Classical Mythology

(^422) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
I, poor wretch, waste away, waiting for Orestes to put an end to these mis-
eries, for living in the constant expectation that he is about to accomplish this
great feat, I have lost all possible hope that he will ever return. So, dear women,
in such circumstances, I cannot behave with pious self-control but in the midst
of these evils, necessity compels me to pursue an evil course.
Sophocles purposefully changes Aeschylus, who has the servant Cilissa
nurse the infant Orestes and whisk him away after the murder, in order to de-
pict Electra as mother-figure to her brother.
A scene follows in which Electra encounters her sister Chrysothemis, who,
as we learn, has been willing to obey Clytemnestra and Aegisthus and as a re-
sult lives freely and normally with them in the palace. Such compromise is in-
comprehensible and disgusting to Electra. Chrysothemis warns Electra that if
she does not change her ways, she is to be sentenced upon Aegisthus' return to
spend the rest of her life imprisoned in a dungeon. We learn also that
Chrysothemis has been sent to the grave of Agamemnon with libations from
Clytemnestra, who has been tormented by an ambiguous dream that could fore-
tell Orestes' vengeance: she saw Agamemnon come to life again. He took back
his royal scepter, now held by Aegisthus, and planted it in his own ground; there
it burst into luxuriant leaf and quite overshadowed the whole of Mycenae.
Chrysothemis' only importance lies in her role in Sophocles, where she is
created as a dramatic foil for Electra, in much the same way as this playwright
uses Ismene to illuminate by contrast the character of Antigone. Central to
Sophocles' play is a bitter and revealing confrontation between mother and
daughter (516-609); there is no such scene in Aeschylus. Clytemnestra argues
that Agamemnon should not have sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia. Instead,
a child of Menelaus and Helen should have been the victim at Aulis, since the
Greek expedition against Troy was on behalf of Menelaùs, whose wife Helen
had been abducted by the Trojan prince Paris. Electra responds with a vehement
defense of her father:
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CLYTEMNESTRA: It is obvious that you feel free to leave the palace and with-
out any restraint disgrace your family and friends, since Aegisthus is not here
to prevent you as he always does. But now since he is away you show me no
respect. Over and over again for many to hear you have spoken out that I rule
brazenly and unjustly, treating you and all that you hold dear outrageously. But
I am not guilty of hubris. I revile you only because you revile me so often.
Your father is always your excuse, and nothing else—that he died by my
hand. By my hand, I am well aware of that and cannot deny the charge. But Jus-
tice killed him, not I alone, and you would be on the side of Justice if you had
any sense at all. Why? Because this father of yours, whom you are always be-
moaning, was the only one of the Greeks to have the effrontery to sacrifice his
daughter to the gods, Iphigenia, your sister. Of course it was easy enough for
him to beget her, with none of the pain that I suffered when I gave her birth. So
be it! Yet explain this to me. Why and for whom did he sacrifice her? Will your