Electra (Euripides play)

Electra
Orestes, Electra and Hermes at Agamemnon's tomb. Side A of a Lucanian red-figure pelike, c. 380–370 BC.
Written by	Euripides
Chorus	Argive women
Characters	Farmer, husband of Electra Electra Orestes Old servant Messenger Clytemnestra Castor
Mute	Pylades Polydeuces Servants
Place premiered	City Dionysia
Original language	Ancient Greek
Genre	Tragedy
Setting	Argos, at the house of Electra's husband

Euripides' Electra (Ancient Greek: Ἠλέκτρα, Ēlektra) is a tragedy probably written in the mid 410s BC, likely before 413 BC. A version of the myth of the house of Atreus, Euripides' play reworks important aspects of the story found in Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy (especially the second play, Libation Bearers) and also in Sophocles' Electra, although the relative dating of Euripides' and Sophocles' plays remain uncertain. In his tragedy, Euripides introduces startling and disturbing elements that ask his audience (and readers) to question the nature of tragic 'heroism,' assumptions of appropriate gender behavior, and the morality of both human characters and the gods.