Orestes

Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, brother of Electra, Iphigenia, and Chrysothemis. Sent into exile in Phocis as a child after his father's murder (Aesch. *Ag.* 877–886). Returns in manhood on Apollo's Delphic command, kills Aegisthus and his mother Clytemnestra with Pylades's help (Aesch. *Cho.* 892–930), is pursued mad by the Erinyes, takes refuge at Delphi, is tried on the Athenian Areopagus and acquitted by Athena's casting ballot (*Eumenides* 681–710, 734–753). Euripides *IT* sends him to Taurica with Pylades to retrieve the Artemis image and recover his sister Iphigenia; he returns and succeeds to the Mycenaean throne. The Orestes-cycle is the founding myth of Athenian homicide-court jurisprudence.

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