Are living powers to-day;
Long dead they drain away
The streaming blood of those who made them die.
To the post-Homeric period we have also ascribed[24] the custom of μασχαλισμός, or mutilation of the limbs of the dead, which is mentioned in this play,[26] as it also is in the Choephoroe of Aeschylus.[27] The ‘sacrifice’ of Iphigeneia is also referred to in the Electra. It is not described in detail, nor is it boldly emphasised, as it is in Aeschylus.[28] But it is mentioned as an argument by which Clytaemnestra seeks to seduce Electra from her desire for vengeance.[29] Since Agamemnon was a murderer, she argues, surely his death need not be avenged. In her reply, Electra utters a sentiment which at first sight seems inconsistent with her general attitude in the play; she says[30]:
But grant thy speech were sooth, and all were done
In aid of Menelaus: for this cause
Hast thou the right to slay him? What high law
Ordaining? Look to it, in establishing
Such precedent, thou dost not lay in store
Repentance for thyself. For if by right