Orestes

American  

[aw-res-teez, oh-res‑] / ɔˈrɛs tiz, oʊˈrɛs‑ /

noun

1. Classical Mythology. the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the brother of Electra and Iphigenia: he avenged the murder of Agamemnon by killing Clytemenestra and her lover, Aegisthus, then was pursued by the Furies until saved by Athena.

2. (italics) a tragedy (408 b.c.) by Euripides.

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Orestes British  

/ ɒˈrɛstiːz /

noun

1. Greek myth the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who killed his mother and her lover Aegisthus in revenge for their murder of his father

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Orestes Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and brother of Electra. Agamemnon was killed by Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. To avenge the murder, Orestes and Electra killed them both.

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Example Sentences

Migrant life is hard, said Orestes Gómez, a Venezeulan-born percussionist who tours with Rawayana.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2025

For Mr. Warlikowski, Thomas’s protagonist shares a great deal in common with the mythological figure of Orestes.

From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2023

“No one is going to be left without seeds to plant again and recover losses,” said Salvadoran Agriculture Minister Orestes Ortez.

From Reuters • Jul. 26, 2018

Labor reformer Orestes Brownson went further and condemned wages as “a cunning device of the devil” that gave employers “all the advantages of the slave system, without the expense, trouble, and odium of being slave-holders.”

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

In Eumenides, Apollo, chosen to represent Orestes in his murder trial, mounts a strikingly original argument: he reasons that Orestes’s mother is no more than a stranger to him.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee