Electra | Daughter of Agamemnon

Electra, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, sister of Orestes, Chrysotemis and Iphigenia.

She is the main character in a play of the same name by Sophocles and another by Euripides, in addition to the parody by Aeschylus.

Bitter and impulsive, Electra, driven more by rage than by malice, induces her brother Orestes to murder their mother, avenging the death of their father, planned by Clytemnestra.

This would be an act they would both regret, for, before her death, the queen had said she loved her children, and that she treated them badly so that Aegistus, her lover and also Agamemnon's enemy and murderer, would not suspect his feelings for her daughter, and thus not harm her.

The princess, not being moved by compassion, bloodily kills her. Later, Electra marries Pilades, Orestes' friend and his cousin, the first-born son of King Strophius.

The term Electra complex is used in Analytical Psychology as the female counterpart of the Oedipus complex, to designate the daughter's desire for her father. The term was proposed by Jung - however, Freud, for his part, prefers to use the term Oedipus complex in both cases, without making a distinction.

Electra - Another version

Electra, princess of Mycenae, is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and is the sister of Orestes and Iphigenia. The queen, her mother, tormented by Iphigenia's sacrifice, unites with her husband's nephew.

This prince, Aegistus, had been persecuted by Agamemnon and deprived of his rights. When he returns to Mycenae during the Trojan War, he unites with the queen, with whom he has a son, Aletes. The two lovers await the return of the king to consummate their revenge.

After the murder of her father by Egistus and Clytemnestra, Electra is spared by her mother. But she is consumed by the loss of her father, Agamemnon, whom she worshipped.

She asks the gods to send her a means to avenge his death. His prayers will be answered by his brother Orestes, whom he saved from death as a child. Foreseeing what would come with the return of Aegistus, she secretly entrusted him to an old preceptor, who took him away from Mycenae. For all this, she was treated in the palace as a slave.

Fearing that her stepdaughter would have a son who could one day avenge Agamemnon's death, Aegistus made her marry a poor peasant. Her husband, however, respected her virginity. But the day has come for Orestes to return. The young princess will guide him to his father's murderers.

When, after the death of Aegistus and Clytemnestra, Orestes was enveloped and "driven mad" by the Erynias, she stood by his side and cared for her brother until the final trial in the Areopagus of Athens.

After being acquitted by the vote of Athena, Orestes and his cousin Pilades set off for Thaurida in search of a statue of Artemis. There they found Iphigenia as a priestess of Artemis. They all return to Mycenae, and after Orestes' nuptials to Hermione, Electra marries Piliades.