Orestes
in Greek mythology, the son of Agamemnon and of Clytemnestra, the avenger of his father, by becoming the murderer of his mother. For this murder he is relentlessly pursued by the Eumenides or Furies, and only succeeds in appeasing these terrible goddesses by carrying out the instructions of the Delphian oracle to bring back the statue of Diana from Tauris to Argos. Married to Hermione, daughter of Menelaus, Orestes ruled over his paternal kingdom of Mycenæ, and over Argos, upon the death of its king. Orestes is an important figure in the "Choephori" and the "Eumenides" of Æschylus, the "Electra" of Sophocles, and the "Orestes" and "Iphigenia in Tauris" of Euripides.
Scenes from the story of Orestes appear in Greek decorative art.