of Strophius; Electra remained at Argos, and was given in marriage by the usurper to a Peasant, in order to prevent her becoming the wife of some man who might have had influence enough to reinstate the children of Agamemnon in their bereditary dominions. When Orestes arrived at years of maturity, he repaired to the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, which commanded him to revenge his Father's death; upon which he returned to Argos in disguise, accompanied by his inseparable friend Pylades: on their arrival, they were received in a cottage, on the confines of the Argive dominions, by Electra and her nominal Husband; and learnt that the Princess still remained a virgin, the Peasant retaining a strong attachment to Agamemnon's family, and not considering Ægisthus as having any right to give her to him in marriage. After a short consultation together, they formed, and soon carried into execution, a plan for killing both Ægisthus and Clytemnestra; but no sooner had Orestes imbrued his hands in his Mother's blood, than the Furies arising from hell haunted and drove him to distraction; the citizens of Argos in the mean time looking with horror upon the action committed by him and Electra, refused to hold any intercourse with such profane wretches, and assembled together to pass sentence on them six days after Clytemnestra's death: at this period, Menelaus, who had been separated from the rest of the fleet, and experienced a most tedious voyage, having, according to the account given by Teucer in the Helen of our Author, been seven years in his return from Troy; landed with Helen and his few surviving friends at Nauplia, a sea-port in the neighbourhood of Argos, where he was immediately apprised of the calamities which had in his absence befallen his family: in his interview with his nephew, the unhappy Orestes, he shewed some disposition to assist him, but soon forsook, and gave him and his Sister up to the fury of the people, on being told by Tyndarus, that, if he interfered, he should never return to Sparta, the sovereignty of that country being to devolve to Helen after the death of her aged Father, who had no longer any son to inherit his dominions, both Castor and Pollux being translated to the Heavens, and become Stars. The council of Argos having condemned Orestes and Electra for the murder of their mother, and given them the option of putting themselves to death, they, after some consultation with Pylades, determined, as we have just seen in the Tragedy of Orestes, to revenge themselves by killing Helen, and to detain Hermione as an hostage, to constrain her Father to pardon them. While Menelaus was vowing vengeance against them, for the supposed murder of his Wife, who had suddenly vanished, Apollo descended to save them both from their enraged Uncle and the Argive people, by giving testimony in favour of Orestes, that he had acted in pursuance of the Gods' especial commands, by putting his Mother to death; but directed him, in order to expiate the pollution he had incurred by shedding her blood, to remain in a state of banishment for one year, and after that submit his cause to the judgement of the Areopagus at Athens. When Orestes attended that venerable assembly, one of the Furies appeared as his accuser, and Apollo was for the second time a witness in his behalf: the votes for acquitting or condemning him being found, upon casting them up, to be equal, Minerva decided the cause in his favour. The Furies however continued to persecute him, and he again had recourse to the oracle of Apollo, who ordered him to bring the statue of Diana from Tauris, and deposit it at Athens: he accordingly sailed on this expedition, accompanied by his faithful friend and kinsman Pylades, whom he had previously affianced to his Sister Electra; on their landing they were seized by the peasants of the country, and carried to Thoas the king, who consigned them to their Sister Iphigenia as fit victims to bleed at the altar, where they were on the point of being sacrificed, when a recognition happily ensued; after which they all united in concerting means for their escape, which they with great difficulty effected, and not without the especial interposition of Minerva; carrying away their Sister, and the image of the Goddess Diana, to whom Iphigenia, during the remainder of her life, continued to be a Priestess at Brauronia, in the Athenian territories. During the misfortunes of Orestes, Menelaus bestowed his only Daughter Hermione (whom he had promised in marriage to his Nephew) on Pyrrhus, or (as Euripides and several other writers call him) Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles; having offended Apollo by imputing to him the death of his Father, slain in the temple of that God by the shafts of Paris, Neoptolemus went to Delphi to deprecate his wrath. Orestes at the same time went thither to counteract his rival, and by artfully dif fusing rumours among the inhabitants at Delphi, and persuading them that Neoptolemus came thither with no piòus design, but in order to plunder their temple, the treasures of which were immense, caused them to attack and murder him, as he was going unarmed to make his propitiatory offerings to that Deity. Having contrived the death of Neoptolemus, Orestes came to Phthia, carried off Hermione, and married her, and his faithful comrade Pylades was at the same time united to Electra. The account given by Euripides of the descendants of Tantalus here ceases, leaving Orestes in tranquil possession of the united kingdoms of Argos and Mycene, reconciled to his Uncle and the citizens, who had just before sentenced him to die, and, pursuant to the injunction of Apollo, married to the only Daughter of Menelaus and Helen, the heiress to the Spartan dominions. |