’Twas Orelio
On which he rode, Roderick’s own battle-horse,
Who from his master’s hand had wont to feed,
And with a glad docility obey
His voice familiar.
Southey, Roderick, etc., xxv. (1814).
Ores´tes (3 syl.), son of Agamemnon, betrothed to Hermi´onê (4 syl.), daughter of Menela´us (4 syl.), king of Sparta. At the downfall of Troy Menelāus promised Hermionê in marriage to Pyrrhus, king of Epīrus, but Pyrrhus fell in love with Androm´achê, the widow of Hector, and his captive. An embassy, led by Orestês, was sent to Epirus to demand that the son of Andromachê should be put to death, lest, as he grew up, he might seek to avenge his father’s death. Pyrrhus refused to comply. In this embassage Orestês met Hermionê again, and found her pride and jealousy aroused to fury by the slight offered her. She goaded Orestês to avenge her insults, and the ambassadors fell on Pyrrhus and murdered him. Hermionê, when she saw the dead body of the king borne along, stabbed herself, and Orestês went raving mad.—Ambrose Philips, The Distressed Mother (1712).
Orfeo and Heuro´dis, the tale of Orpheus and Eurydĭcê, with the Gothic machinery of elves and fairies.
*** Glück has an opera called Orfeo; the libretto, by Calzabigi, based on a dramatic piece by Poliziano (1764).
Orgari´ta, “the orphan of the Frozen Sea,” heroine of a drama. (See [Martha].)—Stirling, The Orphan of the Frozen Sea (1856).
Or´gilus, the betrothed lover of Penthe´a, by the consent of her father; but, at the death of her father, her brother, Ith´oclês, compelled her to marry Bass´anês, whom she hated. Ithoclês was about to marry the princess of Sparta, but a little before the event was to take place Penthea starved herself to death, and Orgilus was condemned to death for murdering Ithoclês.—John Ford, The Broken Heart (1633).
Orgoglio [Or.gole´.yo], a hideous giant, as tall as three men, son of Earth and Wind. Finding the Red Cross Knight at the fountain of Idleness he beats him with a club, and makes him his slave. Una informs Arthur of it, and Arthur liberates the knight and slays the giant (Rev. xiii. 5, 7, with Dan. vii. 21, 22).—Spenser, Faëry Queen, i. (1590).
*** Arthur first cut off Orgoglio’s left arm, i. e. Bohemia was cut off first from the Church of Rome; then he cut off the giant’s right leg, i. e. England.
Orgon, brother-in-law of Tartuffe (2 syl.). His credulity and faith in Tartuffe, like that of his mother, can scarcely be shaken even by the evidence of his senses. He hopes against hope, and fights every inch of ground in defence of the religious hypocrite.—Molière, Tartuffe (1664).
Oria´na, daughter of Lisuarte, king of England, and spouse of Am´adis of Gaul (bk. ii. 6). The general plot of this series of romances bears on this marriage, and tells of the thousand and one obstacles from rivals, giants, sorcerers and so on, which had to be overcome before the consummation could be effected. It is in this unity of plot that the Amadis series differs from its predecessors—the Arthurian romances, and those of the paladins of Charlemagne, which are detached adventures, each complete in itself, and not bearing to any common focus.—Amadis de Gaul (fourteenth century).