Cover of Electra by Sophocles Ebook Electra
Ebook · Sovereign

Electra

Author
Sophocles
Series
Plays by Sophocles
Language
English
Length
80 pages
ISBN
9781910833940
Published
15 October 2015
Imprint
Sovereign
  • Electra
  • Sophocles
  • Greek
  • tragedy
  • play
  • Greece
  • drama
  • mythology
  • history

Description

Orestes arrives with his friend Pylades, son of Strophius, and a tutor. Their plan is to have the tutor announce that Orestes has died in a chariot accident, and that two men (really Orestes and Pylades) are arriving shortly to deliver an urn with his remains. Meanwhile, Electra continues to mourn the death of her father Agamemnon, holding her mother Clytemnestra responsible for his murder. When Electra is told of the death of Orestes her grief is doubled, but is to be short-lived.

Author

Sophocles (c. 496–406 BCE) made Greek tragedy feel inevitable. Oedipus hunts a crime and finds himself; Antigone buries a brother and breaks a state. Gods, chorus, and human stubbornness share the stage without anyone being merely a symbol. Sophocles wrote into old age, refining a form he had helped perfect: fewer actors, tighter action, a moral intelligence that never lectures. Read him for the shock of a story that knows more than its hero.