Orestes, son of Agamemnon, has just discovered his friend Pylades at the court of Pyrrhus, son of Achilles and king of Epirus. Pylades feared that the storm which separated their ships near Epirus six months before had brought Orestes the death he had always sought. He is overjoyed and asks what has brought Orestes and his Greek embassy to Epirus. Orestes says he has come for love, and Pylades is surprised. He had thought that after the princess Hermione had refused him at Sparta, Orestes had forgotten his passion for the daughter of Helen of Troy. Hermione has been betrothed to Pyrrhus and is now in Epirus waiting to marry him.
Orestes agrees that he thought he had torn Hermione from his heart, and he had gone to join a conference of Greek princes in the hope of war and fame. However, the conference was discussing Pyrrhus and was angry with him for two reasons: He was protecting Astyanax, son of Hector of Troy and his wife Andromache, whom the Greeks thought they had killed at the fall of Troy; in addition, he was delaying his marriage to Hermione because he was in love with someone else. The conference chose Orestes as its ambassador to Pyrrhus, and Orestes now asks Pylades what Hermione's reaction to Pyrrhus' neglect has been.
Pylades says that Pyrrhus is, in fact, in love with his slave and former enemy Andromache, who persistently refuses him; angered, he pays court first to Hermione, then to Andromache. Hermione herself appears outwardly scornful of this infidelity, but in fact is much troubled at it and sometimes even wishes that Orestes would come and rescue her from this situation. Orestes' best plan is to peremptorily demand the surrender of Astyanax. Pyrrhus, incensed, will then refuse, and the separation between Pyrrhus and Hermione, who loves him, will widen.
