Orestes

Uncommon card · No. 80880

In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρέστης [oréstɛːs]) was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the brother of Electra and Iphigenia. He was also known by the patronymic Agamemnonides (Ἀγαμεμνονίδης), meaning "son of Agamemnon." He is the subject of multiple Ancient Greek plays (including Aeschylus' Oresteia), which depict his revenge, madness, and ritual purification. Orestes was forced into exile after his mother and her lover Aegisthus murdered his father. In an act of revenge, he killed them both. For the crime of matricide he was haunted by the Furies, who drove him to madness. Athena cleansed him of his crime in a divine trial, curing him of his madness. Following his absolution, Orestes ascended to the throne as the king of Mycenae and Sparta, ruling over most of the Peloponnese until his death from a snakebite.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Eumenides Painter, Public domain