The Delphic Oracle Character Analysis

The high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi serves as the most important oracle in Greek mythology. The Delphic oracle is said to speak the words of Apollo, and she speaks only in rhyme and riddle. According to myth, questions presented to her must be phrased very carefully, because otherwise her prophecies are easily misinterpreted. In Electra, Orestes asks the Delphic oracle how he should exact revenge for his father’s death, not if he should exact revenge, and he takes the oracle’s prophecy as a direct order from Apollo himself to kill Clytemnestra for Agamemnon’s murder. Sophocles implies that matricide is never justified, not even in the name of revenge, and Orestes’s possible misinterpretation of the oracle’s prophecy supports that argument.