Notebook
Notebook, 1993-

ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE

[From: Kyriazis, Constantine D. Eternal Greece. Translated by Harry T. Hionides. A Chat Publication.]

Demigods and Heros - Achilles - Aegisthus - Agamemnon - Ajax the Locrian - Ajax the Telamonian - Alcestis - Amphiaraos - Amphitrite - Antigone - Atalanta - Belerophon - Cadmus - Clytemnestra - Daedalus - Danae - Dioscuri - Electra - Europa - Eurydice - Ganymede - Hector - Hecuba - Helen - Heracles - Hippolytus - Icarus - Io - Iphigenia - Jason - Leda - Menelaus - Minos - Nestor - Niobe - Odysseus - Oedipus - Orestes - Medea - Orpheus - Paris - Pasiphae - Pelops - Penelope - Perseus - Phaedra - Phaethon - Phrixus - Priam - Telemachus - Theseus - Triptolemus

Orestes





Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, he was only a young boy when the latter in conjunction with her paramour Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon. With the help of his sister Electra he went to his uncle Strophius in Phocis where he struck up a strong friendship with his cousin Pylades. When he came of age, he planned to avenge the murder of his father. He thereupon returned to Mycenae with Pylades where he met his sister Electra and succeeded in killing both Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. But the gods did not approve of such murder and sent the Erinyes to plague Orestes. Apollo thereafter intervened and advised Orestes to go to Athens to be tried by the Areopagus. Thanks to the intervention of Athena, he was freed, and Apollo then purified Delphi, commanding Orestes to proceed to Tauris where he was to pick up the palladium of Artemis in order to be cured of the madness brought upon him by the Erinyes. At Taurus, Orestes and Pylades were seized by the local inhabitants and were to be sacrificed but were rescued in the nick of time when the priestess of Artemis, Iphigenia, recognized her brother. Iphigenia fled with Orestes and Pylades taking the palladium with her. When they returned to Mycenae, Orestes became king and later abducted Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen, and lived contentedly with her to a ripe old age. The Orestes story was used by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in their tragedies. Aeschylus wrote the tetralogy of the Oresteia of which three survive [Agamemnon, Choephore, Eumenides]. Sophocles wrote the Electra and Euripides composed the tragedies Iphigenia in Tauris, Iphigenia in Aulis, and Orestes. [p. 73]

[Kyriazis, Constantine D. Eternal Greece. Translated by Harry T. Hionides. A Chat Publication.]




NOTEBOOK | Links

Copyright

The contents of this site, including all images and text, are for personal, educational, non-commercial use only. The contents of this site may not be reproduced in any form without proper reference to Text, Author, Publisher, and Date of Publication [and page #s when suitable].