a. Also 7 -æan, 9 -ian. [f. L. Thyestēus, ad. Gr. Θυέστειος (f. Θυέστης, prop. name) + -AN.] Of or belonging to Thyestes, in ancient Greek legend brother of Atreus, who at a banquet made him eat of the flesh of his own two sons; hence used allusively.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 688. The Sun, as from Thyestean Banquet, turn’d His course intended.
1667. J. Owen, Plea Indulgence & Lib. Consc., 7. Thiæstæan Banquets, promiscuous Lusts, and Incests.
1723. R. Millar, Hist. Propag. Chr., II. v. 73. There is an infamous report that we are guilty of Thyestean feasts, that is feeding on murdered infants.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Art of Poetry, 129. Nor will the direful Thyestean Feast In comic Phrase and Language be debas’d.
1847. Liberator, 10 Sept., 2/2. That they were only the second course of this Thyestean banquet.
c. 1850. Lowell, Fable for Critics (ed. 2), Prelim. Note, I am not queasy-stomached, but such a Thyestean Banquet as that was quite out of the question.
1882. Farrar, Early Days Chr., I. iv. I. 65. Did not popular rumour charge them with nocturnal orgies and Thyestæean feasts?
