Le Procès d'Oreste - Ép 3/3 - Mythologie Grecque - Orestie

After having accomplished his revenge, Orestes felt a great pain in his chest. To avenge his father's murder, the great Agamemnon, he became the executioner of his own mother, and the blood of her and of Aegisthus flowed into his hands. Three sinister silhouettes appeared behind Orestes. They were the Erinyes, also called Furies, entities that punished the murderers of their loved ones. The Furies were in the number of three, Tisiphon, the Vengeance, Mégère, the Hatred, and Alecto, the Implacable. Goddess of Vengeance, they had for residence the underworld where they spent their days punishing criminals. Orestes was tormented by the Furies, driven mad by the Erinyes, he fled Mycenae to go to the Oracle of Delphi and ask for the help of the gods. Orestes had for sole support that Pilate, prince of Phocis, who had grown up alongside Orestes during his exile, and to whom he had promised the hand of Electra. Pilate, as a loyal friend, supported Orestes in the most difficult moments. At the Oracle of Delphi, facing the statue of the god Apollon, Orestes asked for the help of the luminous deity. He considered that the punishment was unfair and that his hands were not stained with the blood of innocents. Apollon appeared and told him that he would be on his side. Orestes had gone to the Oracle of Delphi when he was a teenager and had received the order to avenge the death of his father, cowardly murdered by his wife and lover. Apollon ordered Orestes to visit the city of Athens and the temple of his protective goddess, where he would find an audience room arranged to make a judgment. Orestes then left with his friend to Athens. The path to Attica was difficult, Orestes was always pursued by furies. Faced with so much suffering, Apollon began to protect the prince of Mycenae, removing the furious entities. Orestes and Pilate finally arrived at Destination, the temple of the goddess Athena. Orestes knelt before the statue of the goddess, saying that he was there at Apollon's request, the deity who had told him that Athena would ensure a fair trial. Meanwhile, one of the furies declared that if justice was done, he would suffer eternally in the Tartar. Athena appeared and declared that she would preside over Orestes' trial. The Eryneans would be the accusers and Orestes would have full defense. Outside the city of Athens, on Mount Arès, the trial took place in front of the Athenian population. Orestes had the god Apollon as his lawyer, while the Eryneans offered terrible words at the meeting of the Mycenaean prince. The head of the Eryneans took the floor and opened the accusation by saying that the case was simple. Orestes had confessed the crime of matricide, he had killed with his own hands the mother he had always loved. The law of the gods and men was clear on this crime against the gods. Apollon took the floor and declared that Orestes had killed his mother but that Clytemnestra was not innocent. She and her pagan lover had participated in the murder of the noble Agamemnon, the man who had restored the honor of all the Greeks by punishing the Trojans. The god affirmed that the act had not been thought about. The prince revised and questioned the oracle of Delphi, which told him that he had to punish the murderers. Doing so, Orestes was profoundly afraid of the gods. The jury seemed divided on Orestes' verdict. When the votes were counted, the result was a draw. Athena got up and declared that as president of the trial, she would share the vote. The goddess affirmed that she had listened carefully to the defense and the accusation. By killing Queen Clytemnestra, Orestes did not kill his mother but the murderer of his father. For this reason, she considered him acquitted of the unjustified murder charge. Orestes fell on his knees, relieved, now free from the burden of one of the worst crimes committed by a human being. Defeated, the Erynei shouted in anger, affirming that the new gods had thrown away all the traditions built over the millennia. Orestes thanked the people of Athens for having promoted justice in his country. He also declared that from that day on, the people of Mycenae would never war with the people of Attica as long as they lived. His successors would be cursed if they did not keep this promise. Orestes and Pylades left Athens. To appease the goddesses of revenge, Athena ordered the construction of a temple where the Erynei would be venerated as promoters of the justice of the gods.