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Goran Jovic in Are Jews in Chapterhouse: Dune the same cultural group as in our universe/timeline? states:

... a book which features direct descendants of Ancient Greeks in far future as main characters.

Is that really the case?

I thought that the Agamemnon was merely the alias that the Titan Formerly Known as Andrew Skouros took because he admired the historical figure.

Wikia seems to disagree, but provides no actual evidence:

Skouros in some way could trace his lineage back past the Time of the Old Empire, thousands of years to the House of Atreus and a famous ancient King Agamemmon.

Is there some specific in-universe evidence to back up this biological link?

Stormblessed
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DVK-on-Ahch-To
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3 Answers3

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From God Emperor of Dune: (Leto II speaking, in one of his journals)

My paternal grandfather was The Atreides, descendant of the House of Atreus and tracing his ancestry directly back to the Greek original.

And from Children of Dune: (of Alia)

Other voices wove around her mind: "I, Agamemnon, your ancestor, demand audience!"

And from Heretics of Dune:

Even on Gammu, few admitted to either Harkonnen or Atreides ancestry, although the genotypes were visible here—especially the dominant Atreides: those long, sharp noses, the high foreheads and sensual mouths. Often, the pieces were scattered—the mouth on one face, those piercing eyes on another and countless mixtures. Sometimes, though, one person carried it all and then you saw the pride, that inner knowledge:

“I am one of them!”

Gammu’s natives recognized it and gave it walkway room but few labeled it.

Underlying all of this was what the Harkonnens had left behind—genetic lines tracing far away into the dawn times of Greek and Pathan and Mameluke, shadows of ancient history that few outside of professional historians or those trained by the Bene Gesserit could even name.

So, just within the Frank Herbert books, it is clear that the ancestry is supposed to be directly linked to the Greek house of Atreus, whose two sons Agamemnon and Menelaus were the Atreides.

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Jonathan Van Matre
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I don't know anything about any "Titans" or "Andrew Skouros" - I suspect those are things from the prequels, which have nothing to do with the actual Dune books.

However, in Children of Dune, we clearly hear a snippet of Alia's "Other Memory":

"I, Agamemnon, your ancestor, demand audience!"

Absent any canonical evidence to the contrary, it's clear that Alia really is descended from the Ancient Greek Agamemnon.

Daniel Roseman
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    This is debatable and not at all clear. She is also, via Vorian Atreides, descended from Agamemnon the Titan so it could have been him speaking - there's no clear indication either way. Much as it may be distatesful to you, Butlerian Jihad books are part of the Universe. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 19 '11 at 16:13
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    @DVK So you say. I don't see any reason for thinking so myself. – Daniel Roseman Dec 19 '11 at 17:04
  • The Butlerian Jihad books are not canon. – Lighthart Oct 30 '15 at 22:19
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    @Lighthart & Daniel: the copyright owners of the Dune franchise say they are. You may disagree with them, but it is ultimately up to copyright holders to determine what is and isn't canon, whether we like it or not. The Butlerian Jihad books are officially canon. We have a question about this, too. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 27 '16 at 09:50
  • The argument presented therein is the same argument used to justify the veractiy of the Christian Bible (self declaration of truth). Roughly 75% of the population of earth rejects that argument, so we may do the same here as well. – Lighthart Mar 27 '16 at 23:56
  • @Lighthart By that same logic, I claim that none of the Dune books are canon. They're only claimed as canon by the Herberts themselves, again the same situation. Reject all you like, but this is a different matter from Christianity. Canon is a specific term with a specific meaning, and the only entity that gets to decide what is or isn't canon is the copyright holder. If you disagree, that's your problem. – Janus Bahs Jacquet May 01 '16 at 04:43
  • Fallacious argument is fallacious. Copyright holder is a legal term. Canon is not. There is no relevant standard that is applicable here. You are also self-referencing (again) by claiming rejection is in contradiction to your position, which is apparently correct because it is your position. Sounds pretty religious, approaching zealotry. – Lighthart May 01 '16 at 16:53
  • @Lighthart It isn't a legal term, but it commonly understood to mean whatever the legal owner of the content considers official. I am not a fan of the prequel books either, but you are trying to make the term utterly meaningless. – suchiuomizu Nov 29 '18 at 04:12
  • @Lighthart if only. – Fivesideddice Jul 08 '21 at 07:24
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Children of Dune - Other voices wove around her mind: "I, Agamemnon, your ancestor, demand audience!"

Children of Dune - Ghanima said. "We Atreides go back to Agamemnon and we know what's in our blood."

God Emperor - My paternal grandfather was The Atreides, descendant of the House of Atreus and tracing his ancestry directly back to the Greek original.

God Emperor - And I have traversed the far wanderings of the Fremen. Through my father’s line and the others, I have gone right back to the House of Atreus.

From Homer's The Iliad

the Greek word for 'Son of Atreus' is *Ἀτρεΐδης *

  • pronounced - /a.tre.í.dεːs/ (pitch) or /atreˈidεːs/ (stress)

Atreides

A direct pull from the Homeric tale in his work, a straight forward connection considering all the included quotes.

(line 7 word 1)

enter image description here

Rand al'Thor
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torbach
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    This doesn't answer the question. And if your pronunciation is intended to be Homeric or Classical Greek, it is incorrect: iota and eta did not merge until much later. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 27 '16 at 09:43
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    The question is asking whether the House Atreides was related to the Greeks. Not whether Herbert drew on Greeks and Greek mythology for inspiration. – The Giant of Lannister Mar 27 '16 at 11:20
  • youtube pronunciation – torbach Mar 27 '16 at 18:15
  • [Children of Dune] Other voices wove around her mind: "I, Agamemnon, your ancestor, demand audience!" – torbach Mar 27 '16 at 18:18
  • [Children of Dune] Ghanima said. "We Atreides go back to Agamemnon and we know what's in our blood." – torbach Mar 27 '16 at 18:18
  • [God Emperor] My paternal grandfather was The Atreides, descendant of the House of Atreus and tracing his ancestry directly back to the Greek original. – torbach Mar 27 '16 at 18:19
  • [God Emperor] And I have traversed the far wanderings of the Fremen. Through my father’s line and the others, I have gone right back to the House of Atreus. – torbach Mar 27 '16 at 18:19
  • The Giant; the writing seems straight forward...the Atriedes are descendants from the House of Atreus, the very same in the Iliad and there are many obvious connections. – torbach Mar 27 '16 at 18:22
  • Janus what do you think is wrong with Ἀτρεΐδης, reference here – torbach Mar 27 '16 at 18:27
  • Your pronunciation says ah-tre-EE-dees, which would mean having the same vowel for ι (‘ee’) and η (‘eh’ or ‘ay’ or however you want to represent that in English phonetics). This is the case in Modern Greek, where the two have merged; but in Homeric and Classical Greek, they were distinct, and it ought to be ah-tre-EE-dehs. Better yet, because English is just about the worst orthography ever to use as the basis of a respelling system, in IPA as Wiktionary also has it: /a.tre.í.dεːs/ (pitch) or /atreˈidεːs/ (stress). – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 31 '16 at 09:37
  • I will make that change; I consider the post a supplement to the info previously provided by Jonathan Van Matre (quotes from Herbert's text) and It should use the references more directly. – torbach Apr 30 '16 at 19:48