Electra
Electra (amber) In Greek mythology, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; sister of
Orestes, Iphigenia, and Chrysothemis. Electra convinced her brother Orestes to murder their mother, Clytemnestra, and Aegisthus, their mother’s lover, in retaliation for the murder of their father, Agamemnon. In later life she married Pylades and was mother of Medon and Strophius. Electra is also known as Laodice. Electra appears in Sophocles’ Electra, Euripides’ play Electra, Richard Strauss’s one-act opera Electra (1909), Giraudoux’s Electre (1939), Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), which later was filmed, and Cacoyannis’s film Electra. The term Electra complex is sometimes used to describe the pathological relationship of a woman with men, based on her unresolved conflicts with her father.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante
