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The author attempts to give the story of Orestes a place equal to the story of Oedipus in psychoanalysis, not merely to regard it as a 'homosexual variant'. Whereas the Oedipus theme enabled Freud to gain insight into the instinctual drives, the story of Orestes provides insight into the ego and superego and is thus pertinent to ego psychology. The Oedipal role of the son is projected onto a substitute in the Orestes story, the weak and effeminate Aegisthus. Vengeance exacted by double murder, Orestes goes into exile from which he emerges years later to face trial in Athens with 'holy lips and pure words'. At his trial he has the gods, Apollo and Athena, to testify for him and after lengthy prayers is purified and accepted back into the community. Fingarette quotes from Henry Miller to show that some murder is justified and that to murder in full conciousness of the enormity of the crime is an act of liberation. But, in Orestes, he overlooks the extensive use of denial, religious and dramatic illusion, and the invoking of the gods, which contrasts with the more earthy realism of Oedipus. This might account for the Orestes story being more popular with those who are primarily interested in denial and in illusion than in psychoanalysis.