But Electra, one of Agamemnon's daughters, smuggled away her brother Orestes and gave him to Strophius, the Phocian, to bring up; and he brought him up with Pylades, his own son. And when Orestes was grown up, he repaired to Delphi and asked the god whether he should take vengeance on his father's murderers.
The god gave him leave, so he departed secretly to Mycenae in company with Pylades, and killed both his mother and Aegisthus. And not long afterwards, being afflicted with madness and pursued by the Furies, he repaired to Athens and was tried in the Areopagus. He is variously said to have been brought to trial by the Furies, or by Tyndareus, or by Erigone, daughter of Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra; and the votes at his trial being equal he was acquitted.