Orestes

Ŏrestes, is and ae, m., = Ὀρέστης,

• the son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, who avenged his father's death by slaying his mother, and, in company with his faithful friend Pylades and his sister Iphigenia, priestess of Diana in the Tauric Chersonese, carried away the image of Diana to Italy, near Aricia, Plaut. Capt. 3, 4, 30 (562): Agamemnonius Orestes, Verg. A. 4, 471: dico vicisse Oresten, Enn. ap. Non. 306, 28 (Trag. v. 191 Vahl.): cum Pylades Orestem se esse diceret, Cic. Lael. 7, 24: clamantem nomen Orestis, Ov. H. 8, 9: quod fuit Argolico juvenis Phoceus Orestae, id. Am. 2, 6, 15 (vulg. Oresti).—Voc.: tristis Oresta, Ov. Tr. 1, 5, 22.—
• • B Transf., a tragedy of Euripides, founded on the story of Orestes: cum Orestem fabulam doceret Euripides, Cic. Tusc. 4, 29, 63.—Hence,
• II Orestē-us, a, um, adj., = Ὀρεστεῖος, of or belonging to Orestes, Orestean: Diana, whose image was carried away by Orestes to Aricia, Ov. M. 15, 489.

Orestēs, ae u. is, m. (Ὀρέστης), Sohn des Agamemnon u. der Klytämnestra, Bruder der Iphigenia und Elektra, tötete auf des Orakels Befehl seine ehebrecherische Mutter und deren Buhlen Ägisthus, die Mörder des Agamemnon, und entführte mit Hilfe seines treuen Freundes Pylades u. seiner Schwester Iphigenia, der Dianapriesterin im taurischen Chersones, das Bildnis der Diana von dort nach Italien in die Nähe von Aricia, Nom., Cornif. rhet. 1, 25 u. 26. Cic. de fin. 2, 79. Verg. Aen. 3, 331 u. 4, 471. Hor. sat. 2, 3, 133: Genet. Orestae, Ov. trist. 1, 9, 27. Iustin. 17, 3, 7; Orestis, Ov. her. 8, 9; Oresti, Gell. 7, 5, 5: Dat. Orestae, Ov. am. 2, 6, 15 u.a. Mart. 6, 11, 3; Oresti, Ov. her. 8, 59: Akk. Orestem, Cic. Tusc. 3, 11 u.a.; Oresten, Cic. de fin. 2, 79: Vok. Orestă, Ov. trist. 1, 5, 22; Orestē, Ov. her. 8, 15: Abl. Oreste, Cic. Pis. 47. – Stoff einer Tragödie, s. Iuven. 1, 6. Donat. 375, 25 K. Pompeii comment. 162, 11 K. Consent. 345, 3 K. – Dav. Orestēus, a, um (Ὀρέστειος), orestëisch, dea, Diana, Ov. met. 15, 489.

Ŏrestēs (11) (æ, is et ī), m. (Ὀρέστης), Oreste [fils dʼAgamemnon et de Clytemnestre, meurtrier de sa mère, ami de Pylade ; ses aventures tragiques furent mises sur la scène par Eschyle, Sophocle, Euripide] : Cic. Læl. 23 ; Fin. 2, 79 ; Virg. En. 4, 471 || tragédie dʼEuripide : Cic. Tusc. 4, 63 || Orestis portus Plin. 3, 75, port dʼOreste, dans le Bruttium || -tēus, a, um, dʼOreste : Ov. M. 15, 489.

➳ voc. -tă Ov. Tr. 1, 6, 22 et -tĕ Ov. H. 8, 15 ; gén. -æ, is Ov.  ; i Gell. 7, 5, 5 ; dat. -æ, i Ov.  ; acc. -em, en Cic.  ; abl. -e Cic. Pis. 47.

orestes, is. m. (oros.)
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Orestes

(ʼὀρέστης the only son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, and brother of Chrysothemis, Laodice (Electra), and Iphianassa (Iphigeneia; Hom. Il. 9.142, &c., 284; comp. Soph. Elect. 154; Eur. Orest. 23). According to the Homneric account, Agamemnon his return from Troy did not see his son, but was murdered by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra before he had an opportunity of seeing him. (Od. 11.542.) In the eighth year after his father's murder Orestes came from Athens to Mycenae and slew the murderer of his father, and at the same time solemnised the burial of Aegisthus and of his mother, and for the revenge he had taken he gained great fame among mortals. (Od. 1.30, 298, 3.306, &c., 4.546.) This slender outline of the story of Orestes has been spun out and embellished in various ways by the tragic poets. Thus it is sail that at the murder of Agamemnon it was intended also to despatch Orestes, but that Electra secretly entrusted him to the slave who had the management of him. This slave carried the boy to Strophius, king in Phocis, who was married to Anaxibia, the sister of Agamemnon. According to some, Orestes was saved by his nurse Geilissa (Aeschyl. Choeph. 732) or by Arsinoe or Laodameia (Pilnd. Pyth. 11.25, with the Schol.), who allowed Aegisthus to kill her own child, thinking that it was Orestes. In the house of Strophius, Orestes grew up together with the king's son Pylades, with whom he formed that close and intimate friendship which has almost become proverbial. (Eur. Orest. 804, &c.) Being frequently reminded by messengers of Electra of the necessity of avenging his father's death, he consulted the oracle of Delphi, which strengthened him in his plan. He therefore repaired in secret, and without being known to any one, to Argos. (Soph. Elect. 11, &c., 35, 296, 531, 1346; Eurip. Elect. 1245, Orest. 162.) He pretended to be a messenger of Strophius, who had come to announce the death of Orestes, and brought the ashes of the deceased. (Soph. Elect. 1110.) After having visited his father's tomb, and sacrificed upon it a lock of his hair, he made himself known to his sister Electra. who was ill used by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra, and discussed his plan of revenge with her, which was speedily executed, for both Aegisthus and Cltaemnestra were slain by his hand in the palace. (Soph. Elect. 1405; Aeschyl. Choeph. 931; comp. Eurip. Elect. 625, 671, 774, &c., 969, &c., 1165, &c., who differs in several points from Sophocles.) Immediately after the murder of his mother he was seized by madness; he perceived the Erinnyes of his mother and took to flight. Sophocles does not mention this as the immediate consequence of the deed, and the tragedy ends where Aegisthus is led to death; but, according to Euripides, Orestes not only becomes mad; but as the Argives, in their indignation, wanted to stone him and Electra to death, and as Menelaus refused to save them, Pylades and Orestes murdered Helena, and her body was removed by the gods. Orestes also threatened Menelaus to kill his daughter Hermione; but by the intervention of Apollo, the dispute was allayed, and Orestes betrothed himself to Hermione, and Pylades to Electra. But, according to the common account, Orestes fled from land to land, pursued by the Erinnyes of his mother. On the advice of Apollo, he took refuge with Athena at Athens. The goddess afforded him protection, and appointed the court of the Areiopagus to decide his fate. The Erinnyes brought forward their accusation, and Orestes made the command of the Delphic oracle his excuse. When the court voted, and was equally divided, Orestes was acquitted by the command of Athena. (Aeschyl. Eumenides.) He therefore dedicated an altar to Athena Areia. (Paus. 1.28.5.) According to another modification of the legend, Orestes consulted Apollo, how he could be delivered from his madness and incessant wandering. The god advised him to go to Tauris in Scythia, and thence to fetch the image of Artemis, which was (Eur. IT 79, &c., 968, &c.) believed to have there fallen from heaven, and to carry it to Athens. (Comp. Paus. 3.16.6.) Orestes and Pylades accordingly went to Tauris, where Thoas was king, and on their arrival they were seized by the natives, in order to be sacrificed to Artemis, according to the custom of the country. But Iphigeneia, the priestess of Artemis, was the sister of Orestes, and, after having recognized each other, all three escaped with the statue of the goddess. (Eur. IT 800, 1327, &c.)

After his return Orestes took possession of his father's kingdom at Mycenae, which had been usurped by Aletes or Menelaus; and when Cylarabes of Argos died without leaving any heir, Orestes also became king of Argos. The Lacedaemonians made him their king of their own accord, because they preferred him, the grandson of Tyndareus, to Nicostratus and Megapenthes, the sons of Menelaus by a slave. The Arcadians and Phocians increased his power by allying themselves with him. (Paus. 2.18.5, 3.4; Philostr. Her. 6; Pind. P. 11.24.) He married Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus, and became by her the father of Tisamenus. (Paus. 2.18.5.) He is said to have led colonists from Sparta to Aeolis, and the town of Argos Oresticnm in Epeirus is said to have been founded by him at the time when he wandered about in his madness. (Strab. vii. p.326, xiii. p. 582; Pind. N. 11.42, with the Schol.) In his reign the Dorians under Hyllus are said to have invaded Peloponnesus. (Paus. 8.5.1.) He died of the bite of a snake in Arcadia (Schol. ad Eur. Or. 1640), and his body, in accordance with an oracle, was afterwards conveyed from Tegea to Sparta, and there buried. (Paus. 3.11.8.) In a war between the Lacedaemonians and Tegeatans, a truce was concluded, and during this truce the Lacedaemonian Lichas found the remains of Orestes at Tegea or Thyrea in the house of a blacksmith, and thence took them to Sparta, which according to an oracle could not gain the victory unless it possessed the remains of Orestes. (Hdt. 1.67, &c.; Paus. 3.3.6, 8.54.3.) According to an Italian legend, Orestes brought the image of the Taurian Artemis to Aricia, whence it was carried in later times to Sparta; and Orestes himself was buried at Aricia, whence his remains were afterwards carried to Rome. (Serv. ad Aen. 2.116.)

There are three other mythical personages of the name of Orestes, concerning whom nothing of interest is related. (Hom. Il. 5.705, 12.139, 193; Apollod. 1.7.3.) [L.S]

Orestes

(Ὀρέστης), regent of Italy during the short reign of his infant son Romulus Augustulus, from the 29th of August, A. D. 475, to the 28th of August, 476. As his history is given in the lives of Romulus Augustulus, Nepos, and Odoacer, we need only add here a few remarks. He was a Roman by origin, but born in Pannonia, and when Attila conquered that province, he and his father Tatulus both entered the service of the conqueror till the death of the latter and the downfal of the Hunnic empire. Orestes held the office of secretary to Attila, and was also his ambassador at Constantinople. After the death of Attila, Orestes returned to Italy, where on account of his great wealth, he soon rose to eminence, and obtained the title and rank of patricius. He then married a daughter of Romulus Comes. In 475, while at Rome, he received orders from the emperor Julius Nepos to assemble an army and send it to Gaul, as fears were entertained that the West Gothic king Eurie intended another invasion of that country. Being once at the head of an army, Orestes availed himself of his power and riches to make himself master of Italy, and forthwith set out for Ravenna, where Nepos was residing. On his approach Nepos fled in confusion (28th of August, 475) to Salona in Dalmatia, where he met with the deposed emperor Glycerius, his former rival, who was then bishop of that place; and on the 29th of August Orestes had his son Romulus Augustulus proclaimed emperor, remaining, however, at the head of affairs. His first minister was Parmenus. He sent Latinus and Madusus to Constantinople, that he might be recognised by the emperor Zeno; aud he made peace with Genseric, the king of the Vandals. The reign of Orestes was of short duration. In the following year (476) Odoacer rose in arms against him, and Orestes having shut himself up in Pavia, was taken prisoner after the town had been stormed by the barbarians, and conducted to Placentia where his head was cut off by order of Odoacer. This took place on the 28th of August, 476, exactly a year after he had compelled Nepos to fly from Ravenna. On the 4th of September Paulus, the brother of Orestes, was taken at Ravenna, and likewise put to death. (The authorities quoted in the lives of Romulus AUGUSTULUS, Glycerius, Julius Nepos, land Odoacer.) [W.P]

Orestes

(Ὀρέστης), a Christian physician of Tyana in Cappadocia, called also Arestes, who suffered martyrdom during the persecution under Diocletian, A. D. 303, 304. An interesting account of his tortures and death is given by Simeon Metaphrastes, ap. Surium, De Probat. Sanctor. Histor., vol. vi. p. 231, where he is named Arestes. See also Menolog. Graec. vol. i. p. 178, ed. Urbin. 1727. He has been canonized by the Greek and Roman churches, and his memory is celebrated on Nov. 9. (See Bzovius, Nomenclator Sanctor. Profess. Mledicor.) [W.A.G]

Orestes , Cn. Aufi'dius

originally belonged to the Aurelia gens, whence his surname of Orestes, and was adopted by Cn. Aufidius, the historian, when the latter was an old man [See Vol. I. p. 418b.]. Orestes was repulsed when a candidate for the tribunate of the plebs, but he obtained the consulship in B. C. 71, with P. Cornelius Lentulus. From an anecdote recorded by Cicero (de Off. 2.17) Orestes seems to have carried his election partly by the magnificent treats he gave the people. (Cic. pro Dom. 13, pro Planc. 21; Eutrop. 6.8.)

Orestes , Aure'lus

1. L. AURELIUS L.F. L. N. Orestes, consul B. C. 157, with Sex. Julius Caesar. (Fasti Capit.; Plin. Nat. 33.3. s. 17.)

Orestes , Aure'lus

2. L. Aurelius Orestes, L. F. L. N., son of the preceding, was consul B. C. 126, with M. Aemilius Lepidus. He was sent into Sardinia to subdue the inhabitants of the island, who had again risen against the Roman authority, as they had done on many previous occasions. Orestes remained in his province upwards of three years, and obtained a triumph on his return to Rome in B. C. 122. C. Gracchus was quaestor to Orestes in Sardinia, and distinguished himself greatly by the way in which he there discharged the duties of his office. M. Aemilius Scaurus also served under Orestes in Sardinia (Liv. Epit. 60; Plut. C. Gracch. 1, 2; Cic. Brut. 28; Aur. Vict. de Vir. Ill. 72; Fasti Capit.) This Aurelius Orestes obtains a place, along with his brother C. Aurelius Orestes, in the list of orators in the Brutus of Cicero (100.25), who, however, only says of them, "quos aliquo video in numero oratorum fiisse."

Orestes , Aure'lus

3. C. Aurelius Orestes, younger son of No.

1. See No. 2, sub finem.

Orestes , Aure'lus

4. L. Aurelius L. F. L.N. Orestes, son of No. 2, was consul with C. Marius, in the third consulship of the latter, B. C. 103, and died in the same year. (Fasti: comp. Plut. Mar. 14.)

Orestes , Aure'lus

5. Cn. Aurelius Orestes, praetor urbanus B. C. 77, one of whose decisions was annulled upon appeal by the consul Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus. (V. Max. 7.7.6.)

Orestes

(Ὀρέστης). (1) The son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra. On the assassination of Agamemnon, Orestes, then quite young, was saved from his father's fate by his sister Electra, who had him removed to the court of their uncle Strophius, king of Phocis. There he formed an intimate friendship with Pylades, the son of Strophius, and with him concerted the means, which he successfully adopted, of avenging his father's death by slaying his mother and Aegisthus. (See Aegisthus; Clytaemnestra.) After the murder of Clytaemnestra, the Furies drove Orestes into insanity; and when the oracle at Delphi was consulted respecting the duration of his malady, an answer was given that Orestes would not be restored to a sane mind until he went to the Tauric Chersonesus, and brought away from that quarter the statue of Artemis to Argos. It was the custom in Taurica to sacrifice all strangers to this goddess, and Orestes and Pylades, having made the journey together, and having both been taken captive, were brought as victims to the altar of Artemis. Iphigenia, the sister of Orestes, who had been carried off by Artemis from Aulis when on the point of being immolated (see Aulis; Iphigenia), was the priestess of the goddess among the Tauri. Perceiving the strangers to be Greeks, she offered to spare the life of one of them, provided he would carry a letter from her to Greece. This occasioned a memorable contest of friendship between them, which should sacrifice himself for the other, and it ended in Pylades' yielding to Orestes and agreeing to be the bearer of the letter. The letter was for Orestes, and a discovery was the consequence. Iphigenia, thereupon, on learning the object of their visit, contrived to aid them in carrying off the statue of Artemis, and all three arrived safe in Greece with the statue. After his return to the Peloponnesus, Orestes took possession of his father's kingdom at Mycenae, which had been usurped by Aletes or Menelaüs. When Cylarabes of Argos died without leaving any heir, Orestes also became king of Argos. The Lacedaemonians likewise made him their king of their own accord, because they preferred him, the grandson of Tyndareus, to Nicostratus and Megapenthes, the sons of Menelaüs by a slave. The Arcadians and Phocians increased his power by allying themselves with him. He married Hermioné, the daughter of Menelaüs, and became by her the father of Tisamenus. The story of his marriage with Hermioné, who had previously been married to Neoptolemus, is related elsewhere. (See Hermione; Neoptolemus.) He died of the bite of a snake in Arcadia, and his body, in accordance with an oracle, was afterwards carried from Tega to Sparta, and there buried. His bones are said to have been found at a later time in a war between the Lacedaemonians and Tegaetans, and to have been conveyed to Sparta (Herod.i. 67). According to one story, Orestes spent the time of his madness in Arcadia, where, in his frenzy, he gnawed off one of his fingers (Pausan. viii. 34, 2). The story of Orestes is the subject of an existing trilogy by Aeschylus (the Agamemnon, Choephoroe, and Eumenides), and is treated by Sophocles in his Electra and by Euripides in the remaining plays Electra, Orestes, and Iphigenia in Tauris. See Becker, Die Orestessage der Griechen (Wittenberg, 1858). See Pyrrhus.

Such is the ordinary form of the legend of Orestes. The tragic writers, of course, introduced many variations. Thus it is said that when the Furies of his mother persecuted him, he fled to Delphi, whose god had urged him to commit the deed, and thence went to Athens, where he was acquitted by the court of Areopagus. Orestes had by Hermioné two sons, Tisamenus and Penthilus, who were driven from their country by the Heraclidae.

(2) A Pannonian who acted as regent of Italy during the short reign of his infant son Romulus Augustulus, in favour of whom he had deposed the emperor Iulius Nepos (A.D. 475). In the following year he was defeated and put to death by Odoacer, king of the Heruli. See Augustulus; Odoacer.

Orestes Orestes, Roman commissioner sent to arbitrate between Lacedaemonians and Achaeans

• Paus. 7.14.1-3, Paus. 7.16.1

Orestes(2), son of Achelous by Perimede

• Apollod. 1.7.3

Orestes(3), son of Agamemnon

• Paus. 2.18.5, Paus. 8.5.4
• saved by Electra and brought up by Strophius: Apollod. 2.7.7
• slays Aegisthus: Paus. 1.22.6
• murders his mother Clytaemnestra: Paus. 1.28.5, Paus. 1.33.8, Paus. 2.31.4, 8, Paus. 8.34.1, 4
• allowed by the god at Delphi to avenge his father's murder, kills Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus: Apollod. 2.7.7
• pursued by the Furies, he goes to Athens and is tried and acquitted in the Areopagus: Apollod. 2.7.7
• tried at Areopagus: Paus. 1.28.5, Paus. 8.34.4
• his madness: Apollod. E.6.13, Paus. 3.22.1, Paus. 8.34.1
• bites off a finger: Paus. 8.34.2
• healed of madness at Ace: Paus. 8.34.2
• sacrifices to Eumenides: Paus. 8.34.3
• cuts off his hair: Paus. 8.34.3
• healed of madness on unwrought stone at Gythium: Paus. 3.22.1
• with Iphigenia steals image of Artemis from Tauric land: Paus. 3.16.7
• goes to the land of the Taurians, finds his sister, and flees with her, carrying the wooden image of Tauropolus: Apollod. 2.7.7, Apollod. 2.7.8
• driven by a storm to Rhodes, dedicates the image (of Tauropolus): Apollod. 2.7.8
• comes to Mycenae: Apollod. 2.7.8
• purified at Troezen: Paus. 2.31.4, 8
• his booth at Troezen: Paus. 2.31.8
• takes possession of Argos: Paus. 2.18.5
• adds part of Arcadia to his domains: Paus. 2.18.5
• marries Hermione, daughter of Menelaus: Paus. 1.33.8, Paus. 3.1.5
• marries Hermione or Erigone: Apollod. 2.7.8
• robbed of his wife Hermione by Neoptolemus: Apollod. E.6.13
• slays Neoptolemus at Delphi: Apollod. E.6.13, Apollod. E.6.14
• father of Tisamenus: Apollod. 2.7.8, Apollod. 2.8.2, Apollod. 2.8.2, Apollod. 2.8.3
• father of Tisamenus and Penthilus: Paus. 2.18.6
• succeeds to crown of Sparta: Paus. 2.18.5ff., Paus. 3.1.5, Paus. 3.16.7
• king of Achaia: Paus. 8.5.1
• his reign: Paus. 1.41.2
• friend of Pylades: Paus. 2.29.9
• gives his sister Electra in marriage to Pylades: Paus. 2.16.7, Apollod. 2.7.8
• migrates to Arcadia: Paus. 8.5.4
• founds sanctuary of Eumenides at Cerynea: Paus. 7.25.7
• killed by a snake at Oresteum: Apollod. 2.7.8
• his tomb near Tegea: Paus. 8.54.4
• discovery of his tomb at Tegea: Hdt. 1.67
• his bones stolen by Lichas and brought to Sparta: Paus. 3.3.5ff., Paus. 3.11.10, Paus. 8.54.4
• his grave at Sparta: Paus. 3.11.10
• his statue at the Heraeum: Paus. 2.17.3