Electra

Not to be confused with Euripides’ tragedy Electra, Sophocles’ tragedy Electra or Michael Cacoyannis’s 1962 film Electra.

Who Was Electra?

Electra was a princess of Mycenae in Greek mythology, the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and the sister of Orestes, Iphigenia and Chrysothemis. She is remembered above all as the sister who never gave up on justice for her murdered father, urging and, in some versions, helping her brother Orestes to take revenge on their mother and her lover, Aegisthus.

Family and Background

Electra belongs to the house of Atreus, one of the most cursed families of Greek myth. Her father Agamemnon led the Greek armies to Troy while her mother Clytemnestra ruled at home. Homer does not name an Electra: in the Iliad Agamemnon offers Achilles one of three daughters, Chrysothemis, Laodice and Iphianassa (Homer, Iliad 9.145). The name Electra is the tragedians’, and Sophocles treats her sisters Chrysothemis and Iphianassa as living in the palace (Sophocles, Electra 157–158). Her brother Orestes was still a child when their father was murdered.

Why Do the Ancient Sources Disagree About Her?

Electra’s fullest portraits come from three playwrights, Aeschylus (Libation Bearers), Sophocles (Electra) and Euripides (Electra and Orestes), who each told her story differently. They agree on the core of who she is, but disagree on where she lived after her father’s death, whether she married, and how large a part she took in killing Clytemnestra. The sections below say which playwright tells what.

The Fall of the House of Atreus

Electra’s story begins before she takes any action, in the events that destroyed her family while her father was at Troy.

A Father Lost to War and a Sister Lost to Sacrifice

Before the Greek fleet could sail for Troy, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis to obtain favorable winds (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 184–249; Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis). The tragedians make this one of Clytemnestra’s grievances against her husband. In Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis she adds another: Agamemnon had killed her first husband Tantalus (Iphigenia in Aulis 1150).

Clytemnestra’s Grief and Fury

While Agamemnon was away, Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as her lover. He was Agamemnon’s cousin, the son of Thyestes, and in Homer’s account he ruled Mycenae for seven years after the murder (Homer, Odyssey 3.303–305).

The Murder of Agamemnon and Cassandra

When Agamemnon finally came home, he brought with him the Trojan prophetess Cassandra. In the Odyssey the dead Agamemnon tells how Aegisthus invited him to a feast and killed him “like an ox at the manger,” with his wife’s help, and how Clytemnestra killed Cassandra at his side (Homer, Odyssey 11.409–423). Electra was left in a palace ruled by her father’s murderers.

Electra’s Years of Waiting

Orestes Sent Away

Orestes was saved as a child and raised in Phocis by Strophius, whose son was Pylades. Sophocles has an old family servant carry the boy away from the murder, taking him from his sister’s hands (Sophocles, Electra 11–14), and in Euripides an old family tutor smuggles him out and gives him to Strophius in Phocis (Euripides, Electra 14–18); Apollodorus says Electra herself smuggled her brother out and gave him to Strophius the Phocian (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.24). In none of these accounts do the children take refuge in Athens.

Electra as Keeper of the Grievance

The tragedians differ on how Electra lived while she waited. In Aeschylus she is kept in the palace and does not appear to be married. In Sophocles she remains unmarried, growing old in her mother’s house in open grief and defiance (Sophocles, Electra 962), while her sister Chrysothemis chooses to obey their mother. In Euripides she has been married off to a poor farmer of Mycenae, a decent man who has never touched her, which keeps her away from the palace and socially diminished (Euripides, Electra 43–46, 253). In every version she is the one who never lets Agamemnon’s murder be forgotten.

Orestes Comes of Age

When Orestes was grown he consulted the oracle at Delphi, and Apollo commanded him to avenge his father (Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 269–305; Sophocles, Electra 32–37; Euripides, Electra 87–89). The god allowed him to go, and he went secretly to Mycenae with Pylades (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.25).

The Return to Mycenae and the Recognition at the Tomb

Orestes did not announce himself at Mycenae. The three plays show three different recognitions.

The Recognition at Agamemnon’s Tomb

In Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers, Electra comes to her father’s tomb with offerings sent by Clytemnestra, who has had a frightening dream. She finds a lock of hair on the tomb that matches her own and footprints that fit her own, and so recognizes her brother, who steps forward (Libation Bearers 164–211). Together they call on their dead father’s spirit. In Sophocles the recognition comes late. Electra believes Orestes dead, and knows him only when he shows her their father’s signet ring (Electra 1222–1226). In Euripides she laughs at the idea of hair and footprints as proof (Electra 524–533), and it is the old servant who recognizes Orestes by a scar over his eyebrow (Electra 573).

Orestes and Pylades Arrive in Secret

Orestes is accompanied by Pylades, his cousin and closest friend, who in Aeschylus speaks only once, to remind Orestes of Apollo’s command when he hesitates to kill his mother (Libation Bearers 899–902).

The Killing of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra

Vengeance at the Palace

The plays do not agree on the order. In Aeschylus and in Euripides, Orestes kills Aegisthus first and then Clytemnestra. In Sophocles Clytemnestra dies first, with her cries heard from inside the palace, and Aegisthus is killed afterward. In each play it is Orestes who kills his mother. Homer mentions only that Orestes killed Aegisthus and gave the Argives a funeral feast for him and for his hateful mother (Homer, Odyssey 3.306–310).

Electra’s Part in the Act

In Aeschylus Electra takes no part: Orestes tells her to stay inside and guard the house (Libation Bearers 579–582). In Sophocles she stands outside, urging her brother on. In Euripides she is a full partner: she sends the message to Clytemnestra that she has given birth, which draws her mother to the farmhouse (Electra 652), and after the killing she says that she urged Orestes on and touched the sword with him (Electra 1224–1225).

Aftermath: The Furies and Electra’s Fate

Orestes Pursued by the Erinyes

Matricide was among the gravest crimes the Erinyes, or Furies, punished, and they rose against Orestes at once. In the Libation Bearers he sees them as his mother’s hounds and flees (Libation Bearers 1048–1062); he is later tried at Athens before the court of the Areopagus and acquitted because the votes are equal (Aeschylus, Eumenides 752–753; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.25). Electra is not part of the trial.

Electra’s Life After the Revenge

In Euripides’ Electra the Dioscuri appear at the end and tell Orestes to give Electra to Pylades as his wife, and Pylades takes her home to Phocis (Electra 1249, 1284–1285). In the Orestes the story is told again with a harsher ending: Electra and her brother face the city’s judgment for the matricide and, with Pylades, plot to kill Helen and to hold Hermione hostage, until Apollo appears and orders that Pylades should marry Orestes’ sister (Orestes 1658–1659). Pausanias saw Electra’s tomb at Mycenae and writes that Orestes married her to Pylades; their children, according to Hellanicus, were Medon and Strophius (Pausanias 2.16.7).

Electra in Ancient Literature

Aeschylus, Libation Bearers

In Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers, the second play of the Oresteia, Electra plays a smaller but pivotal role: she meets Orestes at the tomb, recognizes him, and joins him in calling on their father’s spirit before the killing. She is not present at the deaths.

Sophocles, Electra

Sophocles’ Electra, treated on this site as a separate work, makes Electra the center of the story. She remains unmarried, lives in defiance and grief inside her mother’s house, and is the driving voice urging Orestes toward revenge.

Euripides, Electra

Euripides’ Electra departs furthest from the other two: Electra is married to a poor farmer, and from this humbler position she still helps plan and carry out the deaths of her mother and Aegisthus.

Euripides, Orestes

Euripides returns to Electra in the Orestes, which picks up the story after the killing of Clytemnestra and ends, for Electra, with her betrothal to Pylades.

Other Women Named Electra

Electra is a common name in myth. Hesiod names an Oceanid Electra, the wife of Thaumas, who bore the swift Iris and the Harpies (Hesiod, Theogony 265–267, 349). Another is the Pleiad Electra, one of the seven daughters of Atlas, who bore Dardanus and Iasion to Zeus (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.1, 3.12.1). Neither is the daughter of Agamemnon, who is a mortal princess and not a goddess. “Elektra” is only another spelling of the same name.

Electra Sources

Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 164–211, 269–305, 579–582, 899–902, 1048–1062, Agamemnon 184–249 and Eumenides 752–753; Sophocles, Electra 11–14, 32–37, 157–158, 962, 1222–1226; Euripides, Electra 14–18, 43–46, 87–89, 253, 524–533, 573, 652, 1224–1225, 1249, 1284–1285, Orestes 1658–1659, and Iphigenia in Aulis 1150; Homer, Iliad 9.145, Odyssey 3.303–310 and 11.409–423; Hesiod, Theogony 265–267, 349; Apollodorus, Library 3.10.1, 3.12.1 and Epitome 6.24–25; Pausanias 2.16.7.

See Also: Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Orestes, Iphigenia, Aegisthus, Mycenae, Chrysothemis, Pylades, Cassandra