The Remorse of Orestes by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

For other uses, see Orestes (disambiguation).

Orestês, (English /ɔ'ɹɛsti:z/ Greek Ὀρέστης) in Greek legend, was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various legends connected with his madness and purification. Download high resolution version (947x836, 225 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Orestes (mythology) William-Adolphe Bouguereau gallery Categories: Paintings containing nudity ... Download high resolution version (947x836, 225 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Orestes (mythology) William-Adolphe Bouguereau gallery Categories: Paintings containing nudity ... William-Adolphe Bouguereau, self-portrait (1886) William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter. ... Orestes Ορεστης is a Greek name, literally he who stands on the mountain, or mountain-dweller. Orestes can refer to: In Greek mythology, the son of Agamemnon. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and their own cult and ritual practices. ... The so-called Mask of Agamemnon. Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. ... Clytemnestra (Eng. ... ɾdrama are obscure. ...

Origin of name

Orestes originates from the word oreivates (Greek "ορειβάτης") which directly translates to mountaineer. The metaphoric meaning is the person who can conquer mountains.

Greek Literature

Homer

Homeric story, Orestes, part of the doomed house of Atreus which is directly related to Tantalus and Niobe, was absent from Mycenae when his father returned from the Trojan War and was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra with an axe. Eight years later, Orestes returned from Athens and with his sister Electra, avenged his father's death by slaying his mother. According to Pindar, Orestes was saved by his nurse Arsinoe or his sister Electra, who conveyed him out of the country when Clytemnestra wished to kill him. He escaped to Phanote on Mount Parnassus, where King Strophius took charge of him. Homer (Greek: , HómÄ“ros) was a legendary early Greek poet and aoidos (rhapsode) traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. ... A clay tablet with writing in Linear B from Mycenae. ... The fall of Troy by Johann Georg Trautmann (1713–1769) From the collections of the granddukes of Baden, Karlsruhe The Trojan War was waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor, by the armies of the Achaeans (Mycenaean Greeks), after Paris of Troy stole Helen from... Clytemnestra (Eng. ... Nickname: Το κλεινόν άστυ Location of the city of Athens (red dot) within the Prefecture of Athens and Periphery of Attica Coordinates: Country Greece Peripheries Attica Prefecture Athens Founded circa 2000 BC Government  - Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis Area [1][2]  - City 38. ... Pindar (or Pindarus) (522 BC – 443 BC), perhaps the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... In Greek mythology, Arsinoe referred to two different people. ... Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Electra was daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. ... Mount Parnassus is a mountain of barren limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth, and offers scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside. ... In Greek mythology, Strophius was a King of Phocis and father of Pylades. ...

In his twentieth year, he was ordered by the Delphic oracle to return home and avenge his father's death. He returned home along with his friend Pylades, Strophius's son. According to Aeschylus, he met his sister Electra before the tomb of Agamemnon, where both had gone to perform rites to the dead; a recognition takes place, and they arrange how Orestes shall accomplish his revenge. The same basic story is told differently by Sophocles and Euripides in their Electra plays. Delphi (Greek Δελφοί — Delphee) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in a valley of Phocis. ... Consulting the Oracle by John William Waterhouse, showing eight priestesses in a temple of prophecy An oracle is a person or persons considered to be the source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. ... Pylades and Orestes by Francois Bouchot In Greek mythology, Pylades is the son of King Strophius of Phocis and is mostly known for his strong friendship with Orestes. ... Bust of Aeschylus from the Capitoline Museums, Rome Aeschylus (525 BC—456 BC; Greek: Ασχύλος) was a playwright of Ancient Greece. ... Sophocles (ancient Greek: ; 495 BC - 406 BC) was the second of three great ancient Greek tragedians. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (c. ... Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Electra was daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. ...

In the Odyssey, Orestes is held up as a favorable example to Telemachus, whose mother Penelope is plagued by suitors. Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre The Odyssey (Greek: , Odusseia) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the poet Homer. ... Telemachus and Mentor Telemachus departing from Nestor, painting by Henry Howard (1769–1847) Telemachus (also transliterated as Telemachos or Telémakhos; literally, far-away fighter) is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope. ... Penelope represented as a statue in the Vatican, Rome For other uses, see Penelope (disambiguation). ...

Greek Drama

Electra and Orestes, from an 1897 Stories from the Greek Tragedians, by Alfred Church

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, and Orestes, of Euripides. Electra and Orestes - Project Gutenberg eText 14994 - http://www. ... Electra and Orestes - Project Gutenberg eText 14994 - http://www. ... Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Electra was daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. ... The Oresteia is a trilogy of tragedies about the end of the curse on the House of Atreus, written by Aeschylus. ... Electra or Elektra is a Greek tragic play by Sophocles. ... Sophocles (ancient Greek: ; 495 BC - 406 BC) was the second of three great ancient Greek tragedians. ... Euripides Electra was probably written in the mid 410s BC, likely after 413 BC. It is unclear whether it was first produced before or after Sophocles version of the Electra story. ... Iphigeneia in Tauris (in Greek: ) is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written sometime between 414 BC and 412 BC. It bears much in common with another of Euripides plays, Helen, and is often described as a romance, a melodrama, or an escape play. ... Orestes (408 BCE) is an Ancient Greek play by Euripides that follows the events of Orestes after he had murdered his mother. ...

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 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, and Orestes dedicates an altar to Athena Areia. This article is about the characters from Greek myth. ... Delphi (Greek Δελφοί — Delphee) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in a valley of Phocis. ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... Helmeted Athena, of the Velletri type. ... For other uses, see Athens (disambiguation). ... This article is about Attica in Greece. ... In Greek mythology the Erinyes (the Romans called them the Furies) were female personifications of vengeance. ...

As Aeschylus tells it, the punishment ended here, 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 himself stayed and was 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 an Italian legend, to Aricia, when it was removed to Rome (Servius on Aeneid, ii. 116). Tauris is a peninsula on the Black Sea. ... 112 Iphigenia is an asteroid. ... In Greek mythology, Aegisthus (goat strength, also transliterated as Aegisthos or Aigísthos) was the son of Thyestes and his daughter, Pelopia. ... In Greek mythology, Alete was a son of Aegisthus. ... Coordinates 37°37′ N 22°43′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Argolis Province Argos Population 29,505 Area 5. ... Laconia (; see also List of traditional Greek place names), also known as Lacedaemonia, is a prefecture in Greece. ... Arcadia or Arkadía (Greek Αρκαδία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Maurus (or Marius) Servius Honoratius, Roman grammarian and commentator on Virgil, flourished at the end of the 4th century AD. He is one of the interlocutors in the Saturnalia of Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, and allusions in that work and a letter from Quintus Aurelius Symmachus to Servius show that he... The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos): is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy where he...

Other Literature

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, Orestes became ruler of all the Peloponnesus. His son by Hermione, Tisamenus, became ruler after him but was eventually killed by the Heracleidae. The fall of Troy by Johann Georg Trautmann (1713–1769) From the collections of the granddukes of Baden, Karlsruhe The Trojan War was waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor, by the armies of the Achaeans (Mycenaean Greeks), after Paris of Troy stole Helen from... In Greek mythology, Hermione was a daughter of Menelaus and Helen. ... Menelaus regains Helen, detail of an Attic red-figure crater, ca. ... In Greek mythology, Helen (Greek: , HelénÄ“), better known as Helen of Troy, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. ... Matricide is the act of killing ones mother. ... Neoptolemus killing Priam In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus, also Neoptólemos or Pyrrhus, was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamea. ... The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre) In Greek mythology, Achilles, also Akhilleus or Achilleus (Ancient Greek ) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War... In Greek mythology, Deidamea was the daughter of Lycomedes, King of Scyros. ... In Greek mythology, Hermione was a daughter of Menelaus and Helen. ... Coordinates 37°37′ N 22°43′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Argolis Province Argos Population 29,505 Area 5. ... Arcadia or Arkadía (Greek Αρκαδία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. ... Peloponnesos (Greek: Πελοπόννησος, sometime Latinized as Peloponnesus or Anglicized as The Peloponnese) is a large peninsula in Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Isthmus of Corinth. ... In Greek mythology, Hermione was a daughter of Menelaus and Helen. ... Tisamenus in Greek mythology, was a son of Orestes and Hermione. ... Heracleidae, the general name for the numerous descendants of Heracles (Hercules), and specially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by Deianira, the conquerors of Peloponnesus. ...

There is extant a Latin epic poem, consisting of about 1000 hexameters, called Orestes Tragoedia, which has been ascribed to Dracontius of Carthage. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... Blossius Aemilius Dracontius of Carthage (according to the early tradition, of Spanish origin), Christian poet, flourished in the latter part of the 5th century A.D. He belonged to a family of landed proprietors, and practised as an advocate in his native place. ...

Orestes appears also as a 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.

In one version of the story of Telephus, Orestes was held captive by King Telephus, demanding that Achilles heal him. A Greek mythological figure, Telephus referred to two different people. ... The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre) In Greek mythology, Achilles, also Akhilleus or Achilleus (Ancient Greek ) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War...

According to some sources, Orestes fathered Penthilus by his half-sister, Erigone. In Greek mythology, Penthilus was the illigitemate son of Orestes and Erigone. ... In Greek mythology, Erigone was the daughter of Icarius. ...

In The History by Herodotus, the Oracle of Delphi fortold 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. The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. ... Coordinates 37°4′ N 22°26′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Laconia Population 18,184 source (2001) Area 84. ... There is also an ancient Tegea near Kissamos in the island of Crete, see Tegea, Crete Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greek containing the Temple of Athena Alea. ... In Greek mythology, Lichas was Heracles servant. ... For the unit of information, see qubit Cubit is the name for the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian units of measure. ...

Jean-Paul Sartre's "The Flies" is a modern reworking of the Electra-Orestes story. Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ...

Trivia

• American Rock Band A Perfect Circle have a song entitled "Orestes" inspired by Orestes' revenge and downward spiral into madness after the killings.

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Orestes

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. A Perfect Circle (often referred to as APC) was an alternative rock band, formed by guitarist Billy Howerdel. ... Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Wikimedia Commons logo by Reid Beels The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...