Orestes, Electra, and Clytemnestra
Orestes, Electra, and Clytemnestra
In a Nutshell
This story is the sequel to "Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Iphigenia." Unlike a lot of follow-up movies, this one is totally not a let down. Just like its predecessor, this soap opera/horror is brimming with all the drama and bloodshed that everybody needs to get the day started right (or something like that). No doubt this tale is just as gripping and shocking as it was when those ancient Greeks were first telling it to each other.
You don't think that's possible? The basic gist of this story is that Orestes returns home at the urging of his sister, Electra, and the god, Apollo. Do they want a nice happy family reunion? Not so much. Electra and Apollo want Orestes to kill his mom, Clytemnestra, for killing his dad, Agamemnon. When he finally gets up the nerve to do it, the Furies, these crazy ladies with wings and snakes in their hair, rise up for the ground and start torturing him.
For real, that is what goes down. It's nuts. Just like its predecessor, though, this story is more than just a melodramatic slasher. It's also one of the smartest meditations on human violence ever conceived. So yeah, put it on your to-do list.
Shmoop Connections
Explore the ways this myth connects with the world and with other topics on Shmoop
In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus' son Telemachos wishes he could be more like Orestes (well, not exactly like Orestes...).With all the blood and gore of a slasher movie, Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy does not disappoint. (Well, if you're looking for a story where a wife kills her husband for killing their daughter.) Check out the first play, Agamemnon, to get the dirt on the big guy's brutal homecoming.
The blood bath continues in part two of the Oresteia: The Libation Bearers. In this chapter, Agamemnon's son Orestes returns home and teams up with his sister, Electra, to make their mom pay for offing their dad.
Sophocles puts his own spin on The Libation Bearers in his tragedy, Electra. Yup, it ends the same way.
Jean-Paul Sartre gets all existential on the myth of Orestes in his modern retelling: The Flies.