Orestes at Delphi
This is a fourth-century representation of a scene from Aeschylus’s Eumenides,
the third play of the trilogy called the Oresteia. Orestes
had killed his mother Clytemnestra and gone to Delphi to ask Apollo to
purify him. Here we see Orestes in the attitude of a suppliant to
Apollo, with his head turned back in conversation with Athena. Above
the tripod, which is a symbol of Apollo’s sacred oracle, appears one of
the Furies with her snaky hair, demanding vengeance for the murder.
Just behind the outstretched arm of the Fury is the ghost of Clytemnestra.
The artist has taken some license here by including Athena, who in the
play does not appear in the Delphi scene. Even though this painting
clearly refers to the Eumenides, the artist makes no attempt to
depict the stage production with masks and costumes, but just concentrates
on the myth that inspired the play. This in fact is a common practice
among Greek painters.
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