Source Verification: Orestes

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

What is the story of Orestes?

Orestes is Agamemnon's son, sent away as a child when his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus murdered his father. Pindar and Apollodorus say he grew up with Strophius at the foot of Parnassus. As a man he asked Apollo at Delphi about revenge, returned with his friend Pylades and killed them both. In Aeschylus's Libation Bearers and Eumenides, the Furies then drive him mad. He flees to Delphi and then Athens, where the court of the Areopagus acquits him on a tied vote.

Source: Apollodorus, Epitome 6.25

Who is Orestes in the Odyssey?

In Homer's Odyssey he is the example of a good son. Zeus opens the poem by recalling how Orestes killed Aegisthus, who had seduced Agamemnon's wife and murdered him. Athena, disguised as a guest, tells Telemachus to win the same fame. Nestor says Aegisthus ruled Mycenae for seven years, until Orestes came back in the eighth and killed him. Homer never describes the killing of Clytemnestra, only a funeral feast held over his mother and Aegisthus.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 3.303-310

What crime did Orestes commit?

He killed his mother, Clytemnestra, to avenge his father. In Aeschylus's Libation Bearers he kills Aegisthus first and then her, after she pleads with him by the breast that nursed him. In Sophocles's Electra she dies first, while Electra urges him on from outside. Euripides's Electra has him cover his eyes and drive the sword into her throat. In each play Orestes says Apollo ordered it. Before Athena's court in Aeschylus's Eumenides, he admits the killing and says Apollo shares the blame.

Source: Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 896-900

Why does Orestes go mad?

The Furies of his murdered mother drive him mad. In Aeschylus's Libation Bearers the madness starts the moment the killing is done: he sees the Furies as snake-wreathed Gorgons that no one else can see. Euripides's Orestes shows him six days later, starving, raving and trying to shoot the Furies with a bow Apollo gave him. Pausanias reports an Arcadian story that he bit off his own finger to break the fit. Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris says the madness outlasted even his acquittal.

Source: Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 1048-1061

Who was Orestes in love with?

The ancient sources give him a wife and a friend, not a love story. His wife is Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen. In Euripides's Andromache she was promised to him before being given to Neoptolemus, whom Orestes then helps kill. Euripides's Orestes has Apollo foretell the marriage, and Apollodorus's Epitome names Hermione or Erigone as his wife. His closest bond is with Pylades. In Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris each friend insists on dying so that the other can live.

Source: Euripides, Orestes 1625-1665

Where Accounts Differ

who saved the young Orestes
where Orestes grew up
Homer's hero or the tragedians' matricide
the trial and its accusers
where the madness ended
Hermione and the death of Neoptolemus
Orestes's death and grave

Who saved the young Orestes is disputed. Apollodorus's Epitome credits Electra. Sophocles's Electra has the old servant carry him off after receiving him from Electra. Euripides's Electra credits the old servant alone. Pindar's eleventh Pythian ode credits the nurse Arsinoe.
Where he grew up differs. Pindar's eleventh Pythian ode and Apollodorus's Epitome place him with Strophius at the foot of Parnassus in Phocis. In Murray's translation of Homer's Odyssey, Nestor says Orestes came back from Athens.
Homer's Odyssey praises Orestes for killing Aegisthus and only hints at his mother's death through her funeral feast. The Furies, the madness and the trial come from later poets, above all Aeschylus's Libation Bearers and Eumenides.
His acquittal is told differently. Aeschylus's Eumenides has Athena found the Areopagus court for his trial, with the Furies as accusers. Euripides's Electra says the court first tried Ares. Apollodorus's Epitome names the Furies, Tyndareus or Erigone as possible accusers, and Pausanias reports Perilaus. Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris says some Furies rejected the verdict and kept pursuing him until he fetched the Taurian image of Artemis.
Where the madness ended differs. Aeschylus's Eumenides ends it with the verdict at Athens. Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris ends it with the Taurian image. Pausanias reports an Arcadian tradition that he recovered at a place called Ace after biting off a finger, and that this came before the Areopagus trial.
His marriage and Neoptolemus's death differ. Euripides's Andromache has Hermione promised first to Orestes, then given to Neoptolemus, whom Orestes plots to kill at Delphi. Euripides's Orestes has Apollo say Neoptolemus will never marry her. Apollodorus's Epitome says Orestes killed Neoptolemus, or that Machaereus the Phocian did. Apollodorus's Epitome and Pausanias disagree on his wife: Hermione, or Erigone, whom Pausanias names as the mother of a bastard son.
His death is recorded only by Apollodorus's Epitome, as a snakebite at Oresteum in Arcadia. Herodotus and Pausanias place his grave at Tegea, from which the Spartans took his bones.

Sources

Primary sources

Homer, Odyssey 1.29-43
Homer, Odyssey 1.298-300
Homer, Odyssey 3.193-200
Homer, Odyssey 3.303-310
Pindar, Pythian Ode 11.17-11.35
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 1-10
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 269-295
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 555-560
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 896-900
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 869-890
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 973-1005
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 1021-1040
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 1048-1061
Aeschylus, Eumenides 34-60
Aeschylus, Eumenides 64-90
Aeschylus, Eumenides 276-285
Aeschylus, Eumenides 443-465
Aeschylus, Eumenides 470-485
Aeschylus, Eumenides 681-705
Aeschylus, Eumenides 734-740
Aeschylus, Eumenides 752-775
Sophocles, Electra 1-20
Sophocles, Electra 30-50
Sophocles, Electra 1404-1416
Sophocles, Electra 1424-1427
Euripides, Electra 10-20
Euripides, Electra 1221-1226
Euripides, Electra 1240-1275
Euripides, Orestes 20-34
Euripides, Orestes 34-45
Euripides, Orestes 253-275
Euripides, Orestes 940-955
Euripides, Orestes 1095-1110
Euripides, Orestes 1625-1665
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 77-93
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 595-605
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 674-685
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 939-985
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 1446-1460
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 1465-1470
Euripides, Andromache 960-985
Euripides, Andromache 993-1005
Euripides, Andromache 1115-1120
Herodotus, Histories 1.67
Herodotus, Histories 1.68
Apollodorus, Epitome 6.14
Apollodorus, Epitome 6.24
Apollodorus, Epitome 6.25
Apollodorus, Epitome 6.26
Apollodorus, Epitome 6.27
Apollodorus, Epitome 6.28
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.18.6
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.31.4
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.11.10
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.34.1
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.34.2
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.34.3
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.34.4
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.54.4