The story of Orestes the avenger was complete in every essential particular before it came to the earliest of those three Attic dramatists, each of whom has stamped it so strongly with the impress of his own mind.
In the Iliad there is no hint that the house of Pelops lay
The legend in Homer. |
The Odyssey tells the story as follows. Agamemnon, before going to Troy, charged a certain minstrel (“ἀοιδός”) to watch over8 Clytaemnestra at Mycenae. The precaution implies a sense of possible danger, but not necessarily distrust of Clytaemnestra. Presently a tempter came to the lonely wife in the person of her husband's first-cousin, Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, who, while his kinsmen were fighting at Troy, dwelt ‘at peace, in the heart of Argos9.’ For some time Clytaemnestra ‘refused the shameful deed; for she had a good understanding10.’ Meanwhile the gods themselves, by their messenger Hermes, warned Aegisthus against the course of crime upon which he was entering. But Hermes spoke in vain11. Aegisthus removed the minstrel to a desert island, and there left him, a prey to dogs and birds. He then took the ‘willing’ Clytaemnestra to his home; while he sought to propitiate the gods by burnt-offerings on their altars, and by hanging up in their temples ‘many gifts of embroidery and gold12.’
Agamemnon, after a stormy voyage from Troy, landed on the coast of Argolis at a point not far from the dwelling of Aegisthus; who, apprised by a watcher, came in his chariot, and invited the king to a banquet; after which he slew him, ‘as a man slays an ox at the manger13.’
In this narrative (given by Menelaüs to Telemachus) Clytaemnestra is not even named; though Menelaüs had previously spoken of her ‘guile’ as aiding the crime14. It is only in a part of the Odyssey which is of later origin than the ‘Telemachy’ in books I—IV,—viz., the “Νέκυια” in the eleventh book,—that Clytaemnestra appears as actively sharing in the horrors of the banquet, where she slays Cassandra with her own hand. And, even there, it is by the sword of Aegisthus alone that Agamemnon is slain15.
The young Orestes fled, or was conveyed, to Athens. For seven years Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra reigned at Mycenae. In the eighth, Orestes returned, and slew Aegisthus16. Clytaemnestra died at the same time, but how, we are not told; and Orestes ‘made a funeral feast,’ for both of them, ‘to the Argives17.’
Two points distinguish this Homeric legend from later versions. First, Aegisthus is the principal criminal18. Clytaemnestra's part is altogether subordinate to that of her paramour. Secondly, the vengeance of Orestes is regarded as a simple act of retributive justice. It is not said that he slew his mother; the conjecture is left open that she may have died by her own hand. Nothing comes into the Epic view which can throw a shadow upon the merit of the avenger. The goddess Athena herself exhorts Telemachus to emulate the example and the renown of Orestes19.
