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Euripides' Electra deals with the same episode as Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers (the second play in his Oresteia trilogy): ordered by the god Apollo to avenge the murder of his father (Agamemnon) at the hands of his mother (Clytemnestra) and her lover (Aegisthus), Orestes returns from exile and seeks out the aid of his sister Electra, and together the siblings plot matricide. In Aeschylus’ play the matricide ultimately seems to be upheld as just - Orestes never questions Apollo’s command, & at his trial the gods (and about half) the human jurors vote in favor of Orestes. Orestes’ acquittal brings an end to the cycle of vengeance & Orestes is happily restored as the rightful king of Argos. Euripides, however, takes a very different stance, & calls the justice of the matricide into question. Apollo is heavily criticized throughout the play & the command he gives Orestes is deemed cruel & foolish by both human & divine characters alike. Orestes in this play is unsure, hesitating - it is his sister Electra who drives the action forward, pressuring Orestes to go through with the murder of their mother. Electra herself plays a much bigger role in Euripides’ play than in any other version of the myth - her hand is on the sword as they plunge it into their mother’s heart. While in Aeschylus the matricide resulted in triumph & resolution for Orestes & his city, no such closure is found in Euripides. At the end of the play, Castor (a minor deity) appears as deus ex machina and informs us that Orestes is to go back into exile - he will never be restored as the king of Argos, and he will never see his sister again, who is to be married off to Pylades. The gods don’t see anything particularly negative in this arrangement, but to Orestes & Electra, who do not want to leave their homeland & who do not want to leave each other, it is devastating, highlighting the vast gulf between mortal & divine experience. The play is a good example of Euripides’ characteristic realism & irreverence towards the gods.
We read Euripides' Electra as part of the Greek tragedy read-along in July 2020.
