Electra
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This article is about the Greek mythological personalities. For other meanings see Electra/Elektra (disambiguation).
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In Greek mythology, several persons were named Electra (also spelled Elektra):
- Daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, mother of Dardanus, Iasion and Harmonia, by Zeus.
- A Pleiade or Oceanid, mother of Iris and the Harpies by Thaumas.
- (Most famous "Electra") Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Alternative: Laodice
According to the story, Electra (daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra) was absent from Mycenae when her father, King Agamemnon, returned from the Trojan War and was murdered by Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover, and/or by Clytemnestra herself. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra, Agamemnon's war prize, a prophet priestess of Troy.
Eight years later Electra returned from Athens with her brother, Orestes. (Odyssey, iii. 306; X. 542). According to Pindar (Pythia, xi. 25), Orestes was saved by his old nurse or by Electra, and was taken to Phanote on Mount Parnassus, where King Strophius took charge of him.
In his twentieth year, Orestes was ordered by the Delphic oracle to return home and avenge his father's death. According to Aeschylus, he met Electra before the tomb of Agamemnon, where both had gone to perform rites to the dead; a recognition took place, and they arranged how Orestes should accomplish his revenge.
Orestes, after the deed (sometimes with Electra helping), goes mad, and is pursued by the Erinyes, or Furies, whose duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of family piety. Electra is not hounded by the Erinyes.
Orestes takes refuge in the temple at Delphi. Even though Apollo (to whom the Delphic temple was dedicated) had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect Orestes from the consequences of his actions.
At last Athena (also known as Areia) receives him on the Acropolis of Athens and arranges a formal trial of the case before twelve Attic judges. The Erinyes demand their victim; he pleads the orders of Apollo; the votes of the judges are equally divided, and Athena gives her casting vote for acquittal. In Iphigenia at Taurus, Euripides tells the tale somewhat differently. He claims that Orestes is led by the Furies to Taurus in ancient Egypt, where his sister Iphigenia is being held. The two meet as Orestes is led to Iphigenia to be prepared for sacrifice to the Egyptian Gods. Iphigenia helps her brother escape from Taurus, and the furies, sated by the reuniting of the family, abate their persecution.
Later, Electra married Pylades, Orestes' close friend and son of King Strophius (the same one who had cared for Orestes while he hid from his mother and her lover).
The psychological disorder Electra complex is named after her.
Aeschylus, Oresteia; Euripides, Electra; Orestes; Apollodorus, Epitome VI, 23-28.
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Adaptations of the Electra story
- Aeschylus, Oresteia
- Electra, play by Sophocles
- Electra, play by Euripides
- Elektra, a play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, based on the Sophocles play.
- Mourning Becomes Electra, play by Eugene O'Neill, based on Aeschylus
- Elektra, film by Michael Cacoyannis, starring Irene Papas, based on Euripides.
- Elektra, opera by composer Richard Strauss, with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, based on his own play.
- Ellie (movie), B-movie which transfers the story to a Southern U.S. locale.de:Elektra
es:Electra fr:Électre it:Elettra (mitologia Agamennone) nl:Electra (mythologie) pt:Electra