It will seem curious that Thoas, a barbarian king, should admit the necessity for such a ceremony, seeing that in the Andromache[152] Hermione is made to say
Such is the whole abhorred barbarian race.
... friends by their dearest friends
Are murdered: deeds like these no wholesome law
Prohibits.
We shall see presently[153] that this sentiment was the outcome of Hermione’s emotional attitude to the Trojan Andromache.
Orestes and the Pitcher Feast
The suggestion of Orestes that his ‘pollution,’ when he reached the Attic land, was the origin of the Attic rite which prescribed the use of separate cups on the second day of the Anthesteria is of interest as an illustration of what is known as the aetiological myth. Orestes says to Iphigeneia[154]:
There arrived,
None willingly received me, by the gods