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House Atreides is a fictional noble family from Frank Herbert's Dune novels.
Warning: Plot details
follow.
House Atreides is one of the great houses of the Imperium, the feudal interstallar
empire that forms the backdrop to the Dune novels. This noble house hailing from the water planet of Caladan employs unlikely
methods in its struggle to secure the spice of Arrakis: noble spirit, just ways and unfailing virtue. Ruling its homeworld
Caladan for generations with justice and generosity, House Atreides has perfected a form of government that results in a
well-organized society and a spiritually satisfied people. Little wonder that Caladan is the lush, prosperous paradise that it
is.
House Atreides is ruled by a duke. At first in the Dune novel the Duke is Leto Atreides. His concubine was the Bene Gesserit acolyte Jessica, who produced for him the son Paul Atreides.
Leto's son Paul Atreides is the main character during the first
novels. He fights alongside the native Fremen in the war on Arrakis and finally becomes
both the Fremen Messiah and Emperor of the known universe.
As Paul Atreides is lost in the desert twelve years later, his sister Alia inherits his title as the Duchess of Atreides and
as Empress. Eventually, Paul's son Leto II becomes Duke of House Atreides (to wit, "I am House Atreides"---Leto II), and
God-Emperor of Dune.
Leto II had no heirs. However, Paul's only other child, Leto II's twin sister Ghanima, wed Prince Farad'n Corrino and produced
a long bloodline, manipulated in no small part by Leto II. This resulted, 3,500 years later, in the birth of Siona Atreides, who
possessed genes that made her invisible to prescient oracles. 1,500 years after this, another descendant of Siona Atreides was
Miles Teg, commander of the military forces of the Bene Gesserit, who bore a remarkable resemblance to his ancestor Duke Leto I.
Teg's daughter was Darwi Odrade, a Bene Gesserit sister that eventually became Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit order.
Relationship to Greek mythology
House Atreides claims descent from the Atreidae or House of Atreus of Greek mythology. The
descendants of Atreus are called "Atreides" in the Greek language. This
royal house included many
significant figures in Greek mythology:
- Atreus, King of Mycenae and his wife
Aerope
- Agamemnon, King of Mycenae and
his wife Clytemnestra
- Menelaus, King of Sparta and his wife
Helen
- Iphigeneia, Princess of Mycenae
and Priestess of Artemis
- Chrysothemis, Princess of Mycenae
- Electra, Princess of Mycenae and
consort of King Pylades of Phocis
- Orestes, Prince of Mycenae and his wife Hermione, Princess of Sparta. Later jointly King and Queen of Argos,Mycenae and Sparta
- Tisamenus, King of Argos, Mycenae and Sparta
See also
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