King Agamemnon is long dead and his murderers rule at Argos. His son Orestes returns from exile to kill them his own mother Clytemnestra and her seducer Aegisthus. Thus he will release his sister Electra from oppression and reclaim his home and kingdom. This is the only episode from Greek legend treated in surviving plays by all three of the great Athenian tragedians of the fifth century B. C. Aeschylus in his Libation-bearers (part of the Oresteia trilogy), Sophocles and Euripides each in plays called Electra. Together these plays form a unique record of development and divergence in the content and style of tragedy. In Euripides' hands the story becomes a tragedy of all too human emotions and illusions. The revenge of Orestes is subsumed by Electra's hatred and resentment of her mother and the usurper. The killing of Clytemnestra by her children brings them not joy and restoration but revulsion, separation and renewed exile. Unwarned by the gods, they recognise too late the costs to them of executing Apollo's justice. Text with facing translation, commentary and notes. (Aris and Phillips 1988)
