Aletes
Son of Aegisthus who briefly seized the Mycenaean throne before being killed by Electra.
The Legend of Aletes
Aletes was the son of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, making him the half-brother of the children of Agamemnon. After Orestes killed his mother and Aegisthus, Aletes seized power in Mycenae during a period when Orestes was abroad or incapacitated. A tradition preserved by Hyginus records that Electra, upon receiving false news that Orestes had been killed, went to Delphi and there encountered Iphigenia, whom she did not recognize. Thinking her brother dead, Electra took a torch to blind Iphigenia, blaming her for the oracle's outcome. When the truth emerged — that Orestes lived — Aletes's reign ended abruptly when Orestes returned and killed him. His name, meaning "the wanderer," may reflect a tradition in which he lived in exile before his brief seizure of power.
Parents
Aegisthus (father); Clytemnestra (mother)
Symbols
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