Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Menelaos Shaping the Significance of Electra Myth: A Dialogue Between Arts

Abstract

The present study focuses on the tragic heroine, Electra, who rose to prominence in the Athenian dramas of the fifth-century BC, particularly in Aeschylus’s Choephori, Sophocles’s Electra and Euripides’s Electra, but this enigmatic figure continued to stir the imagination of the artists of the subsequent generations to the extent of making its presence memorable not only in literary texts but also in visual arts and music. This paper attempts to reveal the ways in which Electra myth has delighted and inspired various artists by stressing out the peculiarities of this myth that never seems to go out of fashion. It can also be observed that Electra’s figure, even sculpted in marble severity, continues to arouse both pity and admiration in her quest and demand for justice as well as her attempts to re-establish the religious, moral and societal values.