724 
ORE 
the pine-tree. Tlie branches are what this author calls 
leaves, and they do pretty well refemble the leaves of the 
pine-tree. They are long and (lender, and of a bright 
green. See Eouisetum fluviale. 
OROSELI'NUM, f. in botany. See Athamanta. 
O'RES, a town of the island of Sardinia: ten miles 
fouth-fouth-eaft of Oriftagni. 
ORE'SA, a town of Lithuania, in the palatine of No- 
vogrodek : eighteen miles eaft-north-eaft of Sluck. 
ORESMAU'X, a town of F ranee, in the department of 
tlie Somme: eight miles fouth of Amiens. 
ORES'ME (Nicholas), an eminent French prelate, and 
one ot the molt celebrated writers in the fourteenth cen¬ 
tury, was born at Caen in Normandy, but in what year 
is not known. He purfued his Studies at the university 
ot Paris, where he entered himfelf a member of the col¬ 
lege of Navarre, and was admitted to the degree of doc¬ 
tor by the faculty of the Sorbonne. In the year 1355, he 
was elected grand-mafter of the college in which he was 
educated; and M. Launoy fays, that he contributed 
greatly to the revival and encouragement of learning in 
that Seminary, and railed it to pre-eminent celebrity 
among the colleges of his time. Afterwards he was made 
fucceflively archdeacon of Bayeux, dean of the chapter of 
Rouen, and treafurer of the holy chapel at Paris. In the 
year 1 3C0, king John appointed him preceptor to his Ion 
Charles, who was the fifth king of France of that name. 
He was lent, in 1363, to trail (a£t affairs of moment with 
pope Urban V. and the college of cardinals at Avignon ; 
and on that occafion he Signalized himfelf by a “ dif- 
courSe,” which he delivered before the pope and cardinals, 
in which he expatiated with great energy and freedom on 
the fcandalous irregularities of the papal court. This 
ilifeourf'e wa s printed by Flacius Illyricus, in his Cata¬ 
logue of the WitneSSes to the Truth; and was published 
alone by Gefner, at Wittemberg, in 1604. Orefme alio 
excited much attention by another “ Diicourfe concern¬ 
ing the Changes in the Value of Money ;” in which he 
boidly cenlured thofe princes who coined money below 
the juft Standard-weight, and maintained that they had 
no power to increafe or depreciate the value of money at 
their arbitrary plealure. This diicourfe is inferted in the 
twenty-fixth volume of the grand edition of the Bibl. 
Patr. Upon the acceftion of Charles V. to the throne, he 
loaded his former tutor with favours, and confulted 
him on the moft important affairs of government. In 
1377, he nominated him to the vacant fee of Lifieux ; 
over which this eminent man prefided till his death, in 
the year 1382. 
Orefme’s acquaintance with divinity, philofophy, the 
mathematics, and the belles lettres, was very extenlive 
and profound for the age in which he lived, as fuffici- 
ently appears from what are Still extant of his writings. 
He translated into French, Ariftotle’s Morals and Poli¬ 
tics, by order of Charles V. fome parts of Cicero; and 
Petrarch’s treatife “ De Remediis UtriuSque Fortunae 
and he wrote a Latin piece, De Commnnicatiane Idiama- 
tum; three treatifes againft Judicial Aftrology, which 
were highly commended by Picus de Mirandula ; a trea¬ 
tife De AntichriJto; and numerous other pieces in philo¬ 
fophy and divinity, of which a catalogue may be Seen in 
the Second volume of M. Launoy’s Hiftory of Navarre. 
Gen. Biog. 
ORES'TAi, a people of Epirus. They received their 
name from Oreftes, who fled to Epirus when cured of his 
infinity. 
ORES'TES, in ancient hiftory, a fon of Agamemnon 
and Clytemneftra. When his father was cruelly mur¬ 
dered by Clytemneftra and AigiSlhus, young Oreftes was 
Paved from his mother’s dagger by means of his filter 
Eledtra, called Laodina by Homer, and was privately 
conveyed to the houfe of Strophius king of Phocis, who 
had married a filter of Agamemnon. He was tenderly 
treated by Strophius, who educated him with his fon 
Pylades. The two young princes foon became acquaint- 
O R E 
ed, and from their familiarity arofe the moft inviolable 
attachment and friendlhip. 
When Oreftes arrived at years of manhood, he vifited 
Mycente, and avenged his father’s death by affaffinating 
his mother Clytemneftra and her adulterer AJgifthus. 
The manner in which he committed this murder is vari¬ 
ously reported. According to AiSchylus, he was com- 
millioned by Apollo to avenge his father; and therefore 
he introduced himfelf, with his friend Pylades, at the 
court of Mycenae, pretending to bring the news of the 
death of Oreftes S'rom king Strophius. He was at firft re¬ 
ceived with coldnefs; and, w'hen he came into the pre¬ 
fence of Aigifthus, who w'ilhed to inform himfelf of the 
particulars, he murdered him, and foon Clytemneftra 
lhared the adulterer’s fate. Euripides and Sophocles 
mention the lame circumltances. Asgirthus was affaffi- 
nated after Clytemneftra, according to Sophocles; and, in 
Euripides, Oreftes is represented as murdering the adul¬ 
terer while he offers a facrifice to the nymphs. This 
murder, as the poet mentions, irritates the guards, who 
were prefent; but Oreftes appeales their fury by telling 
them who he is, and immediately he is acknowledged king 
of the country. Afterwards he ftabs his mother, at the 
instigation of his filter Eledtra, having firft upbraided her 
for her infidelity and cruelty to her hufband. 
Such meditated murders receive the punilhment which, 
among the ancients, w'as always fuppoled to attend par¬ 
ricide. Oreftes is tormented by the Furies, and exiles 
himfelf to Argos, where he is Itiil purfued by the avenge¬ 
ful goddefies. Apollo himfelf purifies him; and he is 
acquitted by the unanimous opinion of the Areopagites, 
whom Minerva herlelf inftituted on this occalion, ac¬ 
cording to the narration of the poet Asfchylus, who flat¬ 
ters the Athenians in his tragical ftory, by representing 
them as paffing judgment even upon the gods themleives. 
According to Paul’anias, Oreftes was purified of the mur¬ 
der, not at Delphi, but at Troezene, where ftili was Seen 
a large Hone at the entrance of Diana’s temple, upon 
which the ceremonies of purification had been performed 
by nine of the principal citizens of the place. There was 
alio at Megalopolfs in Arcadia, a temple dedicated to the 
Furies, near which Oreftes bit off one of his fingers with 
his teeth, in a fit of infinity. 
Thefe different traditions are confuted by Euripides, 
who Says, that Oreftes, after the murder of his mother, 
confulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, where he was 
informed that nothing could deliver him from the perse¬ 
cutions of the Furies, if he did not bring into Greece 
Diana’s Statue, which was in the Taurica Cherfonelus, 
and which, as it is reported by fome, had fallen down 
from heaven. This was an arduous enterprise. The king 
of the Cherlonefus always Sacrificed on the altars cf the 
goddefs all Such as entered the borders of his country. 
Oreftes and his friend w r ere both carried before Thoas, 
the king of the place, and they were doomed to be facri- 
ficed. Iphigenia was then prieftels of Diana’s temple, 
and it was her office to immolate thefe Strangers. The in¬ 
telligence that they were Grecians delayed the prepara¬ 
tions ; and Iphigenia was anxious to learn Something 
about a country which had given her birth. (See Iphi¬ 
genia, vol. xi.) She even interested herfelfin their mis¬ 
fortunes, and offered to Spare the life of one of them, 
provided he would convey letters to Greece from her 
hand. This was a difficult trial. Never was friendship 
more truly displayed, according to the words of Ovid : 
Ire jubet Pylades carum moriturus Orrjlem, 
Hie negnt; inque vicem puguat uterque mori. 
At laft Pylades gave way to the preffing entreaties of his 
friend, and conlented to carry the letters of Iphigenia to 
Greece. Thele were addrelled to Oreftes himfelf, and 
therefore thefe circumftances foon led to a total discovery 
of the connections of the prieftefs with the man whom 
Slie was going to immolate. Iphigenia was convinced 
that he was her brother Oreftes; and, when the caufe of 
their 
