Upon his return from Troy, Agamemnon is killed by his wife’s lover, Aigisthos; Orestes takes action and revenges his father by killing both Aigisthos and his unfaithful mother, Clytemnestra. In the many mentions of this event, Telemachus is explicitly compared to Orestes; the latter fulfills his manly duty to his father and family, while the latter has not yet acted, still a boy.
