Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra

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The story of Orestes the avenger was complete in every essential particular before it came to the earliest of those three Attic dramatists, each of whom has stamped it so strongly with the impress of his own mind.

In the Iliad there is no hint that the house of Pelops lay

The legend in Homer.

under a curse which entailed a series of crimes. The sceptre made by Hephaestus for Zeus, and brought by Hermes to Pelops, is peacefully inherited by Atreus, Thyestes and Agamemnon¹ . Yet the Iliad makes at least one contribution to the material which Aeschylus found ready to his hand. It is the figure of Agamemnon himself, with eyes and head like those of Zeus, in girth like Ares, in breast like Poseidon² ; ‘clad in flashing bronze, all glorious, and pre-eminent amid all³ .’ As Helen stands with Priam on the walls of Troy, and watches the Achaean warriors moving on the battle-field, he asks who this one may be:--‘There are others even taller by a head; but never did I behold a man so comely or so majestic (geraron); he is like unto one that is a king⁴ .’ This is the royal Agamemnon, ho pantosemnos⁵ , who lives in the Aeschylean drama, and whose image reappears in later poetry. For the rest, the Iliad gives us just one far-off glimpse of the king's home beyond the Aegaean, where Orestes is a child in the fortress-palace at Mycenae, with three sisters, Chrysothemis, Laodicè, and Iphianassa⁶ ; children of that Clytaemnestra to whom, in the opinion of her lord at Troy, the damsel Chryseïs was ‘in no wise inferior, in beauty or in stature, in wit or in skill⁷ .’

The Odyssey tells the story as follows. Agamemnon, before going to Troy, charged a certain minstrel (aoidos) to watch over⁸ Clytaemnestra at Mycenae. The precaution implies a sense of possible danger, but not necessarily distrust of Clytaemnestra. Presently a tempter came to the lonely wife in the person of her husband's first-cousin, Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, who, while his kinsmen were fighting at Troy, dwelt ‘at peace, in the heart of Argos⁹ .’ For some time Clytaemnestra ‘refused the shameful deed; for she had a good understanding¹⁰ .’ Meanwhile the gods themselves, by their messenger Hermes, warned Aegisthus against the course of crime upon which he was entering. But Hermes spoke in vain¹¹ . Aegisthus removed the minstrel to a desert island, and there left him, a prey to dogs and birds. He then took the ‘willing’ Clytaemnestra to his home; while he sought to propitiate the gods by burnt-offerings on their altars, and by hanging up in their temples ‘many gifts of embroidery and gold¹² .’

Agamemnon, after a stormy voyage from Troy, landed on the coast of Argolis at a point not far from the dwelling of Aegisthus; who, apprised by a watcher, came in his chariot, and invited the king to a banquet; after which he slew him, ‘as a man slays an ox at the manger¹³ .’

In this narrative (given by Menelaüs to Telemachus) Clytaemnestra is not even named; though Menelaüs had previously spoken of her ‘guile’ as aiding the crime¹⁴ . It is only in a part of the Odyssey which is of later origin than the ‘Telemachy’ in books I--IV,--viz., the Nekuia in the eleventh book,--that Clytaemnestra appears as actively sharing in the horrors of the banquet, where she slays Cassandra with her own hand. And, even there, it is by the sword of Aegisthus alone that Agamemnon is slain¹⁵ .

The young Orestes fled, or was conveyed, to Athens. For seven years Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra reigned at Mycenae. In the eighth, Orestes returned, and slew Aegisthus¹⁶ . Clytaemnestra died at the same time, but how, we are not told; and Orestes ‘made a funeral feast,’ for both of them, ‘to the Argives¹⁷ .’

Two points distinguish this Homeric legend from later versions. First, Aegisthus is the principal criminal¹⁸ . Clytaemnestra's part is altogether subordinate to that of her paramour. Secondly, the vengeance of Orestes is regarded as a simple act of retributive justice. It is not said that he slew his mother; the conjecture is left open that she may have died by her own hand. Nothing comes into the Epic view which can throw a shadow upon the merit of the avenger. The goddess Athena herself exhorts Telemachus to emulate the example and the renown of Orestes¹⁹ .

¹ Il. 2. 100 ff.

² ib. 478 f.

³ ib. 578 f.

⁴ Il. 3. 168 ff.

⁵ Aesch. Eum. 637.

⁶ Il. 9. 142 ff.

⁷  Il. 1. 113 ff.

⁸ eirusthai akoitin, Od. 3. 268.Nothing could better illustrate the social consideration enjoyed by the Homeric aoidos, or the reverence felt for his office. Athenaeus (p. 14 B) conceives this guardian minstrel of Clytaemnestra as a sort of cultivated domestic chaplain, whose function was not merely to keep her mind agreeably occupied, but also to edify her with examples of female excellence (aretas gunaikôn dierchomenos).

⁹  Od. 3. 263.

¹⁰  ib. 265 f. hê d' ê toi to prin men anaineto ergon aeikes, i dia Klutaimnêstrê: phresi gar kechrêt' agathêisi.

¹¹  Od. 1. 35--43.

¹²  Od. 3. 269 ff.

¹³  Od. 4. 514--535.

¹⁴  Od. 4. 92(Aegisthus slays Agamemnon) lathrêi, anôisti, dolôi oulomenês alochoio.

¹⁵  Od. 11. 404--434 (the shade of Agamemnon tells the story to Odysseus).

¹⁶  Od. 3. 304--308. Orestes returns aps ap' Athênaôn (v. 307). Zenodotus wished to reconcile the Odyssey with the later account by writing aps apo Phôkêôn.

¹⁷ ib. 309 f. ê toi ho ton kteinas dainu taphon Argeioisi | mêtros te stugerês kai analkidos Aigisthoio. According to the scholia in several MSS. (M, Q, R, T) these two verses were absent from some of the ancient ekdoseis. But Aristarchus, at any rate must have thought them genuine, since he remarked (as we learn from the same source) hoti dia toutôn parupophainetai hoti sunapôleto Aigisthôi hê Klutaimnêstra, to de ei kai hupo Oreston, adêlon einai. The fact that the funeral feast was given ‘to the Argives’ implies that they welcomed Orestes as a deliverer, and also that (whatever had been the manner of his mother's death) they did not regard him as resting under any defilement which incapacitated him for religious acts.

¹⁸ The conception of the murder (no less than the execution) is always attributed to him in the Odyssey (3. 194 Aigisthos emêsato: 4. 529 Aig. doliên ephrassato technên: 11. 409 Aig. teuxas thanaton te moron te).

¹⁹  Od. 1. 298 ff. Cp. Nestor's comments on the good deed of Orestes, in his speech to Telemachus, Od. 3. 196 f. hôs agathon kai paida kataphthimenoio lipesthai | andros, k.t.l.

This text is based on the following book(s):
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VI: The Electra. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894.