Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Hounded by the Erinyes, Orestes reached Apollo’s temple at Delphi. Apollo had ordered the matricide and now purified him in part, but the Furies slept only until Clytemnestra’s ghost goaded them awake. Apollo sent Orestes to Athens to stand trial; the Erinyes pursued, hunting the scent of mother’s blood. At Athens Athena received the suppliant, convened a court of Attic citizens on the Areopagus, and heard the case: the Chorus of Furies prosecuted the spilled kindred blood; Apollo spoke for Orestes, arguing the father as the true parent and the oracle’s authority. Votes tied; Athena’s casting vote—favoring the male and the city’s interest in ending the vendetta—acquitted Orestes. The Erinyes raged at the new law until Athena promised them cult, honors, and a dwelling beneath the city as benevolent guardians. Persuaded, they accepted robes of scarlet and a new name among the Athenians—Eumenides, the Kindly Ones—and departed in procession. Orestes went free to reclaim his house. The Atreid curse thus exits the Trojan nostoi into Athenian foundation myth: blood-revenge yields to civic trial, and the ancient goddesses of wrath become protectors of the polis.