Ormisdas

Ormisdas is Pasimondas’s younger brother and a prospective bridegroom whose wedding is drawn into the violent rescue of Iphigenia and Cassandra. His brief appearance links a family marriage arrangement to the raid that ends his life: when he runs to help Pasimondas, Cimon kills him.

Identity and Family

Ormisdas is described as younger than Pasimondas, but no less worthy. The account offers little further personal description; it defines him chiefly through his place in the family and the marriage being prepared for him. He is the brother who is to marry on the same day as Pasimondas, whose bride is Iphigenia.

The Proposed Marriage

Pasimondas, preparing to celebrate his own nuptials with great splendor, proposes that his brother marry at the same time so the household can avoid the expense of holding another festival. He reopens negotiations with Cassandra’s parents, and the talks, which had been disrupted several times by adverse circumstances, now reach agreement. Cassandra is described as a fair and noble young woman, and Lysimachus ardently loves her; the arranged match therefore places Ormisdas between that love and its hoped-for fulfillment. The two brothers’ weddings are set for the same day.

The Wedding-Day Raid and Death

When the wedding day arrives, the celebrations fill the brothers’ house with merrymaking. Lysimachus, acting with Cimon and their companions, leads an armed raid to carry off the brides. As the group makes its way down the stairs, Pasimondas confronts them with a large cudgel. Cimon strikes him on the head and kills him. Ormisdas runs to his brother’s aid, but Cimon kills him as well. Their deaths occur amid the violence and uproar of the raid; Lysimachus and Cimon then escape with Cassandra and Iphigenia aboard a waiting ship.

Narrative Role

Ormisdas has no narrated speech or independent course of action beyond the marriage arrangement and his attempt to aid Pasimondas. His sudden death makes the wedding celebration turn into a scene of bloodshed, and gives the escape its immediate cost. The account later describes the lovers’ return to their respective homelands after their exile, but Ormisdas’s fate in the raid is not reversed or otherwise revisited.