Euripides, Electra; A different story

 

So this weekend we have a friend staying from about an hour away, she doesn't drive so I went and picked her up and we had a fun but short road trip back. Its been really nice having her here even if both my husband and I are tired from the week. We went driving both to the south out to Kinloch and out north to Lichfield just for some time in the countryside.

The Story
The play opens with Electra outside a peasant's home, who she has been married off to by her stepfather Aegisthus. Aegisthus has married Electra's mother after the two of them conspired and killed her father Agamemnon. Aegisthus has married Electra off to a peasant because he is scared that if her sons were to be of noble birth they would grow up and avenge their grandfather. The peasant reveals that he has not slept with Electra because he does not believe himself worthy of her. Electra also has an exiled brother who the king and queen are also scared of returning for vengeance. Electra leaves the home to go and fetch water.
Orestes, Electra's brother, and his friend arrive and discuss how they may find Electra to plot with her for revenge against their mother and her new husband. They choose to hide and observe the peasant women who are approaching carrying water. This peasant turns out to be Electra and she is openly lamenting the situation. Orestes chooses to approach but not to reveal himself. Electra is frightened and assumes they are there to do no good but Orestes quickly explains that they are friends of Orestes looking to find his sister and report how she is fairing. The peasant returns and invites them into his home, Electra sends him to an old friends house, the very one who smuggled out Orestes, to return with the old man and something to feed to their guests. 
The old man arrives and greets Electra and gives her a young lamb to prepare for the guests. When he is introduced to Orestes he observes him closely and then declares him to be Orestes. Electra does not initially believe him but he points out a childhood scar.
The siblings then plot to kill Aegisthus and their mother, which develops into two separate plots. One where Orestes kills the king at a feast he is preparing in a field and two that Electra will kill their mother after summoning her to meet her newly born son.
A commotion is heard off stage and Electra assumes the worst, that Orestes has failed, but before she can kill herself a messenger arrives telling of Oreste's victory. Orestes arrives with the body and head of Aegisthus in tow and regales Electra with the tale of how they were invited to the feast. And how while processing the bull for the feast he turned on Aegisthus and stuck him down in one blow. They also quickly convinced the servants not to attack them as it was a vengeance killing.
Electra instructs them to hide the body as she does not want her mother seeing it. Orestes gets cold feet and does not want to also kill their mother but Electra steels him to the task. Their mother arrives in all her finery and asks why she has been summoned. Electra informs her she needs help with the offerings to the gods for a birth as she had no one to help her deliver the baby. This entices her mother inside to give the offering, but Orestes is there laying in wait. The two siblings emerge in horror at what they have done together.
The spirits of Castor and Polydeuces arrive and speak of the two and predict their exile from Argos and that they will never see each other again. Orestes gives Electra to his friend as a bride and the spirits send them to Pallas, whereas, Orestes is sent to the Temple at Athens to seek the god's judgement and escape the furies. 

Reflections
It is interesting at the end of this version that Electra is part of the deed of killing her mother and also that she is not to be punished to the same extreme as her brother. You would think that they were equally guilty from their description of the death and yet they are not treated as equals by the furies, was it that Orestes was the one that fate had destined to do the killing and that is all that mattered or is it simply that exile is a new punishment for Electra but Orestes is already exiled, so is heaped with more punishment. Or is the crime a bigger affront to a man's honour in that culture than a woman's?

It is a little fantastical that the old friend can recognise Orestes not having seen him since he was a baby, but there is nothing in these works to suggest that they are seen as historical fact but rather for the entertainment of the masses, so maybe it's meant to be fantastical. That being said they were also a way of passing down common lore and, while exaggerated in places, the history of the peoples. 
The actions of the peasant show the strength of the class structure in the time of both the setting and the writing. It even shows with the fact he is never named in dialogue or even in the script. He sees himself as below his supposed wife, though it later comes out that he doesn't believe that the one who gave her to him, Aegisthus, had the right to do so. This calls into question whether he is truly married to her, which may also, at least in part, help to explain how he treats her.
The spirits of Castor and Polydeuces introduction, at the end, offer a great way to bridge the ending of the story and keep it from feeling like it ends quite so abruptly as some plays do. It is also a way to bridge this version of Electra with the continuing Orestes saga that we have already seen.

Comparisons
Let's start with the most obvious. Like Electra, by Sophocles, this tells the story of the death of Clytemnestra, Electra and Orestes's mother, from Electra's side of the coin. That being said it is a very different story with Electra not still being in the palace but rather being married off to a peasant. The inciting incident is the same and, due to the spirits at the end, the end result is much the same. You could probably even use the two versions interchangeably, even if you were doing the full Orestes saga.
The Libation Bearers has more in common with Sophocles' Electra than Euripides version, as it again has Electra still in the Palace and events all being based around the Palace.
The differences here, considering I am reading them in a rough chronology of the authors, can be seen as a development and embellishment of the same story and further research would probably show if these differences in version are due to time or a shift in location.
Like Medea, we are predominantly dealing with a revenge story. You could see a space for a play much like Electra after Medea, though as the revenge in Electra comes about as, from Clytemnestra's point of view, the revenge to the revenge that she reaped on her husband. In Electra, we are given extra information though: Clytemnestra was not faithful to either husband and that rather she killed her husband so she could be with another.

Have you read Electra by Euripides? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read  Electra by Euripides but haven't? Hopefully, this inspires you to take the time to do so.
Get a copy of  Electra by Euripides.