The subject of the "Electra" of Sophocles is the same as that of the "Choëphoroe" (the Libation-bearers) of Aeschylus. It is the return of Orestes from exile to take vengeance on Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra, for their murder of his father, Agamemnon. Electra plays the same part which she plays in the "Choëphoroe," while her sister, Chrysothemis, plays that of gentleness and comparative weakness. Orestes, in this play, returns with a fictitious story of his death which throws Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra off their guard.
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THE SNARE.
The Paedagogos (tutor or governor) of Orestes, to circumvent Clytaemnestra, tells her a fictitious story of her son's death by a fall in a chariot-race. Electra is on the scene.
LINES 660-822.
PAEDAGOGOS.
Good ladies, tell a stranger in your land,
Does King Aegisthus in this mansion dwell?
CHORUS.
He does, my friend; thou hast conjectured right.