Classical Mythology

(^412) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
ORESTES AND ELECTRA
According to Aeschylus, Orestes was away from Mycenae at the time of
Agamemnon's murder. While Clytemnestra and Aegisthus usurped the throne,
he grew to manhood in exile at the court of Strophius, king of Phocis. It was
now his duty to avenge the murder of his father, even though one of the mur-
derers happened to be his own mother; and Apollo commanded him to carry
out his duty. He returned to Mycenae, and with the encouragement of his sis-
ter Electra, murdered Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. In the Odyssey, Homer makes
Zeus praise Orestes for his piety toward his dead father; and Sophocles, of the
three Athenian tragedians (each of whom wrote a tragedy on the murder of
Clytemnestra), is the most neutral. In both Aeschylus and Euripides, however,
the feeling of revulsion at the matricide predominates. In this tradition Orestes
was pursued by the Erinyes, the Furies, the ancient divinities who avenge the
victims of murder. At the end of Euripides' Electra, the Dioscuri prophesy that
Orestes must go into exile, pursued by the Furies. Eventually, they promise, he
will appeal to Athena and be acquitted of the charge of matricide by the court
of the Areopagus at Athens.
These events are the subject of the Eumenides, the third drama in Aeschylus'
trilogy Oresteia. The play begins at Delphi, where Orestes has come pursued by
the Furies. There Apollo orders him to go to Athens, promising to protect him.
At Athens he pleads his case before the court of the Areopagus, whose mem-
bers, citizens of Athens, are the jury.^3 Apollo defends him, and Athena presides,
while the Erinyes claim the justice of their punishment. The jury's votes are tied,
and Athena gives her casting vote in favor of Orestes' acquittal, on the grounds
that the killing of a mother does not outweigh the murder of a husband and fa-
ther and that the son's duty toward a father outweighs all other relationships.
Thus the curse on the House of Atreus comes to an end; the Erinyes are ap-
peased and given a new name, the Eumenides (Kindly Ones), and worshiped
thereafter at Athens.
This version of the myth focuses on the development of law as the vehicle
for justice, as against the ancient system (represented by the Erinyes) of blood-
guilt and vengeance. But the arguments of Athena are hardly persuasive, and
we are left in some doubt as to whether Aeschylus himself believed in their va-
lidity. Nor is this as important as the fact that it was the will of Zeus that had
already determined that Orestes would be acquitted.^4 Indeed, to Aeschylus, as
Orestes at Delphi. Apulian krater, ca. 370 B.C.; height 35V2 m- Orestes clings to the om-
phalos in the temple of Apollo, while Apollo wards off a Fury who flies in from the up-
per left. The Pythia runs off in horror from her tripod (seen between the legs of Apollo),
and Artemis, on the right, with her hunting hounds, scans the heavens for more flying
Furies. Various other details reinforce the setting in the temple—the three Ionic columns,
the second tripod (to the left), the Pythia's key to the temple, which she is dropping, and
the dedications (chariot wheels and helmets) at the top center. (Naples, Museo Nazionale.)