Irlandos at 15:35, December 28, 2005

2005-12-28T15:35:35Z

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'''Orestês''', (Greek Ορέστης) in [[Greek mythology|Greek legend]], was the son of [[Agamemnon]] and [[Clytemnestra]].

According to the [[Homer]]ic story Orestes was absent from [[Mycenae]] when his father returned from the [[Trojan War]] and was murdered by his wife's lover [[Aegisthus]]. Eight years later Orestes returned from [[Athens]] and avenged his father's death by slaying his mother's paramour. According to [[Pindar]], he was saved by his nurse ([[Arsinoe]]) or his sister, [[Electra]], who conveyed him out of the country when Clytemnestra wished to kill him. He escaped to [[Phanote]] on [[Mount Parnassus]], where King [[Strophius]] took charge of him.

In his twentieth year he was ordered by the [[Delphi|Delphic]] [[oracle]] to return home and avenge his father's death. He returned home along with his friend [[Pylades]], Strophius's son. According to [[Aeschylus]], he met his sister Electra before the tomb of Agamemnon, where both had gone to perform rites to the dead; a recognition takes place, and they arrange how Orestes shall accomplish his revenge. The same basic story is told differently by [[Sophocles]] and [[Euripides]] in their ''[[Electra]]'' plays.

In Aeschylus's ''[[Eumenides]]'', Orestes, after the deed (sometimes with Electra helping), goes mad, and is pursued by the [[Erinyes]] (Electra is not hounded by the Erinyes), whose duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of family piety. He takes refuge in the temple at [[Delphi]]; but, even though [[Apollo]] had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect Orestes from the consequences. At last [[Athena]] receives him on the acropolis of [[Athens]] and arranges a formal trial of the case before twelve [[Attica|Attic]] judges. The Erinyes demand their victim; he pleads the orders of Apollo; the votes of the judges are equally divided, and Athena gives her casting vote for acquittal. The Erinyes are propitiated by a new ritual, in which they are worshipped as [[Eumenides]], and Orestes dedicates an altar to ''Athena Areia''.

With Aeschylus the punishment ends here, but, according to Euripides, in order to escape the persecutions of the Erinyes, he was ordered by Apollo to go to [[Tauris]], carry off the statue of Artemis which had fallen from heaven, and bring it to Athens. He repairs to Tauris with Pylades, and the pair are at once imprisoned by the people, among whom the custom is to sacrifice all strangers to Artemis. The priestess of Artemis, whose duty it is to perform the sacrifice, is his sister [[Iphigenia]]. She offers to release Orestes if he will carry home a letter from her to Greece; he refuses to go, but bids Pylades take the letter while he himself will stay and be slain. After a conflict of mutual affection, Pylades at last yields, but the letter brings about a recognition between brother and sister, and all three escape together, carrying with them the image of Artemis. After his return to Greece, Orestes took possession of his father's kingdom of Mycenae (killing [[Aegisthus]]' son, [[Alete]]), to which were added [[Argos]] and [[Laconia]]. He is said to have died of the bite of a snake in [[Arcadia]]. His body was conveyed to Sparta for burial (where he was the object of a cult), or, according to an Italian legend, to Aricia, whence it was removed to Rome (Servius on Aeneid, ii. 116).

Before the [[Trojan War]], Orestes had been engaged to his cousin through [[Menelaus]], [[Hermione (mythology)|Hermione]]. Afterwards, Menelaus wanted her to marry [[Neoptolemus]]. Orestes and Neoptolemus fought, and Neoptolemus was killed. Marrying Hermione and seizing [[Argos]] and [[Arcadia]] after their thrones had become vacant, Orestes became ruler of all the [[Peloponnesus]]. His son, [[Tisamenus]], was later killed by the [[Heracleidae]].

The story of Orestes was the subject of the [[Oresteia]] of Aeschylus (''Agamemnon'', ''Choephori'', ''[[Eumenides]]''), of the ''Electra'' of [[Sophocles]], of the ''Electra'', ''Iphigeneia in Tauris'', and ''Orestes'', of Euripides. There is extant a Latin epic poem, consisting of about 1000 hexameters, called ''Orestes Tragoedia'', which has been ascribed to Dracontius of Carthage.

Orestes appears also as a central figure in various legends connected with his madness and purification, both in Greece and Asia. In these Orestes is the guilt-laden mortal who is purified from his sin by the grace of the gods, whose merciful justice is shown to all persons whose crime is mitigated by extenuating circumstances. These legends belong to an age when higher ideas of law and of social duty were being established; the implacable blood-feud of primitive society gives place to a fair trial, and in Athens, when the votes of the judges are evenly divided, mercy prevails.

In one version of the story of [[Telephus]], Orestes was held captive by King Telephus, demanding that [[Achilles]] heal him.

According to some sources, Orestes fathered [[Penthilus]] by his half-sister, [[Erigone]].

[[Category:Greek mythological people]]

Orestes - Revision history

Irlandos at 15:35, December 28, 2005