THE MYCENAEAN SAGA 415
machina, with typically Euripidean philosophical ambiguity, tells us that Apollo
is wise but that his orders to Orestes were not wise.
For a more lengthy analysis of Aeschylus' Libation Bearers and the Electras
of Sophocles and Euripides with pertinent excerpts from the texts, see the Ad-
ditional Reading at the end of this chapter.
It is not surprising that there are other versions of Orestes' story, which
allow him to be purified from the blood-guilt either by some ritual or by per-
forming an expiatory deed, without undergoing trial and acquittal. In Eu-
ripides' play Iphigenia in Tauris not all the Erinyes have accepted the judg-
ment of Athena, and some still pursue Orestes. Once again he comes to Delphi,
where he is told by Apollo to go to the land of the Tauri (the modern Crimea)
and fetch a wooden statue of Artemis. It was the custom of the Tauri to sac-
rifice strangers to Artemis in her temple, and Orestes and his companion Py-
lades (now the husband of Electra) are handed over to the priestess of Artemis,
none other than Orestes' sister Iphigenia. She questions the Greek strangers
about events at Argos and Mycenae and then reveals to Orestes who she is
and how she has been miraculously saved at Aulis by Artemis and trans-
ported to the land of the Tauri. Once she recognizes Orestes, they deceive
Thoas, king of the Tauri, into letting them take the statue of Artemis to the
sea, to be cleansed of the pollution caused by Orestes, the matricide. They
board Orestes' ship and set sail, but adverse wind and waves drive them back
toward the land. Before Thoas can seize them, Athena appears and instructs
him to let them go. So Orestes and Iphigenia return to Greece. They dedicate
the statue of Taurian Artemis at Halae in Attica. Orestes returns to Mycenae,
while Iphigenia stays in Attica as the priestess of Artemis at Brauron for the
rest of her life.
Thus Orestes recovered his sanity and reigned at Mycenae. Later, he is said
to have married his cousin Hermione (daughter of Helen and Menelaus), and
by her to have been the father of Tisamenus. Before his madness, he was be-
trothed to her, but she married Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, and accompanied
him to the land of the Molossi in Epirus. According to Euripides, however, in
his tragedy Andromache, Neoptolemus lived in Phthia (the home of his grandfa-
ther Peleus) with Hermione and Andromache, widow of the Trojan hero, Hec-
tor, and now given to Neoptolemus as the spoils of war. Hermione, who is bar-
ren (while Andromache bears a child), plots to escape with Orestes, who has
unexpectedly appeared while journeying to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona. This
all takes place while Neoptolemus is away at Delphi on a mission to appease
Apollo for his anger with him after the death of his father, Achilles, at Troy.
Orestes himself goes to Delphi, and there Neoptolemus is brutally murdered by
the Delphians in the sanctuary of Apollo. Orestes organizes the attack, but it is
not clear if he actually takes part in the murder. Neoptolemus is buried in the
sanctuary of Apollo, thus gaining the status of a hero with a cult. Pindar twice