In Greek mythology, Orestes (pronounced /ɔˈrɛstiːz/; Greek: Ὀρέστης) was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones.[1]
Orestes has a root in ὄρος (óros), "mountain". The metaphoric meaning of the name is the person "who can conquer mountains".
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In the Homeric story,[2] Orestes was a member of the doomed house of Atreus which is descended from Tantalus and Niobe. Orestes was absent from Mycenae when his father, Agamemnon, returned from the Trojan War with the Trojan princess Cassandra as his concubine, and thus not present for Agamemnon's murder by his wife, Clytemnestra, in retribution for his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigeneia to obtain favorable winds during the Greek voyage to Troy. Eight years later, Orestes returned from Athens and with his sister Electra avenged his father's death by slaying his mother and her lover Aegisthus.
According to Pindar, the young Orestes was saved by his nurse Arsinoe 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 on Mount Parnassus, where King Strophius 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, Strophius's son.
The same myth is told differently by Sophocles and Euripides in their Electra plays.[3]
In the Odyssey, Orestes is held up as a favorable example to Telemachus, whose mother Penelope is plagued by suitors.
In The Greek Myths the mythographer and poet, Robert Graves, 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 replaced the matriarchies of very ancient Greece. Graves asserts that the sacrilege for which the Erinyes pursued Orestes, was actually the killing of his mother, who represented matriarchy. He explains that worship of Athena was retained as a cult because it was too strong to be suppressed, but she was recast as a child of Zeus 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 of James Frazer and, since it was published many myths have been reinterpreted to reveal clues to ancient religious practices that were kept as secret rituals.
The story of Orestes was the subject of the Oresteia of Aeschylus (Agamemnon, Choephori, Eumenides), of the Electra of Sophocles, and of the Electra, Iphigeneia in Tauris, Iphigenia at Aulis (in which he appears as an infant carried by Clytemnestra), and Orestes, of Euripides.
In Aeschylus's Eumenides, Orestes goes mad after the deed and is pursued 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 judges, including herself. The Erinyes demand their victim; he pleads the orders of Apollo. Athena votes last announcing that she is for acquittal; then the votes are counted and the result is a tie, resulting in an acquittal according to the rules previously stipulated by Athena. The Erinyes are propitiated by a new ritual, in which they are worshipped as "Semnai Theai", "Venerable Ones", 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), to which were added Argos and Laconia. He was said to have died of a snakebite in Arcadia. His body was conveyed to Sparta for burial (where he was the object of a cult), or, according to a Roman legend, to Aricia, when it was removed to Rome (Servius on Aeneid, ii. 116).
Before the Trojan War, Orestes was to marry his cousin Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen. Things soon changed after Orestes committed matricide: Menelaus then gave his daughter to Neoptolemus, son 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 after their thrones had become vacant, becoming ruler of all the Peloponnesus. His son by Hermione, Tisamenus, became ruler after him but was eventually killed by the Heracleidae.
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 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, Orestes was held captive by King Telephus, demanding that Achilles heal him.
According to some sources, Orestes fathered Penthilus by his half-sister, Erigone.
In The History by Herodotus, the Oracle of Delphi foretold that the Spartans could not defeat the Tegeans until they moved the bones of Orestes to Sparta. Lichas discovered the body, which measured 7 cubits long (around 10 feet, or 3.30 meters.) Thus Orestes would have been a Giant.
For modern treatments see the Oresteia in the arts and popular culture.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
ORESTES, in Greek legend, son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra. According to the Homeric story he was absent from Mycenae when his father returned from the Trojan War and was murdered by Aegisthus. Eight years later he returned from Athens and revenged his father's death by slaying his mother, and her paramour (Odyssey, iii. 306; xi. 542). According to Pindar (Pythia, xi. 25) he was saved by his nurse, who conveyed him out of the country when Clytaemnestra wished to kill him. The tale is told much more fully and with many variations in the tragedians. He was preserved by his sister Electra from his father's fate, and conveyed to Phanote on Mount Parnassus, where King Strophius took charge of him.
In his twentieth year he was ordered by the Delphic oracle to return home and revenge his father's death. According to Aeschylus, he met his sister Electra before the tomb of Agamemnon, whither both had gone to perform rites to the dead; a recognition takes place, and they arrange how Orestes shall accomplish his revenge. Orestes, after the deed, goes mad, and is pursued 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, though Apollo had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect his suppliant from the consequences. At last Athena 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 gives her casting vote for acquittal. The Erinyes. are propitiated by a new ritual, in which they are worshipped as Eumenides (the Kindly), 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, the son of Strophius and the intimate friend of Orestes, 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 Iphigeneia. 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, 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). 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.
The legend of Orestes is the subject of a lengthy monograph by T. Zielinski, "Die Orestessage and die Rechtfertigungsidee" in Neue Jahrbiicher air das klassische Altertum, ii. (1899). Orestes, according to Zielinski, is the son of the sky-god Zeus-Agamemnon, who overcomes his wife the earth-goddess Gaia-Clytaemnestra; with the assistance of the dragon Aegisthus, she slays her husband, whose murder is in turn avenged by his son. The religion of Zeus is then reformed under the influence of the cult of Apollo, who slays the dragon brought up by the earth-goddess on Parnassus, the seat of one of her oldest sanctuaries. Parnassus becomes the holy mountain of Apollo, and Orestes himself an hypostasis of Apollo "of the mountain," just as Pylades is Apollo "of the plain" similarly Electra, Iphigeneia and Chrysothemis are hypostases of Artemis. Zeus being firmly seated on his 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 GaiaClytaemnestra are abandoned. In the Homeric Oresteia 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 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 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 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 foundation of the Areopagus. If the accused is acquitted, the state undertakes to appease the soul of the murdered person or its judicial representative, the Erinys.
Others attach chief importance to the slaying of Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) by Orestes at Delphi; according to Radermacher (Das Jenseits 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 hand, Usener (Archiv fur Religionswesen, vii., 1899, 334) takes Orestes for a god of winter and the underworld, a double of the Phocian Dionysus the "mountain" god (among the Ionians a summer-god, but in this case corresponding to Dionysus j Xavaiyis), who subdues Pyrrhus "the light," the double of Apollo, the whole being a form of the well-known myths of the expulsion of summer by winter. S. 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 article by Hofer in Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; A. Olivieri, "Sul mito di Oreste nella letteratura classica" (with a section on modern literature) in Rivista di Filologia, xxvi. (1898), and Jebb's edition of the Electra of Sephocles.
Categories: OPE-ORO | People in Greek mythology
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Infraordo: Areolatae
Superfamilia: Bacilloidea
Familia: Heteropterygidae
Subfamilia: Dataminae
Tribus: Datamini
Genus: Orestes
Species: O. mouhotii
Orestes Redtenbacher 1906
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