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ORESTES

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 254 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ORESTES , in See also:

Greek See also:legend, son of See also:Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra. According to the Homeric See also:story he was absent from See also:Mycenae when his See also:father returned from the Trojan See also:War and was murdered by See also:Aegisthus. Eight years later he returned from See also:Athens and revenged his father's See also:death by slaying his See also:mother, and her paramour (Odyssey, iii. 306; xi. 542). According to See also:Pindar (Pythia, xi. 25) he was saved by his See also:nurse, who conveyed him out of the See also:country when Clytaemnestra wished to kill him. The See also:tale is told much more fully and with many See also:variations in the tragedians. He was preserved by his See also:sister See also:Electra from his father's See also:fate, and conveyed to Phanote on See also:Mount See also:Parnassus, where See also:King Strophius took See also:charge of him. ORESTES 253 In his twentieth See also:year he was ordered by the Delphic See also:oracle to return See also:home and revenge his father's death. According to See also:Aeschylus, he met his sister Electra before the See also:tomb of Agamemnon, whither both had gone to perform See also:rites to the dead; a recognition takes See also:place, and they arrange how Orestes shall accomplish his revenge. Orestes, after the See also:deed, goes mad, and is pursued by the See also:Erinyes, whose See also:duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of See also:family piety.

He takes See also:

refuge in the See also:temple at See also:Delphi; but, though See also:Apollo had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect his suppliant from the consequences. At last See also:Athena receives him on the See also:acropolis of Athens and arranges a formal trial of the See also:case before twelve See also:Attic See also: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 See also:vote for acquittal. The Erinyes are propitiated by a new See also:ritual, in which they are worshipped as See also:Eumenides (the Kindly), and Orestes dedicates an See also:altar to Athena Areia. With Aeschylus the See also:punishment ends here, but, according to See also:Euripides, in See also:order to See also:escape the persecutions of the Erinyes, he was ordered by Apollo to go to Tauris, carry off the statue of See also:Artemis which had fallen from See also:heaven, and bring it to Athens. He See also:repairs to Tauris with Pylades, the son of Strophius and the intimate friend of Orestes, and the pair are at once imprisoned by the See also:people, among whom the See also:custom is to See also:sacrifice all strangers to Artemis. The priestess of Artemis, whose duty it is to perform the sacrifice, is his sister See also:Iphigeneia (q.v.). She offers to See also:release Orestes if he will carry home a See also:letter from her to See also:Greece; he refuses to go, but bids Pylades take the letter while he himself will stay and be slain. After a conflict of mutual See also:affection, Pylades at last yields, but the letter brings about a recognition between See also:brother and sister, and all three escape together, carrying with them the See also:image of Artemis. After his return to Greece, Orestes took See also:possession of his father's See also:kingdom of Mycenae, to which were added See also:Argos and See also:Laconia. He is said to have died of the bite of a snake in See also:Arcadia. His See also:body was conveyed to See also:Sparta for See also:burial (where he was the See also:object of a cult), or, according to an See also:Italian legend, to See also:Aricia, whence it was removed to See also:Rome (Servius on Aeneid, ii.

116). The story of Orestes was the subject of the Oresteia of Aeschylus (Agamemnon, Choephori, Eumenides), of the Electra of See also:

Sophocles, of the Electra, Iphigeneia in Tauris, and Orestes, of Euripides. There is extant a Latin epic poem, consisting of about s000 hexameters, called Orestes Tragoedia, which has been ascribed to See also:Dracontius of See also:Carthage. Orestes appears also as a central figure in various legends connected with his madness and See also:purification, both in Greece and See also:Asia. In these Orestes is the See also:guilt-laden mortal who is purified from his See also:sin by the See also:grace of the gods, whose !merciful See also:justice is shown to all persons whose See also:crime is mitigated by extenuating circumstances. These legends belong to an See also:age when higher ideas of See also:law and of social duty were being established; the implacable See also:blood-See also:feud of See also:primitive society gives place to a See also:fair trial, and in Athens, when the votes of the judges are evenly divided, See also:mercy prevails. The legend of Orestes is the subject of a lengthy monograph by T. Zielinski, "See also:Die Orestessage and die Rechtfertigungsidee" in Neue Jahrbiicher See also:fur See also:des klassische Altertum, ii. (1899). Orestes, according to Zielinski, is the son of the See also:sky-See also:god See also:Zeus-Agamemnon, who over-comes his wife the See also:earth-goddess Gaia-Clytaemnestra; with the assistance of the See also:dragon Aegisthus, she slays her See also:husband, whose See also:murder is in turn avenged by his son. The See also:religion of Zeus is then reformed under the See also:influence of the cult of Apollo, who slays the dragon brought up by the earth-goddess on Parnassus, the seat of one of her See also:oldest sanctuaries. Parnassus becomes the See also:holy See also:mountain of Apollo, and Orestes himself an See also:hypostasis of Apollo " of the mountain," just as Pylades is Apollo " of the See also:plain "; similarly Electra, Iphigeneia and Chrysothemis are hypostases of Artemis.

Zeus being firmly seated on his See also:

throne as the result of the slaying of the dragon by Orestes, the theological significance of the myth is forgotten, and the identifications Zeus-Agamemnon and Gaia-Clytaemnestra are abandoned. In the Homeric Oreveia the soul of the murdered wife has no claim to vengeance, and Orestes rules unmolested in Argos. But the Apolline religion introduces the theory of the rights of the soul and revenge for bloodshed. Apollo, who has urged Orestes to See also:parricide and has himself expiated the crime of slaying the dragon, is able to purify others in similar case. Hence Orestes, freed from the guilt of blood, is enabled to take possession of the throne of his father. This is the Delphic Oresteia. But a new See also:idea is introduced by the Attic Oresteia. The claim that Apollo can in every case purify from sin is met by Athens with a counterclaim on behalf of the See also:state. It is the community of which murdered and murderer were members which has the right to exact revenge and retribution, an idea which found expression in the See also:foundation of the See also:Areopagus. If the accused is acquitted, the state undertakes to appease the soul of the murdered See also:person or its judicial representative, the Erinys. Others attach See also:chief importance to the slaying of See also:Neoptolemus (See also:Pyrrhus) by Orestes at Delphi; according to Radermacher (Das Jenseits See also:im Mythos der Hellenen, 1903), Orestes is an hypostasis of Apollo, Pyrrhus the principle of evil, which is overcome by the god ; on the other See also:hand Usener (Archiv fur Religionswesen, vii., 1899, 334) takes Orestes for a god of See also:winter and the underworld, a See also:double of the Phocian See also:Dionysus the " mountain " god (among the See also:Ionians a summer-god, but in this case corresponding to Dionysus AeXavacyis), who subdues Pyrrhus " the See also:light," the double of Apollo, the whole being a See also:form of the well-known myths of the See also:expulsion of summer by winter. S.

See also:

Reinach (reviewing P. Mazan's L'Orestie d'Eschyle, 1902) defends the theory of Bachofen, who finds in the legend of Orestes an indication of the decay of matriarchal ideas. See See also:article by See also:Hofer in See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; A. Olivieri, " Sul mito di Oreste nella letteratura classica " (with a See also:section on See also:modern literature) in Rivista di Filologia, See also:xxvi. (1898), and See also:Jebb's edition of the Electra of Sophocles.

End of Article: ORESTES

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