Source edition
Euripides. Euripidis Fabulae, Vol. II. Murray, Gilbert, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. (Reprinted 1921-1962)
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This Greek tragedy depicts the brutal revenge of a sister and brother for the murder of their father, Agamemnon. The play is set at a poor peasant's cottage in the countryside of Argos, where Electra, forced into a humble marriage, laments her miserable fate and her father's death. Her exiled brother, Orestes, returns in secret, and with the help of an old tutor, the siblings achieve a dramatic reunion. United in their quest for vengeance, Orestes slays Aegisthus, while Electra lures their mother, Clytemnestra, to her cottage under the false pretense of having given birth. Despite Orestes' intense inner conflict over the oracle commanding matricide, the siblings carry out the murder of their mother. However, their completed revenge leaves them consumed by deep guilt and anguish, until the divine Dioscuri appear to decree their future wanderings, trials, and painful separation.