Orestes' matricide

Orestes' matricide is the act by which Orestes kills his mother, Clytemnestra, to avenge his father, Agamemnon. The book identifies the episode as part of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, a mythic sequence in which family violence gives rise to further violence and leaves the avenger pursued by the Furies.

Mythic Background

Agamemnon returns from the Trojan War after the fall of Troy. Clytemnestra awaits him intending to kill him: Agamemnon had sacrificed their daughter, and Clytemnestra now has a lover. This history places Orestes’ later act within an already bloodied family, rather than presenting it as an isolated crime.

The Act and Its Cause

Orestes is the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He kills Clytemnestra to avenge his father, making the matricide an act of kinship-based revenge. The account presents the son’s violence as a response to his father’s death, while the family relationships ensure that revenge itself becomes another form of familial violence.

Pursuit and Significance

The killing does not conclude Orestes’ story. The Furies pursue and torment him afterward, turning vengeance into a source of continuing retribution. The book’s reference to the Oresteia therefore supplies the consequences attached to Orestes’ act: the avenger does not escape the violence he has carried out, but becomes the target of pursuit.