Trivia

Based on the ancient Greek myth of the events in the House of Atreus, as dealt with by the fourth-century BC Athenian tragedians: Aeschylus, in his trilogy, 'The Oresteia'; Sophocles, in his play, 'Electra'; and Euripdies, in his play, 'Electra'. The story, however, is much older, appearing also in Homer's 'The Odyssey', albeit in much less detail. According to the myth, Agamemnon is assassinated upon his return home from the war at Troy by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin. In Aeschylus, Orestes, Agamemnon's son, is sent as a boy by Clytemnestra to an old family friend and ally in Delphi, far enough from the royal palace in Mycenae/Argos to be both safe and not a threat. In Sophocles, Orestes is entrusted by his older sister, Electra, to an old slave who flees and raises Orestes in secret. Some years later, Orestes secretly returns as a young man, intent on revenge, alongside his friend Pylades. The plays vary in their respective representations, but ultimately Orestes and Electra are re-united, Orestes forms a plan to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, and Electra wholeheartedly supports the plan. A false report of Orestes' death is given to Clytemnestra and Aegisthus (in Aeschylus, Orestes himself poses as the messenger; in Sophocles, it is the Old Slave, while Orestes poses as an attendant carrying the urn of his own supposed ashes). Once in the palace, Orestes, supported by Pylades, murders Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. In Sophocles, the play ends here, and the audience is left with the sense of the figurative death of both Orestes' and Electra's humanity through the destructive vendetta. In Aeschylus, Orestes is driven mad by the avenging Furies over his act of matricide, and eventually goes on trial in Athens.