Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Sophocles's Electra. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
Electra: Introduction
Electra: Plot Summary
Electra: Detailed Summary & Analysis
Electra: Themes
Electra: Quotes
Electra: Characters
Electra: Terms
Electra: Symbols
Electra: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of Sophocles
Historical Context of Electra
Other Books Related to Electra
- Full Title: Electra
- When Written: Unknown, although it is thought to have been written near the end of Sophocles’s career.
- Where Written: Athens, Greece
- When Published: Unknown, although it is thought to have been published around 410 BCE.
- Literary Period: Classical Greek
- Genre: Greek tragedy
- Setting: Mycenae
- Climax: When Orestes enters the palace at Mycenae and kills his mother, Clytemnestra.
- Antagonist: Clytemnestra and Aegisthus
Extra Credit for Electra
Father vs. Son. When Sophocles was in his early nineties, his son Iophon brought a lawsuit against him in which he claimed Sophocles was demented. Iophon insisted that his father’s property should be turned over to him. However, it’s said that Sophocles convinced the court that he was of sound mind by reciting his play Oedipus at Colonus from memory.
It came to me in a dream. After a golden crown was stolen from the Acropolis of Athens, Sophocles reportedly claimed that Heracles, the Greek god of strength and heroes, appeared to him in a dream and told him where to find the stolen crown.