Orestes

Japanese: オレステス（英語表記）Orestes

A hero in Greek mythology. Son of Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in the Trojan War, and his wife Clytemnestra. When his father, returning from Troy, was killed by his mother and his lover Aegisthus, Agamemnon, still a child, fled to the court of his uncle Strophius in Phocis with the help of his sister Electra, where he grew up and formed a strong friendship with his cousin Pylades. After coming of age, Apollo ordered him to avenge his father's death, so he returned to his homeland with Pylades, reunited with Electra, and encouraged by her to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. However, for the grave sin of killing his mother, he was possessed by the Erinyes, the goddesses of vengeance, and suffered persecution from them. After wandering from country to country with Pylades, he finally went to Athens at the urging of Apollo, where he was found innocent at the Areopagus court presided over by the goddess Athena. After this, on the advice of Apollo, he went to Tauris on the north shore of the Black Sea, where he met his sister Iphigenia, who had been sacrificed to Artemis on the beach at Aulis. He then stole the statue of Artemis from the temple where she served as a priest, and took it back to Attica with his sister. He then returned to Mycenae, became king, and took back his fiancée Hermione, who had become the wife of Neoptolemus, married her, and succeeded her father Menelaus to rule both Argos and Sparta.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

ギリシア神話の英雄。トロイ戦争におけるギリシア方の総大将だったアガメムノンと妃クリュタイムネストラの子。トロイから帰国した父が，母と愛人のアイギストス両名に殺されたとき，まだ幼少だった彼は，姉のエレクトラの助けでフォキスに住む伯父のストロフィオスの宮廷に逃れ，そこで従兄弟のピュラデスと固い友情に結ばれ成長した。成人ののち，アポロンの神託に父の仇を討てと命じられ，ピュラデスと一緒に故国に帰り，エレクトラと再会し，彼女に励まされクリュタイムネストラとアイギストスを討ったが，母殺しの大罪を犯したために，復讐の女神エリニュスたちに取りつかれ，その迫害を受け苦しみながらピュラデスとともに諸国を放浪した末に，最後にアポロンの勧めでアテナイに行き，そこでアテナ女神の主宰するアレオパゴスの法廷において無罪の宣告を受けた。このあと彼は，アポロンの助言に従い，黒海北岸のタウリスに行き，そこでかつてアウリスの浜でアルテミスにいけにえに捧げられたはずの姉イフィゲネイアと再会した。そして彼女が祭司をつとめる神殿のアルテミス像を盗み出し，姉と一緒にアッチカに持帰ったうえで，ミケーネに帰って王となり，ネオプトレモスの妻になっていた婚約者のヘルミオネを取戻して結婚し，彼女の父メネラオスの跡を継いで，アルゴスとともにスパルタも支配したという。

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