Many years have passed since the death of Agamemnon. One day, two young men dressed as wanderers approached his grave, which was located right next to the palace. One of them, who looked to be about eighteen years old, was girded with a sword, while the other, a little older, held two spears in his hand. The youngest of the youths approached the grave, cut off a lock of hair from his head and laid it on the grave. This was Agamemnon’s son Orestes, saved on the day of Agamemnon’s death by his nanny and raised far from his homeland by the king of Phokis Strophius. With him was his friend, the son of Strophius Pylades. Orestes had just made his sacrifice to his father when slaves in black clothes appeared at the door of the palace. They walked to the tomb of Agamemnon. Among them was the daughter of the murdered king Electra. She was dressed, like all the slaves, in black clothes, her hair was cut off, the king’s daughter was no different from the other slaves. Orestes and Pylades hastily hid at the grave and began to watch what the slaves would do. They, approaching the grave, started crying loudly and walked around the grave three times. Clytemnestra sent the slaves because she had an ominous dream at night and was afraid that Agamemnon’s soul would be angry with her. The slaves had to appease her. But they hated Clytemnestra for killing Agamemnon and because she oppressed them. And Clytemnestra oppressed them because they were all captured Trojans and, looking at them, she remembered her murdered husband.
Instead of begging the shadow of Agamemnon to have mercy, Electra, on the advice of the slaves, began to call for the vengeance of the gods on the head of Clytemnestra. Yes, she could not do otherwise. With all the strength of her soul, Electra hated her murderous mother.
When the sacrifice was made and the slaves were about to leave, Electra suddenly saw a strand of hair on the grave. Based on their resemblance to her own hair, she immediately guessed that it was Orestes’ hair. She picked up a lock of hair and wondered: why didn’t Orestes himself come, why did he send only a lock of his hair? Then Orestes quietly approached his sister and called out to her. Electra did not immediately recognize Orestes, because she had only seen him as a young child. But Orestes showed his sister the clothes she had woven for him. Electra was delighted. Orestes told her that he came here at the behest of the god Apollo, who in Delphi ordered him to take revenge on his mother and Aegisthus for the death of his father. Apollo threatened Orestes with madness if he did not carry out his orders. Orestes asked his sister to be careful and not tell anyone that he had arrived in his hometown.
When Electra retired to the palace, after a while Orestes and Pylades knocked on the gate; They told the servant who came out to them that they needed to see Clytemnestra to tell her important news. The servant called her from the palace, and Orestes told her that the king of Phocis asked him to tell her that Orestes had died, and the king did not know what to do with his body. Clytemnestra rejoiced at this news: now the one who could take revenge on her for the murder of her husband had died. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, who was in the city, informed about the death of Orestes, and he hurried quickly to the palace, without even taking with him his soldiers, who guarded him everywhere. Aegisthus was in a hurry to certain death. As soon as he entered the palace, he fell, pierced by the sword of Orestes. In horror, one of the slaves rushed to Clytemnestra and began to call her for help. She realized that retribution for her crime awaited her.
Suddenly Orestes came to her with a bloody sword. Falling at the feet of Orestes, Clytemnestra began to beg to spare her - after all, she was his mother, who fed him with her breast. Orestes could not spare his mother; he had to fulfill the will of Apollo. He grabbed his mother’s hand and dragged her to where the corpse of Aegisthus lay, and there he killed her. This is how Orestes took revenge for his father.
In horror, people began to gather at the doors of the palace, having learned about the death of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Not a single drop of pity arose in any of the citizens for the hated tyrant Aegisthus and the treacherous Clytemnestra. The doors of the palace opened, and they saw all the bloody corpses of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, and Orestes stood above them. Orestes felt right when he committed this murder: after all, he was fulfilling the will of Apollo, avenging the death of his father. But suddenly the inexorable goddesses of vengeance Erinyes appeared before Orestes. Poisonous snakes writhed around their heads, their eyes sparkled with terrible anger. Orestes trembled at the sight of them. He felt his mind gradually darkening. He left the palace and, driven by the Erinyes, went to the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, hoping that the god whose will he had fulfilled would protect him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru