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xii should offer up his daughter Iphigenia in sacrifice unto Artemis. And the king was unwilling so to do: yet for his oath's sake, and for his brother and the captains of the fleet, he consented, and offered up his daughter: and the fleet sailed. And they besieged Troy for nine years, and in the tenth year it fell.

But Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, was wroth because of her daughter's death; and she did evil with Ægisthus, the youngest son of Thyestes; and they plotted to murder Agamemnon when he should return, and sent away his son Orestes unto Strophius, king of Phocis, that he might not know what they did. And when Agamemnon came back from Troy Clytemnestra received him gladly, and led him into the palace: and as he was bathing himself, she flung over him a net, and smote him, and he died: and Clytemnestra and Ægisthus ruled in Argos.

But Orestes heard of his father's wrongful death, and went unto the oracle of Delphi to enquire thereof, and Apollo bade him avenge his father, and not spare his own mother but slay her. And secretly he came to Argos, bearing feigned news of his own death in Phocis, and so came into the palace of his father again, and slew his mother Clytemnestra and Ægisthus. Then was he distraught and maddened by the Furies, in revenge for Clytemnestra's slaying: and he wandered over the earth, seeking purification for his deed, but the Furies followed him. At last he came to the temple of Delphi, and clung to the altar: and the God cast a deep sleep over the Furies, and bade him fly to Athens, where he should find safety. But the ghost of Clytemnestra arose from the shades and awoke the Furies, and they followed him, and were wroth with Apollo. And they held dispute on the Acropolis, and Athena bade certain of the men of Athens decide the cause with her. And in the end they proclaimed the deed of