CHAPTER VIII.
ELECTRA.
In this drama Sophocles has selected a portion of the same story which formed the subject of the famous trilogy of Æschylus. The Electra is simply the return of Orestes, and the vengeance which he takes on Clytemnestra and Ægisthus. By both poets this act of vengeance is elevated to a religious duty. The gods above and the shades of the dead below demand that a "foul unnatural murder" shall not go unpunished. Accordingly Orestes never swerves for a moment from his deadly purpose. Pity and tenderness have no place in his breast, nor do we ever find him reasoning with himself after the manner of Hamlet—
"O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom;
Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
I will speak daggers, but will use none."[1]
Once more—as in the trilogy of Æschylus—the scene is the royal palace of the Pelopidæ, "rich in
