Summary Electra is a Greek tragedy written by the playwright Euripides c. 420 BCE. It retells the classic myth concerning the plotting of Electra and her brother Orestes to kill their mother and her lover. This version of the story should not be confused with the play of the same name by his fellow playwright, Electra by Sophocles. Classicists are unsure which of the two plays was written first. As with most of plays of the period, the audience was well aware of the story of Agamemnon's return from the Trojan War and his death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. In Euripides' version of the story, Electra has been thrown out of the royal house and married to a poor farmer to prevent her from having children of high enough status to avenge Agamemnon's death. One day two strangers arrive at her door. Although they do not identify themselves, they are in reality Electra's exiled brother Orestes and his friend Plyades. When she invites them in and tells them her story, an old servant recognizes Orestes from a childhood scar. Together Electra and Orestes plot their revenge. Electra sends word to her mother that she has given birth and wishes Clytemnestra to see the baby. Meanwhile, Orestes and Plyades find Aegisthus hunting and kill him, returning to Electra's home with the body. When Clytemnestra arrives, she is murdered, too. At the end of the play, Clytemnestra's deified brothers Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces in the play) appear and tell them they must cleanse their souls of their crime. Electra is to marry Plyades and leave her home while Orestes (who is being pursued by the Furies) must face a trial; he suffers a fate similar to that in Aeschylus' Oresteia. View more details

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