''Electra'', also ''Elektra'' or ''The Electra'' (, ''Ēlektra''), is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

. Its date is not known, but various stylistic similarities with the ''

Philoctetes Philoctetes ( ''Philoktētēs''; , ), or Philocthetes, according to Greek mythology, was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea (Magnesia), Meliboea in Thessaly, and Demonassa or Methone (Greek myth), Methone. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer ...

'' (409 BC) and the ''

Oedipus at Colonus ''Oedipus at Colonus'' (also ''Oedipus Coloneus''; , ''Oidipous epi Kolōnō'') is the second of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles's death in 406 BC and produced by his grandson ...

'' (406 BC) lead scholars to suppose that it was written towards the end of Sophocles' career. Jebb dates it between 420 BC and 414 BC.

Storyline

Set in the city of Mycenae a few years after the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

, the play tells of a bitter struggle for justice by

Electra Electra, also spelt Elektra (; ; ), is one of the most popular Greek mythology, mythological characters in tragedies.Evans (1970), p. 79 She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, ''Electra (Sophocles play), Electra'' by Sophocles and ''Ele ...

and her brother

Orestes In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis (; ) was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the brother of Electra and Iphigenia. He was also known by the patronymic Agamemnonides (), meaning "son of Agamemnon." He is the subject of several ...

for the murder of their father

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...

Clytemnestra Clytemnestra (, ; , ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the half-sister of Helen of Sparta. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan p ...

and their stepfather

Aegisthus Aegisthus (; ; also transliterated as Aigisthos, ) was a figure in Greek mythology. Aegisthus is known from two primary sources: the first is Homer's ''Odyssey'', believed to have been first written down by Homer at the end of the 8th century BC ...

. When King

returns from the

, his wife

(who has taken Agamemnon's cousin

as a lover) kills him. Clytemnestra believes the murder was justified since Agamemnon had sacrificed their daughter

Iphigenia In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (; , ) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae. In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by hunting and killing one of Artem ...

before the war, as commanded by the gods.

, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, rescued her younger brother

from her mother by sending him to Strophius of

Phocis Phocis (; ; ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Vardousia on the west, upon the Gu ...

. The play begins years later when Orestes has returned as a grown man with a plot for revenge, as well as to claim the throne.

arrives with his friend

Pylades In Greek mythology, Pylades (; Ancient Greek: Πυλάδης) was a Phocis (ancient region), Phocian prince as the son of King Strophius and Anaxibia who is the daughter of Atreus and sister of Agamemnon and Menelaus. He is mostly known for his ...

, son of Strophius, and a pedagogue, i.e. tutor (an old attendant of Orestes, who took him from Electra to Strophius). They plan to have the tutor announce that Orestes has died in a chariot race and that two men (really Orestes and Pylades) are arriving shortly to deliver an urn with his remains. Meanwhile, Electra continues to mourn the death of her father Agamemnon, holding her mother

responsible for his murder. When Electra is told of the death of Orestes her grief is doubled, but this grief is to be short-lived. After a choral ode, Orestes arrives carrying the urn supposedly containing his ashes. He does not recognize Electra, nor does she recognize him. He gives her the urn and she delivers a moving lament over it, unaware that her brother is, in fact, standing alive next to her. Now realizing the truth, Orestes reveals his identity to his emotional sister. She is overjoyed that he is alive, but in their excitement, they nearly reveal his identity, and the tutor comes out from the palace to urge them on. Orestes and Pylades enter the house and slay Clytemnestra. As Aegisthus returns home, they quickly put her corpse under a sheet and present it to him as the body of Orestes. He lifts the veil to discover who it really is, and Orestes then reveals himself. They escort Aegisthus offset to be killed at the hearth, the same location where Agamemnon was slain. The play ends here before the death of Aegisthus is announced.

Similar works

The story of Orestes' revenge was a popular subject in Greek tragedies. *There are surviving versions by all three of the great Athenian tragedians: **''The Libation Bearers'' (458 BC), in the Oresteia Trilogy by

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

** ''Electra'' (Euripides play), a play by

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

, probably in the mid 410s BC, likely before 413 BC, that tells a very different version of this same basic story from Sophocles. **''Electra'' (Sophocles play) * The story was also told at the end of the lost epic '' Nostoi'' (also known as ''Returns'' or ''Returns of the Greeks'') * The events are also brought up in Homer's ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

Reception

Roman writer

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

considered ''Electra'' to be a masterpiece, and the work is also viewed favorably among modern critics and scholars. In ''The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama'',

John Gassner John Waldhorn Gassner (January 30, 1903 – April 2, 1967) was a Hungarian-born American theatre historian, critic, educator, and anthologist. Early life and education At birth in the town of Máramarossziget, Hungary (today in Romania), he was ...

and Edward Quinn argued that its "simple device of delaying the recognition between brother and sister produces a series of brilliant scenes which display Electra's heroic resolution under constant attack." Of the titular character,

Edith Hall Edith Hall, (born 4 March 1959) is a British scholar of classics, specialising in ancient Greek literature and cultural history, and professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. She is a Fellow of the Bri ...

also wrote, "Sophocles certainly found an effective dramatic vehicle in this remarkable figure, driven by deprivation and cruelty into near-psychotic extremes of behavior; no other character in his extant dramas dominates the stage to such an extent." L.A. Post noted that the play was "unique among Greek tragedies for its emphasis on action."

Commentaries

* Davies, Gilbert Austin, 1908 (abridged from the larger edition of

Richard Claverhouse Jebb Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb (27 August 1841 – 9 December 1905) was a British classical scholar and Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP for Cambridge. Life Jebb was born in Dundee, Scotland, to Robert, a well-known Irish barrister, an ...

) * *

Translations

* Edward Plumptre, 1878 – verse: ( full text available at Wikisource) * Lewis Campbell, 1883 – verse * Richard C. Jebb, 1894 – prose ( full text available at Wikisource) * Francis Storr, 1919 – verse ( full text, with audio, available at Wikisource) *

Francis Fergusson Francis Fergusson (1904–1986) was an American teacher and critic, a theorist of drama and mythology who wrote ''The Idea of a Theater'', (Princeton, 1949) a book about drama. He contributed an introductory essay to S. H. Butcher’s 1961 transla ...

, 1938 – verse * E.F. Watling 1953 – prose * David Grene, 1957 – verse * H. D. F. Kitto, 1962 – verse * J. H. Kells, 1973 – verse (?) * Kenneth McLeish, 1979 – verse *

Frank McGuinness Professor Frank McGuinness (born 1953) is an Irish writer. As well as his own plays, which include '' The Factory Girls'', '' Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme'', '' Someone Who'll Watch Over Me'' and '' Dolly West's Kitche ...

, 1997 – verse * Henry Taylor, 1998 – verse * Anne Carson, 2001 – verse * Jenny March, 2001 – prose (acting edition) * Tom McGrath, 2003 – prose; full text * M. MacDonald and J. M. Walton, 2004 – verse * G. Theodoridis, 2006 – prose
full text
* Eric Dugdale, 2008 – verse (acting edition) * Timberlake Wertenbaker, 2009 * Nick Payne, 2011 * Mary Lefkowitz, 2016 - verse * Ian C. Johnston, 2017 – verse
full text

Adaptations

* ''Elektra'' (play), a 1903 adaptation by Hugo von Hofmannsthal * ''Elektra'', Op. 58 (opera), a 1909 one-act opera by Richard Strauss * ''Elektra: A Play by

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

and Rudd Fleming'', written in 1949, published 1989 by

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

* Electra: An opera by

Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films '' Zorba the Greek'' (1964), '' Z'' (1969), and '' Serpico'' (1973). He was a three-ti ...

(1995). * '' Elektra (2010 film)'', a 2010 Malayalam psychological drama film co-written and directed by Shyamaprasad. * ''Elektra'', a 2025 adaptation/translation by poet

Anne Carson Anne Patricia Carson (born June 21, 1950) is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor. Trained at the University of Toronto, Carson has taught classics, comparative literature, and creative writing at universities across ...

, directed by Daniel Fish and starring

Brie Larson Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (born October 1, 1989), known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress. She played supporting roles in comedies as a teenager, and has since expanded to leading roles in independent films and Blockbuste ...

. Staged at the Theatre Royal, Brighton (13 to 18 January 2025) and Duke of York’s Theatre, London (24 January to 12 April 2025).

References

External links

* (multiple English translations) * *
Sophocles' Electra at Perseus Digital Library
* {{Authority control Plays by Sophocles Mythology of Argolis Trojan War literature Plays set in ancient Greece Plays adapted into operas Plays based on classical mythology Clytemnestra