Pylades

Pylades was a prince of Phocis, the son of King Strophius, and the closest friend and companion of Orestes. In the tragedies he stands beside Orestes when he avenges his father Agamemnon and when he carries the statue of Artemis away from the land of the Taurians, and in the end he marries Orestes’ sister Electra.

Family and Upbringing

According to Pausanias, Pylades was the grandson of Crisus: his father was Strophius, son of Crisus, and his mother was Anaxibia, a sister of Agamemnon (Pausanias 2.29.4). Hyginus gives the wife of Strophius as Astyochea, another sister of Agamemnon (Hyginus, Fabulae 117). In both versions Orestes and Pylades are cousins. After Agamemnon’s murder, Electra sent her young brother Orestes to Strophius in Phocis, and Strophius brought him up together with his own son Pylades (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.24). Euripides also has Orestes raised in Phocis (Euripides, Electra 14–18).

Pylades and the Murder of Clytemnestra

When Orestes grew up, Apollo commanded him to avenge his father. He set out in secret for Mycenae with Pylades and killed both his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.25). In Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers the two arrive disguised as strangers from Phocis, Pylades as a guest-friend of the house of Strophius (Libation Bearers 560–564). Pylades speaks only once in the play. When Orestes hesitates at the threshold of the killing and asks him whether he should spare his mother, Pylades answers by reminding him of Apollo’s oracles (Libation Bearers 899–902). In Euripides’ Electra he is a silent character who helps Orestes carry out the deaths. Pausanias describes a painting at Athens in which Orestes kills Aegisthus while Pylades kills the sons of Nauplius who had come to help him (Pausanias 1.22.6).

In Euripides’ Orestes Pylades pays for his part in the deed. Pylades tells Orestes that his father Strophius drove him from home as an exile in anger (Orestes 765). He stays with Orestes through the trial at Argos and joins the plot to kill Helen and seize Hermione.

The Journey to Tauris

Orestes was told by Apollo that he must bring the statue of Artemis from the land of the Taurians to find release from the Erinyes. Pylades accompanied him. The two men were caught, taken in bonds before King Thoas and sent to the priestess of Artemis, who was Orestes’ own sister Iphigenia, though none of the three knew it at first. When they recognized one another, they fled together, carrying off the wooden image (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.27; Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris). In Euripides’ play each of the two friends tries to die so that the other can live, and Iphigenia learns who Orestes is through the letter she asks one of them to carry to Argos.

Marriage and Children

After the return to Mycenae, Orestes gave his sister Electra to Pylades as his wife (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.28). Euripides ends two of his plays on this arrangement: in the Electra the Dioscuri tell Orestes to give Electra to Pylades (Electra 1249), and in the Orestes Apollo orders it (Orestes 1658–1659). Orestes himself married Hermione or, as some said, Erigone (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.28). Pausanias saw Electra’s tomb at Mycenae and writes that, according to Hellanicus, the children of Pylades and Electra were Medon and Strophius (Pausanias 2.16.7); he also mentions that the sons of Pylades and Electra killed Aristodemus (Pausanias 3.1.6). Pausanias also says that Pylades plotted the death of Neoptolemus, not only out of friendship for Orestes but because Neoptolemus’ grandfather Peleus had killed Phocus, the ancestor of Pylades’ family (Pausanias 2.29.9).

Pylades Sources

Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 560–564 and 899–902; Euripides, Electra 14–18 and 1249, Orestes 765 and 1658–1659, and Iphigenia in Tauris; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.24–28; Hyginus, Fabulae 117; Pausanias 1.22.6, 2.16.7, 2.29.4, 2.29.9 and 3.1.6.

See Also: Agamemnon, Menelaus, Clytemnestra, Aegisthus, Orestes, Erinyes, Artemis, Apollo, Iphigenia, Electra