Electra | Electra

At a glance:

Author: Sophocles
First Published: 1649
Type of Work: Play
Type of Plot: Tragedy
Time of Work: c. 1250-1200
Setting: Outside the royal palace in Mycenae, Greece
Genres: Drama, Tragedy
Subjects: Mothers, Parents and children, Murder or homicide, Mistaken or secret identity, Obsession, Women, Revenge, Kings, queens, or royalty, Gods or goddesses, Fratricide, parricide, or filicide, Tragedy, Rites or ceremonies, Prophecy or prophets, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people, Trojan War
Locales: Greece, ancient, Argos, ancient

Electra (ee-LEHK-truh), daughter of the slain king, Agamemnon, and his devious wife, Clytemnestra, who spends her virginal life—her name, a variation on A-lectra, means unbedded—mourning the death of her father. Electra, witnessing her father’s murder at the hands of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, with whom Clytemnestra conspires in the killing of her husband, vows to avenge her father’s death, plotting carefully to bring Clytemnestra and Aegisthus to account, which, with the help of her brother, Orestes, she eventually succeeds in doing.

Electra | Electra

At a glance:

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