In the case of Sophocles there was a further reason. He reverts to
the epic view that the deed of Orestes is simply laudable, and
therefore final. It suited this aim to concentrate the sympathies of
the spectators against Clytaemnestra as well as Aegisthus. And
nothing could be more effective for that purpose than to show how
their long oppression had failed to break down the heroic constancy
of Electra.
We will now trace the plot of Sophocles.
Analysis of the play. I.
Prologue: 1—120. |
The scene is laid before the
palace of the Pelopidae at Mycenae. Three persons
enter,—on the left of the spectator, for they are
travellers from a distant place. These are, Orestes, who is about
twenty years of age; his Phocian friend Pylades (son of Strophius,
king of Crisa near Delphi—from whose home they come); and
an old man, a faithful retainer of Agamemnon, who had been the
paedagogus of Orestes, and had secretly carried him, as a child,
away from Mycenae to Crisa, at the time when Agamemnon was slain.
The old man points out to Orestes the chief features in the landscape
before them, and then exhorts the two youths to concert their plan
of action without delay; already it is the hour of dawn, and the
morning-song of the birds is beginning.
Orestes, in reply, states the purport of the oracle given to him at
Delphi. Apollo commanded him to ‘snatch his righteous
vengeance by stealth,’ without the aid of an armed force.
He then sets forth his plan. The old man is to enter the palace in
the guise of a messenger sent by Phanoteus, a Phocian prince
friendly to Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus. He is to announce that
Orestes has been killed in a chariot-race at the Pythian games.
Meanwhile Orestes and Pylades will make offerings at the tomb of
Agamemnon near the palace. They will then present themselves in the
house, bearing a funeral urn. They, like the old man, will pretend
to be Phocians, who have brought the ashes of Orestes to Mycenae.
A female voice of lament is now heard in the house (v. 77). Orestes
asks if it can be Electra's, and proposes to wait and listen; but
the old man dissuades him. All three now leave the scene (v. 85).
Electra comes out of the house; she is alone, for the Chorus
have not yet appeared. Greeting the ‘pure sunlight and the
air,’ to which her sorrow has so often been uttered at
dawn, she speaks of the grief which ceases not, day or night, for
her father, whom the wicked pair struck down, ‘as woodmen
fell an oak.’ She invokes the Powers of the nether world
to avenge him,— and to send her brother; for her own
strength is well-nigh spent.
The Chorus, composed of fifteen Mycenaean women, had
entered as Electra's lament was
closing. They sympathise with her; and they do not conceal their
abhorrence of the deed which she mourns. But they remind her that
grief cannot restore the dead to life: they urge her to be calm,
trusting in the gods, and hoping for the return of Orestes. She must
not aggravate her lot by waging a fruitless strife with the rulers.
Electra replies that to abandon her grief would be disloyalty. If her
father is not to be avenged, there will be an end to reverence for
gods or men.
The Chorus say that they spoke only for her good; she
II. First episode:
251—471. |
knows best, and she shall be their
guide. Electra then justifies her conduct by describing what she has
to see and suffer daily in the house;—Aegisthus in her
father's place; her mother living with Aegisthus, and keeping the
death-day of Agamem non as a festival. Hardship and insult are her
own portion continually. The Chorus cautiously inquire if Aegisthus
is at home; and, on learning that he is absent in the country, ask
Electra whether she thinks that Orestes will return. ‘He
promises,’ she answers, ‘but does not keep his
promise.’ ‘Courage,’ they reply:
‘he is too noble to fail his friends.’
At this moment Chrysothemis approaches, bearing funeral offerings.
She begins by sharply chiding her sister for this ‘vain
indulgence of idle wrath,’—in public, too, at
the palacegates. But she admits that she herself feels anger against
the tyrants; were she strong enough, she would let them know it.
Electra has right upon her side: only, if one is to live in freedom,
one must yield to the stronger.
Electra tells her that the choice is between loyalty to the dead and
worldly prudence. ‘Canst thou, the daughter of Agamemnon,
wish to be only the daughter of Clytaemnestra?’ The Chorus
timidly deprecate a quarrel. Chrysothemis says that she is used to
Electra's vehemence. She would not have spoken, but that she had to
convey a warning. As soon as Aegisthus returns, Electra is to be
imprisoned in a dungeon, at a distance from Mycenae—unless
she becomes more docile. Electra declares that she would welcome
such a doom;—‘that I may escape,’ she
says, ‘far from
you,’—thus identifying her sister
with the oppressors.
Chrysothemis, finding her counsels repelled, is about to proceed on
her errand, when Electra asks her whither she is taking those
offerings. ‘Our mother sends me,’ is the answer,
‘with libations to our father's grave.’ It then
appears that Clytaemnestra has been terrified by a dream. Agamemnon
returned to life; he planted his sceptre at the hearth; a branch
blossomed from it, and overshadowed the land.
Electra feels a sudden joy. This dream, she believes, has been sent
by the gods below, and by the spirit of the dead. ‘Dear
sister,’ she cries, ‘cast those impious
offerings away; take, instead of them, such gifts as
we
can give,—and pray at the tomb that our father's spirit
may come to help us, and that Orestes may live to
conquer.’
Chrysothemis is touched and subdued. She agrees to do as her sister
bids; only Electra and the Chorus must keep the secret; she dreads
her mother's anger.
The Chorus, encouraged by Clytaemnestra's dream, predict
the vengeance. Agamemnon's spirit is
not forgetful. The Erinys, now lurking in ambush, will come. The
curse upon the house of Pelops claims yet more victims.
Clytaemnestra enters, followed by a handmaid bearing
III. Second episode:
516— 1057. (1) 1st scene: 516—659. |
offerings of various fruits for Apollo Lykeios, whose altar stands
in front of the house. ‘At large once more, it
seems!’ is her greeting to
Electra;—‘since Aegisthus is not here to
restrain thee.’ She defends her murder of Agamemnon.
‘Justice slew him, and not I alone.’ Had he not
slain her daughter, Iphigeneia, in the cause of his brother
Menelaüs?
Electra replies that her father acted therein under constraint from
the goddess Artemis; but that, even if he had been a free agent,
Clytaemnestra's plea would not avail. Then, passing from argument to
reproach and defiance, Electra avows her wish that Orestes might
come as an avenger; though she also shows the anguish which she
feels at the attitude towards a mother which is forced upon her.
An angry dialogue ends by Clytaemnestra enjoining silence, in order
that she may make her offerings to Apollo. She prays that the god
will rule the issues of the vision for her good, and for the
discomfiture of her foes. Other wishes, too, she has, but will not
utter them; the god can divine them...
Here the Paedagogus enters, disguised as a Phocian mes-
senger from Phanoteus. He relates how
the young Orestes, after wonderful feats at the Pythian games, was
killed in the chariot-race. Other Phocians are on their way to
Mycenae with his ashes.
Clytaemnestra hears the news with feelings in which joy is crossed by
at least a touch of natural grief; but the joy quickly prevails, and
she openly recognises that the news is good. At last she will be
safe from Orestes—and from Electra, who has been even a
worse foe.
Electra invokes Nemesis to avenge her brother; while Clytaemnestra
cruelly taunts her, and then conducts the Phocian messenger into the
house.
Left alone with the Chorus, Electra
gives free vent to her anguish and despair. She will enter that
house no more, but cast herself down at the gates, and await
death—which cannot come too soon.
In the lyric dialogue which follows,
the women of Mycenae gently endeavour to suggest comfort. Was not
the seer Amphiaraüs betrayed to death by a false wife? And
is not his spirit now great beneath the earth? Alas, Electra
answers, there was a son to avenge him, and to slay the murderess;
but Agamemnon can have no such avenger. Orestes has perished, in a
foreign land, without receiving the last offices of sisterly love.
(4) 4th scene:
871— 1057. |
Chrysothemis enters hurriedly, in a
flutter of joyful excitement. On reaching the tomb, with her
sister's gifts and her own, she found that unknown hands had just
been honouring it. Libations of milk had been poured there; the
mound was wreathed with flowers; and on the edge of it lay a lock of
hair. These gifts can be from no one but Orestes!
With pitying sorrow, Electra breaks to her the news which has come
from Phocis. Probably the gifts at the tomb were brought by some one
in memory of the dead youth. And now, as the delusive hope vanishes
from her sister's mind, Electra seeks to replace it by a heroic
resolve. Will Chrysothemis aid her in the purpose which she has
formed—to slay the two murderers with her own hand?
Electra reminds her of the joyless lot which otherwise awaits both
Chrysothemis and herself; and pictures the noble renown which such a
deed would achieve.
To Chrysothemis this is sheer madness. She foresees only certain
failure and a terrible death. In vain she seeks to dissuade Electra,
who declares that she will make the attempt unaided. With a parting
word of compassionate warning, Chrysothemis enters the house.
Electra remains outside.
Second stasimon:
1058— 1097. |
The Chorus lament the weaker
sister's failure in that natural piety which the very birds of the
air teach us. A sorrowful message for Agamemnon in the shades will
be this quarrel between his daughters. How noble is
Electra,—all alone, yet unshaken, in her loyalty! May she
yet win the reward which she has deserved!
Orestes enters, with Pylades, followed by two attendants, one
IV. Third episode:
1098— 1383. (1) The recognition: 1098
—1287. |
of whom carries the funeral urn (v. 1123).
He asks for the house of Aegisthus, and, on learning that he has
reached it, requests that their arrival may be announced. The Chorus
suggest that Electra should do this. A dialogue ensues between
Electra and the disguised Orestes. She learns that the strangers
come from Strophius, king of Crisa, with her brother's ashes; and
she is allowed to take the urn into her hands
1. She then utters a most touching
lament, recalling the memories of her brother's
childhood,—the close affection which bound them to each
other,—her care for him, and her bright hopes, which have
thus ended. ‘Therefore take me to this thy home, me, who
am as nothing, to thy nothingness... When thou wast on earth, we
shared alike; and now I fain would die, that I may not be parted
from thee in the grave.’
The disguised Orestes finds it hard to restrain himself. In the
dialogue which follows, he gradually prepares her mind for the
discovery,—leading her through surprise, conjecture, and
hope, to conviction. The scene is one of exquisite art and beauty
(vv. 1176—1226).
In lyrics, Electra now utters her joy,—which reaches the
height, when Orestes tells her that he has been sent by Apollo. He
endeavours to check her transports (though he is loth to do so),
lest she should be overheard.
At length he succeeds in recalling her to their scheme of
The plan of action:
1288— 1383. |
action, and warns her against
allowing Clytaemnestra to perceive her happiness. She promises
obedience in all things. The old Paedagogus now comes out, and
scolds them both for their imprudence. When Electra learns that the
faithful servant is before her, she greets him warmly, as the
preserver of their house. Then, by his advice, Orestes and Pylades
enter the palace, after saluting the ancestral gods in the porch;
and the old man follows them. Electra addresses a brief prayer to
Apollo Lykeios, and then she also enters.
Third stasimon:
1384— 1397. |
The Chorus, now alone, sing a short
ode. The Erinyes have passed beneath the roof; the Avenger is being
led by Hermes, in secrecy, to his goal.
V. Exodos:
1398— 1510. Kommos: 1398—
1441. |
Electra rushes forth to tell the Chorus that Orestes and
Pylades are about to do the deed Clytaemnestra is dressing the
funeral urn for burial, while the two youths stand beside her. In
another moment her dying shrieks are heard. Orestes, with Pylades,
then comes out; and, in answer to his sister's question, says:
‘
All is well in the house,
if
Apollo's oracle spake well.’
Aegisthus is seen approaching, and the youths quickly reenter the
house. He is exultant, for he has heard the report that Orestes is
dead. Electra confirms it, adding that the body has been brought to
Mycenae; Aegisthus can satisfy his own eyes. The tyrant orders the
palace-doors to be thrown wide, in order that his subjects may see
the corpse, and know that all hope from that quarter is over.
The doors are opened; a corpse, hidden by a veil, lies on a bier;
close to it stand the two Phocians who are supposed to have brought
it. Aegisthus lifts the veil—and sees the dead
Clytaemnestra. He knows that he is doomed, and that Orestes stands
before him. Nor is he suffered to plead at length: though some
bitter words pass his lips, before Orestes drives him in, to slay
him in the hall where Agamemnon was slain. The Chorus rejoice that
the house of Atreus has at last found peace.
General comparison with
the Choephori. |
