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ELECTRA ('HMKTpa)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 176 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ELECTRA ('HMKTpa) , " the See also:bright one," in See also:Greek See also:mythology. (1) One of the seven See also:Pleiades, daughter of See also:Atlas and Plelone. She is closely connected with the old See also:constellation See also:worship and the See also:religion of See also:Samothrace, the See also:chief seat of the Cabeiri (q.v.), where she was generally supposed to dwell. By See also:Zeus she was the See also:mother of See also:Dardanus, Iasion (or Eetion), and See also:Harmonia; but in the See also:Italian tradition, which represented See also:Italy as the See also:original See also:home of the Trojans, Dardanus was her son by a See also:king of Italy named Corythus. After her amour with Zeus, Electra fled to the See also:Palladium as a suppliant, but See also:Athena, enraged that it had been touched by one who was no longer a See also:maiden, flung Electra and the See also:image from See also:heaven to See also:earth, where it was found by Ilus, and taken by him to Ilium; according to another tradition, Electra herself took it to Ilium, and gave it to her son Dardanus (Schol. Eurip. Phoen. 1136). In her grief at the destruction of the See also:city she plucked out her See also:hair and was changed into a See also:comet; in another version Electra and her six sisters had been placed among the stars as the Pleiades, and the See also:star which she represented lost its brilliancy after the fall of See also:Troy. Electra's connexion with Samothrace (where she was also called Electryone and Strategis) is shown by the localization of the carrying off of her reputed daughter Harmonia by See also:Cadmus, and by the fact that, according to Athenicon (the author of a See also:work on Samothrace quoted by the scholiast on See also:Apollonius Rhodius i. 917), the Cabeiri were Dardanus and Iasion. The See also:gate Electra at See also:Thebes and the fabulous See also:island Electris were said to have been called after her (See also:Apollodorus iii.

10. 12; Servius on Aen. iii. 167, vii. 207, X. 272, Georg. i. 138). (2) Daughter of See also:

Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, See also:sister of See also:Orestes and See also:Iphigeneia. She does not appear in See also:Homer, although according to See also:Xanthus (regarded by some as a fictitious personage), to whom See also:Stesichorus was indebted for much in his Oresteia, she was identical with the Homeric Laodice, and was called Electra because she remained so See also:long unmarried ('A-Merpa). She was said to have played an important See also:part in the poem of Stesichorus, and subsequently became a favourite figure in tragedy. After the See also:murder of her See also:father on his return from Troy by her mother and See also:Aegisthus, she saved the See also:life of her See also:brother Orestes by sending him out of the See also:country to Strophius, king of Phanote in See also:Phocis, who had him brought up with his own son Pylades. Electra, cruelly See also:ill-treated by Clytaemnestra and her paramour, never loses See also:hope that her brother will return to avenge his father. When grown up, Orestes, in response to frequent messages from his sister, secretly See also:repairs with Pylades to See also:Argos, where he pretends to be a messenger from Strophius bringing the See also:news of the See also:death of Orestes.

Being admitted to the See also:

palace, he slays both Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra. According to another See also:story (See also:Hyginus, Fab. 122), Electra, having received a false See also:report that Orestes and Pylades had been sacrificed to See also:Artemis in Tauris, went to consult the See also:oracle at See also:Delphi. In the meantime Aletes, the son of Aegisthus, seized the See also:throne of See also:Mycenae. Her arrival at Delphi coincided with that of Orestes and Iphigeneia. The same messenger, who had already communicated the false report of the death of Orestes, informed her that he had been slain by Iphigeneia. Electra in her rage seized a burning See also:brand from the See also:altar, intending to See also:blind her sister; but at the See also:critical moment Orestes appeared, recognition took See also:place, and the brother and sister returned to Mycenae. Aletes was slain by Orestes, and Electra became the wife of Pylades. The story of Electra is the subject of the Choephori of See also:Aeschylus, the Electra of See also:Sophocles and the Electra of See also:Euripides. It is in the Sophoclean See also:play that Electra is most prominent. There are many See also:variations in the treatment of the See also:legend, for which, as also for a discussion of the See also:modern plays on the subject by See also:Voltaire and See also:Alfieri, see See also:Jebb's Introduction to his edition of the Electra of Sophocles.

End of Article: ELECTRA ('HMKTpa)

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