Les nœuds sacrés du sang D’Atrée et Thyeste de Crébillon aux Pélopides de Voltaire

This article compares two rewritings of a subject well-known for its cruelty : the revenge of Atrée. While in 1772 Voltaire wanted to distinguish himself from Crébillon’s Atrée et Thyeste (1707), he also erased anything that might offend the public, like the tecnophage banquet and blasphemy. But the Pélopides does not just sugar coat : Voltaire’s play offers a sanctification of family bonds and seeks to install a new form of sacred at the domestic level.