You must not use the speech for the prosecution to discover whether your laws are good or bad.

You must not use the speech for the prosecution to discover whether your laws are good or bad. You must use laws to discover whether or not the speech for the prosecution is giving you a correct and lawful interpretation of the case. Atniphon. On the Choreutes. Speech 6. Section 2.

The trial of Orestes: Orestes is absent from Mycenae when his father, Agamemnon, returns from the Trojan War with the Trojan princess Cassandra as his concubine, and thus not present for Agamemnon's murder by his wife Clytemnestra's lover, Aegisthus. Seven years later, Orestes returns from Athens and avenges his father's death by slaying both Aegisthus and his own mother Clytemnestra.

But in the play Eumenides by Aeschylus, Orestes goes mad after the deed and is pursued by the Furies because he has violated the ties of family piety. Orestes takes refuge in the temple at Delphi, but, even though Apollo had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect Orestes from the consequences.

At last Athena receives him on the acropolis of Athens and arranges a formal trial of the case before twelve judges, including herself. The Furies demand their victim while Orestes pleads that he was following the orders of Apollo. Athena votes last announcing that she is for acquittal. Then the votes are counted and the result is a tie, resulting in an acquittal according to the rules previously stipulated by Athena. The Furies (Erinyes) are propitiated by the granting of a new ritual in which they will be worshiped as venerable goddesses.

Image: Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1862, and Orestes and Elecktra by Menelaus after Praxiteles 1st century CE photographed at the Palazzo Altemps in Rome, Italy.