bert Graves examines conflicting mythographic ideas of the fate of the children of the cursed House of Atreus. In Sophocles, Electra is forced to live in the same royal castle as her mother and stepfather, but under heavy guard. Graves cites Euripides as the source of ElectraÆs being forced by her stepfather Aegisthus to marry a peasant and to live in poverty away from the palace, yet under its supervision (Vol.2:58). The purpose of this arrangement is to prevent Electra marrying a well-born man and giving birth to a child who would seek revenge on Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. OÆNeillÆs Electra trilogy (1931) reshapes the Greek Electra myth into an American tragedy. Both Euripides and OÆNeill were interested in probing the inner drama of their Electra (renamed Lavinia in OÆNeill). What all the Electra plays have in common is the working out of the consequences of antecedent events. The consequences of the parentsÆ sins are visited upon the children. Yet the children are free to choose, so that their fate is partly of their own making and partly of their environment.
Graves notes that Euripides and Sophocles are similar in depicting AegisthusÆ decision to banish Electra for continued insolence toward him and Clytemnestr, including public not private mourning. In both Euripides and Sophocles, Electra is persecuted by the official policy of the King and Queen, The miserable circumstances she finds herself in, a downfall for a Princess, as well as her anxiety over OrestesÆ promised, but long overdue return, prompt her to thoughts of regicide and matricide. When Aegisthus is away from the palace, Clytemnestra allows her daughter the run of the palace. ôI see you have twisted loose again./ Aegisthus is gone, who always keeps you in/ Where you cannot revile your kin publicly. / With him away you do not fear meö (Sophocles 75-76). Coming at the start of the play, this speech illustrates the estrangement as well as the matern...