Greek Myths XS Orestes and Pylades: Selfless Love

The story of the Trojan war starts with the grisly sacrifice of sweet princess Iphigenia. But in the version of the playwright Euripides, Artemis snatches Iphigenia from the altar and sends her to a far away land, where – ironically – she’s in charge of human sacrifices herself. When her brother Orestes and his lifelong companion Pylades show up on her shores, she doesn’t recognise them and prepares for their unaliving. But when she hears they’re from Mykene, she proposes to set one of them free, if he delivers a letter to her family. To spare his friend’s life, Orestes chooses to stay behind to be sacrificed. Luckily, as they are talking, things become clear and they reunite as the siblings that they are. This tragedy has a happy ending and the relationship of Orestes and Pylades has gone down as an example of selfless love and loyalty. “When from boyhood a serious love has grown up … As from a mirror, the affection of the lover is reflected from the beloved.”

Orestes and Pylades, Christian Gotfried Jüchtzer, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

Orestes, mosaic, Palazzo dei Conservatori, Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

Did you know?

• As a young child, Orestes had been sent to his uncle at Phokis for his protection, by his nurse, called either Arsinoe or Laodameia. There he meets his nephew Pylades and the two become inseparable.

• Orestes is tought to have been of extraordinary lenght. His body (about 4 meters tall) would have been exhumed by the Spartans on advice of the oracle to help them defeat the Tegeans.