| Electra | |
|---|---|
 Electra and Orestes by Alfred Church | |
| Written by | Sophocles |
| Chorus | Women ofMycenae |
| Characters | Paedagogus Orestes Electra Chrysothemis Clytemnestra Aegisthus |
| Mute | Pylades Handmaid of Clytemnestra The Attendants of Orestes |
| Date premiered | c. 420–414 BC |
| Place premiered | City Dionysia |
| Original language | Ancient Greek |
| Genre | Greek tragedy |
| Setting | Mycenae, before the palace of the Pelopidae |
Electra[1] (Ancient Greek:Ἠλέκτρα,[2]Ēlektra, also calledThe Electra), is aGreek tragedy bySophocles. Its date is not known, but various stylistic similarities with thePhiloctetes (409 BC) and theOedipus at Colonus (406 BC) lead scholars to suppose that it was written towards the end of Sophocles' career.Jebb dates it between 420 BC and 414 BC.[3]
Set in the city of Mycenae a few years after theTrojan War, the play tells of a bitter struggle for justice byElectra and her brotherOrestes for the murder of their fatherAgamemnon by their motherClytemnestra and their stepfatherAegisthus.
When King Agamemnon returns from the Trojan War, his wife Clytemnestra (who has taken Agamemnon's cousin Aegisthus as a lover) kills him. Clytemnestra believes the murder was justified since Agamemnon had sacrificed their daughterIphigenia before the war, as commanded by the gods. Electra, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, rescued her younger brother Orestes from her mother by sending him to Strophius ofPhocis. The play begins years later when Orestes has returned as a grown man with a plot for revenge, as well as to claim the throne.
Orestes arrives with his friendPylades, son of Strophius, and a pedagogue, i.e. tutor (an old attendant of Orestes, who took him from Electra to Strophius). They plan to have the tutor announce that Orestes has died in a chariot race and that two men (really Orestes and Pylades) are arriving shortly to deliver an urn with his remains. Meanwhile, Electra continues to mourn the death of her father Agamemnon, holding her mother Clytemnestra responsible for his murder. When Electra is told of the death of Orestes her grief is doubled, but this grief is to be short-lived.
After achoralode, Orestes arrives carrying the urn supposedly containing his ashes. He does not recognize Electra, nor does she recognize him. He gives her the urn and she delivers a moving lament over it, unaware that her brother is, in fact, standing alive next to her. Now realizing the truth, Orestes reveals his identity to his emotional sister. She is overjoyed that he is alive, but in their excitement, they nearly reveal his identity, and the tutor comes out from the palace to urge them on. Orestes and Pylades enter the house and slay Clytemnestra. As Aegisthus returns home, they quickly put her corpse under a sheet and present it to him as the body of Orestes. He lifts the veil to discover who it really is, and Orestes then reveals himself. They escort Aegisthus offset to be killed at the hearth, the same location where Agamemnon was slain. The play ends here before the death of Aegisthus is announced.
The story of Orestes' revenge was a popular subject in Greek tragedies.
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Roman writerCicero consideredElectra to be a masterpiece,[4] and the work is also viewed favorably among modern critics and scholars. InThe Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama,John Gassner and Edward Quinn argued that its "simple device of delaying the recognition between brother and sister produces a series of brilliant scenes which display Electra's heroic resolution under constant attack."[5] Of the titular character,Edith Hall also wrote, "Sophocles certainly found an effective dramatic vehicle in this remarkable figure, driven by deprivation and cruelty into near-psychotic extremes of behavior; no other character in his extant dramas dominates the stage to such an extent."[6] L.A. Post noted that the play was "unique among Greek tragedies for its emphasis on action."[7]
The full text ofElectra at Wikisource (multiple English translations) GreekWikisource has original text related to this article:Ἠλέκτρα
Electra public domain audiobook atLibriVox