Source edition
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Tragoediae. Peiper, Rudolf; Richter, Gustav, editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1921.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA (per Perseus's terms)
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This tragedy depicts the fateful return of King Agamemnon from the Trojan War and the gruesome revenge that awaits him at his palace. Set in Mycenae, the drama unfolds around the cursed lineage of the House of Tantalus and the inescapable cycle of bloodshed. At the beginning, the ghost of Thyestes foretells a grim fate, while Queen Clytemnestra, torn between fear of her infidelity and hatred for her husband, conspires with her lover Aegisthus to murder the returning king. Following reports of the Greek fleet's devastating storm, Agamemnon arrives only for the captive prophetess Cassandra to foresee and vividly narrate his impending assassination. In the climax, the king is murdered, and while Electra manages to smuggle her young brother Orestes to safety, she herself faces imprisonment, and Cassandra is led to her execution, leaving behind the seeds of future retribution.