Pylades

A son of Strophius and Anaxibia, Cydragora or Astyochea.1 He was a friend of Orestes, who was received by him in Phocis in a brotherly manner.2 He afterwards married Electra, the sister of Orestes, and became by her the father of Hellanicus, Medon, and Strophius.3 Pylades helped Orestes avenge his father's death by murdering Clytemnestra.4

Their names have become proverbial for friendship.

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Iconography

Pylades is only portrayed on vases, reliefs, and murals in his adventures together with Orestes, never alone. Two murals can be found in the Casa di Olconio Rufo and the Casa di Sirico at Pompeii.

References

Notes

  1. Pausanias. Description of Greece ii, 29.4; Scholiast on Euripides' Orestes, 33, 753; Hyginus. Fabulae, 117.
  2. Pindar. Pythian Odes xii, 23.
  3. Pausanias. Description of Greece ii, 16.5.
  4. Hyginus. Fabulae, 119.

Sources

  • Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.