Electra

Sophocles's Electra (c. 410 BC) retells the return of Orestes to avenge his father Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Sophocles centers the drama not on the matricide's guilt but on Electra herself, whose years of grief, defiance, and longing for her brother dominate the play, culminating in the recognition scene and the accomplishment of revenge. The translation is Lewis Campbell's.

Start readingYour notebookShow in graph