Seneca’s Thyestes was clearly of interest in the early modern period, from the princeps edition in 1487 to the end of the 16th century, when numerous Latin editions and translations (Dolce, Heywood, Brisset) of this tragedy were published, though not necessarily in complete editions. We propose to reflect on what makes Thyestes such a success, and to ask whether the cannibalistic, fratricidal banquet can be considered a tragic model. Far from frightening the humanists, anthropophagic and fratricidal violence appears to be a marker of the tragedy they seek to disseminate, all the more effective in that it resonates with contemporary concerns and terrors, and thus enables them to reflect on the aims of tragedy.