Orestes

Orestes, Roman general

Orestes (ōrĕst`ēz), d. 476, Roman general. With the help of barbarians he deposed (475) the Roman emperor of the West, Julius Nepos, and raised his own son, Romulus Augustulus, to the throne. The next year the barbarians under Odoacer revolted; Orestes was killed at Piacenza, and his son was deposed.

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Orestes, in Greek mythology

Orestes, in Greek mythology, the only son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon and brother of Electra and Iphigenia. After the slaying of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, Orestes, still a boy, was sent to live in exile. Since it was the duty of the senior male in the house to punish the murderers, Orestes was commanded by Apollo to avenge the crime. With the assistance of Electra and his friend Pylades, who accompanied him in all his adventures, he killed his mother and her lover. After this matricide he was haunted by the Furies (Erinyes) until he reached Athens. He was tried and acquitted by the Areopagus, the tribunal of Athenian judges. Not all the Furies, however, accepted the verdict; and, to win full expiation from his crime, he was told to steal the sacred image of Artemis from Tauris. At Tauris he was reunited with Iphigenia and with her assistance stole the image and safely returned to Greece. It is said that he later married Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. In the Oresteia, Aeschylus dramatized his vengeance and expiation. The story was also used by Sophocles and Euripides.

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Orestes

In Greek mythology, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. According to Homer, Orestes was away when his father returned from Troy to meet his death at the hands of Aegisthus, his wife's lover. On reaching manhood, Orestes avenged his father by killing Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. Aeschylus's dramatic trilogy the Oresteia recounts the murder and the pursuit of Orestes by the Furies for the crime of matricide. In Euripides' Iphigeneia in Tauris, Orestes is reunited with his sister Iphigeneia and regains his father's kingdom.

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Orestes

recognized by Iphigenia at the moment of his sacrifice. [Gk. Lit.: Iphigenia in Tauris, Kitto, 327–347]

See : Identification

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Orestes

spurned suitor of Hermione. [Fr. Lit.: Andromache]

See : Love, Spurned

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Orestes

commits matricide to avenge father’s honor. [Gk. Lit.: Electra]

See : Murder

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Orestes

persecuted and tormented by Furies. [Gk. Myth.: Wheeler, 271; Gk. Lit.: The Eumenides]

See : Suffering

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Orestes

killed his mother and her lover for having murdered his father. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 741]

See : Vengeance