The substance of the legend of Orestes and the Oresteal community, as represented in myth and drama, falls into three major categories: 1, the action—the murder of the mother and her lover; 2, the dream—the unconscious formulation of the denial of the loss of the mother's breast; 3, the trial—the justification of the acts.

The hero, Orestes, embodies a psychology which rejects the Oedipal strivings by psychosexual inversion. The psychology which reveres the father (totem) and rejects the mother (incest) is expressed as denial of the loss of the breast. The corresponding social reaction is a denial of motherhood. The myth of Orestes is a complete repudiation of the mother.