Orestes (mythology)

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Orestes (mythology)

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Orestes (; ) was the son of Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greece kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale who murdered her husband, Agamemnon—said by Euripides to be her second husband—and his concubine Cassandra....
and Agamemnon

Agamemnon

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos....
. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude ....
s connected with his madness and purification. The surviving Greek myths that include Orestes are obscure, but retain threads of much older ones.

Orestes originates from the word ???? (óros), which means "mountain". The metaphoric meaning of the name is the person "who can conquer mountains".

In Greek literature
Homer
In the Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
ic story, Orestes, a member of the doomed house of Atreus which is directly related to Tantalus

Tantalus

In Greek mythology Tantalus was a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto. Thus he was a king in the primordial world, the father of a son Broteas whose very name signifies "mortals" ....
and Niobe

Niobe

Niobe was the daughter of the semi-legendary ruler Tantalus, called the "Phrygian" and sometimes even as "King of Phrygia" . Although Tantalus ruled in Sipylus, a city located in the western extremity of Anatolia where Lydia was to emerge as a state as of the 8th century BC, and not in the traditional heartland of Phrygia, situated more in...
, was absent from Mycenae

Mycenae

Mycenae , is an archaeology in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 6 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north....
when his father, Agamemnon

Agamemnon

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
with Cassandra

Cassandra

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy....
, a Trojan Princess, as his concubine, and was murdered with an axe

Axe

The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for Millennium to shape, split and cut wood, harvest Lumber, as a weapon and a ceremony or Heraldry symbol....
by his wife, Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra

Iphigeneia

Iphigenia is a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology. In Attic accounts, Iphigenia is sometimes called a daughter of Theseus and Helen raised by Agamemnon and Clytemnestra....
to obtain favorable winds to Troy for the Greek fleet.

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In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Clytemnestra

Agamemnon

Legend

In Greek literature

Homer

In the Homer

Homer

Tantalus

In Greek mythology Tantalus was a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto. Thus he was a king in the primordial world, the father of a son Broteas whose very name signifies "mortals" ....
and Niobe

Niobe

Mycenae

Agamemnon

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
with Cassandra

Cassandra

Axe

The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for Millennium to shape, split and cut wood, harvest Lumber, as a weapon and a ceremony or Heraldry symbol....
by his wife, Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra

Iphigeneia

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
and with his sister Electra

Electra

In Greek mythology, Electra was an Argosian princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and was a sibling to sisters Iphigeneia, Chrysothemis, and brother Orestes....
avenged his father's death by slaying his mother and her lover Aegisthus

Aegisthus

In Greek mythology, Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes and of his daughter, Pelopia.Thyestes felt he had been deprived of the Mycenae throne unfairly by his brother, Atreus....
.

According to Pindar

Pindar

Pindar , was an Ancient Greek Lyric poetry poet.Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is by far the best preserved, and critics in antiquity tended to regard him as the greatest....
, the young Orestes was saved by his nurse Arsinoe

Arsinoe (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Arsinoe referred to several different people.*Nurse of Orestes *Mother of Asclepius by Apollo . She was the daughter of Leucippus ....
or his sister Electra, who conveyed him out of the country when Clytemnestra wished to kill him. In the familiar theme of the hero's early eclipse and exile, he escaped to Phanote

Raveni

Raveni or Raven? was the ancient city of Fanoti, part of the kingdom of Thesprotia. It lies on the foothills of the tormented mountain of Mourgana, where many battles of the Greek civil war took place after the Second World War....
on Mount Parnassus

Mount Parnassus

Mount Parnassus is a mountain of barren limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth, and offers scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside....
, where King Strophius

Strophius

In Greek mythology, Strophius was a King of Phocis and father of Pylades. When Orestes was hiding from his murderous mother, Clytemnestra, Strophius hid him. During this time, Orestes and Pylades became great friends....
took charge of him. In his twentieth year, he was urged by Electra to return home and avenge his father's death. He returned home along with his friend Pylades

Pylades

In Greek mythology, Pylades is the son of King Strophius of Phocis and is mostly known for his strong friendship or homosexual relationship with Orestes ....
, Strophius's son.

The same basic story is told differently by Sophocles

Sophocles

Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
in their Electra plays.

In the Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
, Orestes is held up as a favorable example to Telemachus

Telemachus

Telemachus is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's Odyssey. The first four books in particular focus on Telemachus's journeys in search of news about his father; they are, therefore, traditionally accorded the collective title Telemachy....
, whose mother Penelope

Penelope

In Homer's Odyssey, Penel?pe is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps Suitors of Penelope at bay in his long absence and so is eventually rejoined with him....
is plagued by suitors.

In The Greek Myths
The Greek Myths

The Greek Myths is a mythography, a compendium of Greek mythology, by the poet and writer Robert Graves, normally published in two volumes....
the mythographer and poet, Robert Graves

Robert Graves

Robert Ranke Graves was an England poet, translator and novelist. During his long life, he produced more than 140 works. He was the son of the Anglo-Irish writer Alfred Perceval Graves and Amalie von Ranke, a niece of the famous German historian Leopold von Ranke....
, translates and interprets the legends and myth fragments about Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, and Orestes, as suggesting a ritual killing of a "king" (Agamemnon) in very early religious ceremonies that were suppressed when patriarchy

Patriarchy

Patriarchy can be defined as the structuring of society on the basis of family units, where fathers have primary Social responsibility for the welfare of, and authority over, their families....
replaced the matriarchies of very ancient Greece and, that the sacrilege

Sacrilege

Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object. In a less proper sense, any transgression against the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege....
for which the Erinyes pursued Orestes, was the killing of his mother, who represented matriarchy

Matriarchy

Matriarchy refers to a gynecocentric form of society, in which the leadership is taken by the women and especially by the mothers of a community....
. He explains that worship of Athena

Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena is the shrewd companion of Hero and the goddess of Hero endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens, which built the Parthenon to worship her....
was retained as a cult because it was too strong to be suppressed, but she was recast as a child of Zeus and in new myths, even given the previously incomprehensible role of justifying what would have been a horrific crime against the old religious customs. Graves, and many other mythographers, were influenced by The Golden Bough
The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James Frazer ....
of James Frazer

James Frazer

Sir James George Frazer , was a Scotland social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion....
and, since it was published many myths have been reinterpreted to reveal clues to ancient religious practices that were kept as secret rituals.

Greek drama

William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 1905) the Remorse of Orestes (1862)

The story of Orestes was the subject of the Oresteia of Aeschylus (Agamemnon, Choephori, Eumenides), of the Electra
Electra (Sophocles)

Electra or Elektra is a Ancient Greece tragedy Play by Sophocles. Its date is not known, but various stylistic similarities with the Philoctetes and the Oedipus at Colonus lead scholars to suppose that it was written towards the end of Sophocles' career....
of Sophocles

Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
, and of the Electra
Electra (Euripides)

Euripides' Electra was probably written in the mid 410s BC, likely after 413 BC. It is unclear whether it was first produced before or after Sophocles' Electra of the Electra story....
, Iphigeneia in Tauris
Iphigeneia in Tauris

Iphigeneia in Tauris is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written sometime between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, Helen , and is often described as a romance , a melodrama or an escape play....
, and Orestes
Orestes (play)

Orestes is an Ancient Greek play by Euripides that follows the events of Orestes after he had murdered his mother....
, of Euripides.

In Aeschylus's Eumenides, Orestes goes mad after the deed and is pursued by the Erinyes

Erinyes

In Greek mythology the Erinyes or Eumenides or Furies in Roman mythology were female, chthonic deities of revenge or supernatural personifications of the anger of the dead....
, whose duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of family piety. He takes refuge in the temple at Delphi

Delphi

Delphi is an archaeology site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. Delphi was the site of the Pythia, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, when it was a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python , a deity who lived there and protecte...
; but, even though Apollo had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect Orestes from the consequences. At last Athena

Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena is the shrewd companion of Hero and the goddess of Hero endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens, which built the Parthenon to worship her....
receives him on the acropolis of Athens and arranges a formal trial of the case before twelve Attic judges. The Erinyes demand their victim; he pleads the orders of Apollo; the votes of the judges are equally divided, and Athena

Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena is the shrewd companion of Hero and the goddess of Hero endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens, which built the Parthenon to worship her....
gives her casting vote for acquittal. The Erinyes are propitiated by a new ritual, in which they are worshipped as Eumenides

Eumenides

Eumenides may refer to:* Another name for the Erinyes, Greek mythology of vengeance* Oresteia#The Eumenides, the third part of Aeschylus Greek tragedy, the Oresteia...
, and Orestes dedicates an altar to Athena Areia.

As Aeschylus tells it, the punishment ended there, but according to Euripides, in order to escape the persecutions of the Erinyes, Orestes was ordered by Apollo to go to Tauris, carry off the statue of Artemis which had fallen from heaven, and to bring it to Athens. He went to Tauris with Pylades, and the pair are at once imprisoned by the people, among whom the custom was to sacrifice all Greek strangers to Artemis. The priestess of Artemis, whose duty it was to perform the sacrifice, was Orestes' sister Iphigenia. She offered to release him if he would carry home a letter from her to Greece; he refused to go, but bids Pylades to take the letter while he stays to be slain. After a conflict of mutual affection, Pylades at last yielded, but the letter brought about a recognition between brother and sister, and all three escaped 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

Alete

In Greek mythology, Alete was a son of Aegisthus.When Orestes was visiting Iphigenia in Crimea, Aegisthus' son, Alete, took over Mycene. Orestes killed him upon his return....
), to which were added Argos

Argos

Argos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour, named for Nauplius ....
and Laconia

Laconia

Laconia , also known as Lacedaemonia, is a prefecture in Greece. Laconia has the legal status of a Prefectures of Greece, with Sparti its administrative capital....
. He was said to have died of a snakebite

Serpent (symbolism)

Serpent is a word of Latin origin that is commonly used in a specifically mythology or religion context, signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some symbolic value....
in Arcadia

Arcadia

Arcadia, Arkad?a , or Arcady is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas....
. His body was conveyed to Sparta for burial (where he was the object of a cult

Cult

This article does not discuss "cult" in the original sense of "veneration" or "religious practice"; for that usage see Cult . See Cult for more meanings of the term "cult"....
), or, according to a Roman legend, to Aricia, when it was removed to Rome (Servius on Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
, ii. 116).

Other literature

Electra and Orestes Project Gutenberg Etext 14994

Before the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
, Orestes was to marry his cousin Hermione

Hermione (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Hermione was the only daughter of Menelaus and Helen. She had three brothers. While her parents were away fighting , Hermione was being raised by her aunt, Clytemnestra....
, daughter of Menelaus

Menelaus

Menelaus may refer to;*Menelaus, one of the two most known Atrides, a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope*Menelaus on the Moon, named after Menelaus of Alexandria....
and Helen

Helen

In Greek mythology, Helen , better known as Helen of Sparta later Helen of Troy, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda , wife of King Menelaus of Sparta and sister of Castor and Pollux, Castor and Pollux and Clytemnestra....
. Things soon changed after Orestes committed matricide

Matricide

Matricide is the act of killing one's mother. As for any type of killing, Motive can vary a great deal....
: Menelaus then gave his daughter to Neoptolemus

Neoptolemus

In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia . Achilles' mother foretold many years before Achilles birth that there would be a great war....
, son of Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
and Deidamia. According to Euripides' play Andromache, Orestes slew Neoptolemus just outside a temple and took off with his cousin, Hermione. He seized Argos and Arcadia

Arcadia

Arcadia, Arkad?a , or Arcady is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas....
after their thrones had become vacant, becoming ruler of all the Peloponnesus. His son by Hermione, Tisamenus

Tisamenus

Tisamenus in Greek mythology, was a son of Orestes and Hermione . He succeeded his father to the thrones of Argos, Mycenae and Sparta and was later killed in the final battle with the Heracleidae....
, became ruler after him but was eventually killed by the Heracleidae

Heracleidae

In Greek mythology, the Heracleidae or Heraclids were the numerous descendants of Heracles , especially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by Deianira ....
.

There is extant a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
epic poem

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
, consisting of about 1000 hexameter

Hexameter

Hexameter is a literature and poetry form, a Line consisting of six metrical foot, as in the Iliad. It was the standard epic metre in Greek and became standard for Latin too....
s, called Orestes Tragoedia, which has been ascribed to Dracontius of Carthage.

Orestes appears also to be a dramatic prototype for 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

Telephus

A Greek mythology, Telephus or Telephos was one of the Heraclidae, the sons of Heracles, who were venerated as founders of cities. Telephos was by far the most famous of these heroes, and the various sites at which libations were offered to placate his spirit occasioned etiology of travels around the Greek mainland, in Magna Graecia a...
, Orestes was held captive by King Telephus, demanding that Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
heal him.

According to some sources, Orestes fathered Penthilus

Penthilus

In Greek mythology, Penthilus was the illegitimate son of half-siblings Orestes and Erigone. Erigone was the daughter of Klytaimnestra and Aigisthos , and Orestes was the son of Klytaimnestra and Agamemnon....
by his half-sister, Erigone

Erigone

Erigone may refer to:* Erigone, the daughter of Icarius in Greek mythology. Icarius was from Athens, Greece. He was cordial towards Dionysus, who gave his shepherds wine....
.

In The History
Histories (Herodotus)

The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories tells the story of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Polis in the 5th century BC....
by Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
, the Oracle of Delphi foretold that the Sparta

Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
ns could not defeat the Tegea

Tegea

Tegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a municipality in modern Arcadia, Greece, with its seat in the village Stadio.Ancient Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece, containing the Temple of Athena Alea....
ns until they moved the bones of Orestes to Sparta. Lichas

Lichas

In Greek mythology, Lichas was Hercules' servant. He brought the The Shirt of Nessus from Deianira to Hercules because of her jealousy of Iole, killing him....
discovered the body, which measured 7 cubits long (around 10 feet, or 3.30 meters.) Thus Orestes would have been a Giant

Giant (mythology)

The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology....
.

For modern treatments see the Oresteia in the arts and popular culture

The Oresteia in the arts and popular culture

Opera, ballet and incidental music*Several composers have written musical treatments of all or part of Aeschylus's trilogy. From the late 19th century comes Sergey Taneyev's full-length opera Oresteia ....
.