suggests that the play dealt with Aerope's seduction of Thyestes, rather than Thyestes' seduction of Aerope.Gantz, pp. 546, 547; Webster p. 38. Although she was given to Pleisthenes as his wife, in his Cretan Women, in his plays Orestes, and Helen, Euripides has Agamemnon and Menelaus as the sons of Aerope and Atreus.Euripides, Orestes 16, 390–392. Also in his Orestes, he refers to the "treacherous love of Cretan Aerope in her treacherous marriage",Euripides, Orestes 1009–1010. while in his Electra, he tells us that Thyestes, "persuaded Atreus' own wife to secret love, and carried off to his house the portent; coming before the assembly he declared that he had in his house the horned sheep with fleece of gold."Euripides, Electra 719–725. Euripides possibly also wrote a play Thyestes.Gantz, p. 546; Armstrong, p. 12, n. 40.
There are many references to Aerope in the plays of Euripides. She was apparently an important character in his lost tragedy Cretan Women.Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 516. For discussions of the play, see Collard and Cropp 2008a, pp. 516–527 (including testimonies and fragments); Webster, pp. 37–3!9. The play told how Aerope was "secretly violated by a servant", and that when her father discovered this, he gave her to Nauplius to be drowned, but instead Nauplius gave her in marriage to Pleisthenes.Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 516; Webster, pp. 37–38; Euripides, Cretan Women test. iiia. According to the scholiast on Aristophanes' Frogs 849, her behavior in the play was "like a whore's".Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 516. This, along with Euripides treatment of other "profligate women" suggests that the play dealt with Aerope's seduction of Thyestes, rather than Thyestes' seduction of Aerope.Gantz, pp. 546, 547; Webster p. 38. Although she was given to! Pleisthenes as his wife, in his Cretan Women, in his plays Orestes, and Helen, Euripides has Agamemnon and Menelaus as the sons of Aerope and Atreus.Euripides, Orestes 16, 390–392. Also in his Orestes, he refers to the "treacherous love of Cretan Aerope in her treacherous marriage",Euripides, Orestes 1009–1010. while in his Electra, he tells us that Thyestes, "persuaded Atreus' own wife to secret love, and carried off to his house the portent; coming before the assembly he declared that he had in his house the horned sheep with fleece of gold."Euripides, Electra 719–725. Euripides possibly also wrote a play Thyestes.Gantz, p. 546; Armstrong, p. 12, n. 40.