ORF
163
ORG
lie arrived at Cape North, on the coast of Guiana, after sailingnearly 1800 leagues. Orellana perished ten years after, with threevessels which had been intrusted to him in Spain , without beingable to find again the mouth of this river. ' In sailing down the ri-ver, he met with some armed women, against whom an Indian ca-cique had told him to be on his guard; and he thence named itthe river of the Amazons.
ORENBURG, a town of Russia , 180 miles S. of Upha. Lon.hi. 0. E. Lat. 51. 46. N.
ORENSE, an ancient town of Spain , formerly called Aquical-densis, in the kingdom of Galicia . Lon. 7. 27. W. Lat. 42.16. N.
ORESTES, in fabulous history, the son of Agamemnon andClylemneslra. When his father was cruelly murdered by Cly-tomnestra and Algisthus, young Orestes was saved from his mo-ther’s dagger by his sister Electra , called by Homer Laodicea,who privately conveyed him tortile house of Slrophius, king ofPhoeis who had married a sister of Agamemnon . He was ten-derly treated by Strophius, who educated him w ith his son Py-lades. The two young princes soon contracted a most inviolablefriendship. When Orestes came of age, he visited Mycena;, andavenged his father’s death, by killing bis mother Clytenmestra andher adulterer Algistims. After this he was acknowledged king ofMycena;; but ijring tormented by the Furies for bis parricide, heexiled himself to Argos, where Apollo purified him, and he wasacquitted by the unanimous decision of the Areopagites , whomMinerva herself instituted on this occasion, according to the poetAeschylus. Pausanias says, Orestes was purified of the murder atTror/.eiie, where still was seen a large stone at the entrance ofDiana’s temple, upon which the ceremonies of purification hadbeen performed. There was also at Mcgalapolis, in Arcadia, atemple dedicated to the Furies , near which Orestes bit off one ottils lingers with his teeth, in his insanity'. But Euripides says, thatOrestes, after the murder of his mother, consulted the oracle ofApollo at Delphi, where he was told, that nothing could deliverhim from the Furies , if he did not bring into Greece Diana’s sta-tue, from the Taurica Chersonesus, which, as was believed, hadfallen down from heaven. Thoas, king of Chersonesus , alwayssacrificed to the goddess all who entered his country. Orestesand his friend were tiierefore both doomed to he sacrificed. Iplii-genia, O.estes’s sister, was then priestess o: Diana’s temple, and itwas her office to immolate these strangers. The intelligence thatthey were Grecians delayed the preparations, and Iphigenia wasanxious to learn something about her native country. She inter-ested herself in their misfortunes, and offered to spare the life of oneof them, provided he would convey letters to Greece . This was adifficult trial: never was friendship more truly displayed, accord-ing to Ovid , de Ponto 3, el. 2,
Irejubet Pvlades carum moriturus Orestem ;
Hie negat; inque vicem pugnat uterque mori.
At last, Pylades yielded to the intreaties of his friend, and con-sented to carry the letters to Greece . These were addressed toOrestes himself, and led to a discovery of the connection of thepriestess with the man whom she was going to immolate. Iphige-nia , when the cause of their journey had been explained, resolvedto fly from Chersonesus with them, and to carry away the statue ofDiana. Their flight was discovered, and Thoas prepared to pur-sue them ; but Minerva interfered, and told him that all had beendone by the will of the gods. Orestes came to Cappadocia fromChersonesus , and left there the statue of Diana at Comana. Af-ter this, Orestes reigned at Argos; married Hermione the daugh-ter of Menelaus , and gave his sister to his friend Pylades. Orestesdied in Arcadia, by the bite of a serpent. The friendship ofOrestes and Pylades became proverbial; and the two friends re-ceived divine honours among the Scythians .
ORESTEUM, an ancient town of Arcadia, so panted fromOrestes, 18 utiles front Sparta .
ORESTSDA, a country of Greece, S. W. of Macedonia , sonamed by the subjects and descendants of Orestes, who settled init, after they were expelled Argos by the Heraclhhe.
ORFA, a town of Asia , in Diarbeck, S3 miles N. E. ofAleppo , and 100 S. \V. of Diarbekir. Lon. 37. 45. E. Lat. 36.20. N.
ORFORO, a town of,Suffolk, IS miles E, by' N. of Ipswich ,and SS N. E. of London . Lon. 1. 33. E. I,at. 52. 15. N.
Oxford Ness, a cape of England, on the S. E. coast of Sus-sex, with a lighthouse. Lon. 1. 6. E. Lat. 52. 4. N.
ORGAN, an instrument,] in,general, is an instrument
or machine, designed for the production of some certain action oroperation ; in which sense the mechanic powers, machines, andeven the veins, arteries, nerves, muscles, and bones, of the humanbody, may be called organs.
Organ, in music, denotes the largest and most harmonious ofall wind-instruments; on which account it is called ofy«>w, the or-gan, the instrument, by way of excellence; chiefly used for play-ing a thorough bass, with all its accompaniments. That organs arethe invention of remote antiquity' is generally allowed ; but theparticular time and country in which the discovery was made areuncertain. In ancient authors there are various passages wheremention is made of the organ, but it was probably an instrumentvery different front that which now goes'by this name. It appearsindeed to have been borrowed by the Latins from the Greeks, butnot to have been in general use till the 8th century. Vitruvius describes an organ in his 10th book, and St. Jcronte mentions onewith twelve pair of bellows, which might be heard 1000 paces, ora mile off; and another at Jerusalem , which might be beard at theMount of Olives. It lias been affirmed, that, in France , it was notknown till the time of Lewis I. A. D. 815, when an Italian priesttaught the use and construction of it, which lie had learned at Constantinople. By some, however, it has been carried as far back a-Charfemagne, and by others as far as Pepin. Bellarmine says thatthe organ in gait to be used in the service of the church about 660,Ammonius thinks, however, that this happened after 820, in thetime of Lewis the Pious. The learned Bingham, in-liis OriginesSucriE affirms, that organs were not used till after the lime of Tho-mas Aquinas , and he adds Utese words, “ Our church does n..tuse musical instruments, as harps, and psalteries, to praise C«<’withal, that she may not seem toJudaize. Hence it has beenconcluded, by the learned Gregory, that they were not used inchurches in his time, about A. D. 1250. It appears, however,from the testimony of Gervas the monk of Canterbury, who lion-rislied A. D. 1200, that organs were introduced upwards of 100years even before that time. If Gervas’s authority be held good,It will give countenance to a pretty general opinion, that in Italy ,Germany , and England, they became frequent about the lothcentury. But it is certain, that the use of the organ was very commoil in the latter ages of the church, and the propriety of it wasundisputed. In the 17th century, however, during the civil war>,organs were removed from the churches in England ; and so ge-nerally reprobated, that, at the Restoration, there could scarcely befound either organists, organ-builders, or singers. Organs havenever vet been used in the establishment of Scotland since it be-came 1’rcsbyterian; but they are used in Iiollaad, where thatform of church-government also obtains. The organs in Germany (says Dr. Burney,) in magnitude, and the organists in abilities,seems unrivalled in any other part of Europe , particularly in theuse of pedals. In Marpurg ’s Essays, vol. iii. there is a minute ac-count of a variety of organs in Germany ; of ail which the longestpipe of the manuals is 16 feet long, and of the pedals 32. One ofthe largest organs in Germany is at Gorliz in Upper Lusatia . Theuncommon merit of Handel as an organist is well known. The,organ in the cathedral church at Ulm in Germany is 93 feet highand 28 broad: its largest pipe is 13 inches diameter, and it has 16pair of bellow*. The size of an organ is generally expressed bythe length of its largest pipe: thus they say, an organ of 8, 16, 32,feet, Ac. An organ, when complete, is ot threefold construction,and furnished with three sets of keys; one of which is called thegreat organ, and which is the middle set; a second (or lower set)for the choir-organ ; and a third (or upper set) for the swell. Inthe great organ, the principal slops are the two diapasons, the prin-cipal, the twelfth, the fifteenth, the sesquialtra, the mixture or fur-niture, the trumpet, the clarion, and the comet. The clioir-orgaqusually contains the stopt diapason, the duleiana, the principal, theflute, the twelfth, the bassoon, and the vox luimana. The swellcomprises the two diapasons, the principal, the hautboy, trumpet^and cornet. Besides the complete organ, there are other organsof less sizes, and more limited powers, adapted to church, chapel,and chamber use. There is also the barrel or hand organ, consist-ing of a moveable turning cylinder called a barrel, on which, bymeans of wires, pins, and staples, are set the tunes it is intended to
perform.