Euripides probably produced his
Electrasometime around 420 B.C. In it Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Clytaemestra, returns home secretly to Argos. Apollo has ordered him to avenge his father’s murder by killing the murderers, Orestes’ own mother and Aegisthus, her new husband. Aeschylus had treated the same story in his
Libation Bearers(
Choephoroi) and
Eumenides, the second and third plays of his Oresteia trilogy. Sophocles, too, wrote an
Electra, which could equally well have preceded or followed Euripides’ play. Sophocles’ play can be mostly left to one side: Euripides shows himself aware of Aeschylus throughout, but his
Electrashows few if any debts to that of Sophocles.
The biggest innovation Euripides makes vis-à-vis Aeschylus is that Orestes’ sister Electra, with whom he
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Citation: Kovacs, David. "Electra". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 March 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13362, accessed 31 October 2024.]
