ELECTRA (daughter of Agamemnon)

The death of her father Agamemnon at the hands of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, who used a bronze axe during a banquet, left Electra an orphan whose father resides in Hades.^15,16,17 Following the murder, her mother took Aegisthus as a new husband, a union Electra viewed with deep shame and hatred.^{18,19,16,3,20} Electra was exiled from her ancestral home and confined to a poor house on the mountain crags, far from the city, where she was treated as a captive.^{17,21,7,19,22,23} To neutralize the threat she posed, Aegisthus forced her into a marriage with a poor peasant, a match she described as a fraud that left her unmarried and childless in all but name.^{21,24,25,26,12}

In this isolated existence, Electra refused to cease mourning her father, performing nightly laments and rituals that involved striking her head and chest.^4,5,27 She prayed to the gods for Orestes to return with divine aid, though she believed him dead after being shown his ashes.^18,28,29,30 When Orestes did come, she helped identify him by observing footprints at the tomb that matched her own size, even as she argued that her foot size differed from his because males are larger.^28,17,31 Together, they plotted to avenge their father, with Electra encouraging Orestes to kill their mother as commanded by Apollo.^32,33,34,12 Electra devised a plan to capture Hermione as a hostage to ensure their safety during this dangerous undertaking.^35,36

After the vengeance was carried out, Orestes arranged for Electra to marry Pylades.^37,38,39,40 Electra’s life remained defined by her bitter grief and her accusation that her mother killed Agamemnon, the bravest man in Greece.^41,12,10,11 She viewed her own existence as a joyless dragging out of days, filled with abundant terrors and horrors, claiming she was the only one who mourned her father's death.^12,13,22,27