in ancient history, king of Mycenae, was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. At the instigation of his sister Electra, he revenged the death of his father, and did not even spare his own mother. He also killed Pyrithus the son of Achilles, for taking away Hermione, who had been promised to him in marriage. It is said, that, after he had killed his mother, he went distracted; and that, to expiate his crime, he was obliged to go to the temple of Diana in the Chersonesus Taurica. His friend Pylades accompanied him thither; when king Thoas resolving to sacrifice him to Diana, to whom human victims were offered, Pylades resolving to be sacrificed to save his friend, assured that prince that he was Orestes; while Orestes, on the contrary, to prevent the death of Pylades, maintained that he alone was the true Orestes. During this generous contest, which rendered the friendship of Orestes and Pylades the admiration of the world, Iphigenia, who presided at Diana's sacrifices, knew again her brother Orestes, and delivered him from the danger to which he was exposed. Some days afterwards, Orestes, accompanied by Pylades, slew king Thoas, seized his treasures, and took his sister Iphigenia with him into Arcadia, 1144 B.C.