THE DREAM OF ORESTES.

FLEURY.

ORESTES is one of the most celebrated personages of the heroic times. The events of his life have given birth to various traditions that often contradict each other. In some countries of Greece there existed one that represented this prince as a giant of the height of more than seven feet. All these fables have acquired considerable interest, from the misfortunes which Orestes experienced after the murder of his mother.

Orestes, secreted from the fury of the assassins of Agamemnon, swore to avenge his father's death; and, as soon as he conceived himself capable of accomplishing his design, he returned secretly to Mycena, where he killed his mother, Clytemnestra, and Ægisthus, in the temple of Apollo. From that moment the furies pursued him, and he attempted by various means, but in vain, to escape the torments which they caused him to endure. He at first presented himself before the Areopagites of Athens. The voices of the judges being equally divided, Minerva herself voted in his favour. Orestes did not, however, cease to become the prey of the furies. Træzene was a celebrated place for expiations-there he travelled, but no Træzenian would receive him in his house. The magistrates, at length, softened by his misfortunes, gave him, by a decree, absolution of his crime. They performed the ceremonies of expiation; and Pausanias pretends,