Electra
In
Greek mythology, several persons were named
Electra (also spelled
Elektra):
# A
Pleiad, mother of
Dardanus,
Iasion and
Harmonia, by
Zeus.# An
Oceanid, daughter of
Oceanus and
Tethys, mother of
Iris and the
Harpies by
Thaumas.# (Most famous "Electra") Daughter of
Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra. Alternative:
LaodiceAccording to the story,
Electra (daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra) was absent from
Mycenae when her father, King Agamemnon, returned from the
Trojan War and was murdered by
Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover, and/or by Clytemnestra herself. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra also killed
Cassandra, Agamemnon's war prize, a prophet priestess of Troy. Eight years later Electra was brought from
Athens with her brother,
Orestes. (
Odyssey, iii. 306; X. 542). According to
Pindar (
Pythia, xi. 25), Orestes was saved by his old nurse or by Electra, and was taken to
Phanote on
Mount Parnassus, where King
Strophius took charge of him. In his twentieth year, Orestes was ordered by the
Delphic oracle to return home and avenge his father's death. According to
Aeschylus, he met Electra before the tomb of Agamemnon, where both had gone to perform rites to the dead; a recognition took place, and they arranged how Orestes should accomplish his revenge. Pylades and Orestes killed Clytemnestra and Aegisthus (sometimes with Electra helping). Afterwards, Orestes went mad, and was pursued by the
Erinyes, or Furies, whose duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of family piety. Electra, however, was not hounded by the Erinyes. Orestes took refuge in the temple at
Delphi. Even though
Apollo (to whom the Delphic temple was dedicated) had ordered him to do the deed, he was powerless to protect Orestes from the consequences of his actions. At last
Athena (also known as Areia) received him on the
Acropolis of
Athens and arranged a formal trial of the case before twelve
Attic judges. The Erinyes demanded their victim; he pleaded the orders of Apollo; the votes of the judges were equally divided, and Athena gave her casting vote for acquittal. In
Iphigeneia in Tauris, Euripides tells the tale somewhat differently. He claims that Orestes was led by the Furies to Tauris on the Black Sea, where his sister
Iphigeneia was being held. The two met when Orestes and Pylades were brought to Iphigeneia to be prepared for sacrifice to
Artemis. Iphigeneia, Orestes and Pylades escaped from Tauris, and the Furies, sated by the reunion of the family, abated their persecution. Later, Pylades and Electra fell in love and married. Pylades was the son of King Strophius (who had cared for Orestes while he hid from his mother and her lover), and had helped Orestes and Electra kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. According to Euripides, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus had previously given Electra in marriage to a peasant, believing that her children would be less likely to take revenge if they were not of noble birth, but the peasant respected Electra and declined to consummate the marriage.
The psychological concept of the
Electra complex is named after her.
 |
Electra and Orestes, from an 1897 Stories from the Greek Tragedians, by Alfred Church |
* The
Oresteia, a trilogy of plays by
Aeschylus *
Electra, play by
Sophocles*
Electra, play by
Euripides*
Electra, drama by
Danilo Kiš*
The Flies, a play by
Jean-Paul Sartre, modernizing the Electra myth around the theme of
existentialism.
*
Elektra, a play by
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, based on the Sophocles play.
*
Mourning Becomes Electra, play by
Eugene O'Neill, based on Aeschylus
*
Elektra, film by
Michael Cacoyannis, starring
Irene Papas, based on Euripides.
*
Elektra,
opera by composer
Richard Strauss, with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, based on his own play.
*
Ellie (movie), B-movie which transfers the story to a Southern U.S. locale.
*
Elektra, film directed by
Rob Bowman, starring
Jennifer Garner.
