He wishes to be a king without a kingdom, and promises to leave, taking their sins, their dead, and their flies with him. Telling the story of the pied piper, Orestes walks off into the light as the Furies chase after him. Zeus (Greek) / Jupiter (Roman) – a major antagonist in the play, Zeus is introduced in the exposition as "god of flies and death", although he is traditionally associated with sky, lightning, thunder, law, order, and justice. Orestes (Philebus) – the play's major protagonist, he is the brother of Electra and the son of Agamemnon. Electra – the sister of Orestes and the daughter of Agamemnon. Agamemnon – the former king of Argos and the father of Orestes and Electra, Agamemnon was murdered by Aegisthus prior to the story's onset. Orestes' desire to avenge his father's death is a major plot device in the play. Clytemnestra – the wife of Aegisthus and the mother of Orestes and Electra. Aegisthus – the husband of Clytemnestra. Furies – also known as the Erinyes or "infernal goddesses", the Furies serve as Zeus' enforcers in Argos and punish those who swear false oaths. In 1941, Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir attended performances of a production of "The Suppliant Maidens", in which Olga Kosakiewicz had a part. Years later, Sartre stated: "The real drama, the drama I should have liked to write, was that of the terrorist who, by ambushing Germans, becomes the instrument for the execution of fifty hostages." Noted Sartre biographer Annie Cohen-Solal views this statement as an allusion to a series of events that occurred in occupied Paris in 1941: a German officer was killed at the Métro Barbès and in retaliation the German military forces executed eight prisoners in September and then 98 prisoners in October. However, the German censors would have banned such a play, so Sartre was forced to look for other subjects. He settled on the idea of using the story of the Atridae as a vehicle. De Beauvoir says that the first act was inspired by the town of Emborio, "the village on Santorin which had presented so sinister at atmosphere to us when we first reached it [during a holiday] -- all those blank, shuttered houses under the blazing noonday sun."