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Orestes
The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and sister to Orestes, Electra has spent the years of her brother’s exile alone and powerless. Like her sibling, she is incensed by Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon and her affair with Aegisthus—yet because Electra is a woman, she has been able to take revenge until Orestes’ return. Similarly to Orestes, Electra is pious and loyal, visiting her father’s tomb and lamenting for her lost brother. When it comes to her mother, however, she is unforgiving and merciless.
Electra Quotes in The Libation Bearers
The The Libation Bearers quotes below are all either spoken by Electra or refer to Electra. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Lines 1-585
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The proud dead stir under the earth,
They rage against the ones who took their lives…
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What to say when I pour the cup of sorrow?
What kindness, what prayer can touch my father?
Shall I say I bring him love for love, a woman’s
love for her husband? My mother, love from her?
I’ve no taste for that, no words to say
as I run the honeyed oil on father’s tomb.
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For our enemies I say,
raise up your avenger, into the light, my father—
kill the killers in return, with justice!
So in the midst of prayers for good I place
this curse for them.
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Your pain is mine.
If I laugh at yours, I only laugh at mine.
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You light to my eyes, four loves in one!
I have to call you father, it is fate;
and I turn to you the love I gave my mother—
I despise her, she deserves it, yes,
and the love I gave my sister, sacrificed
on the cruel sword, I turn to you.
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Electra Quotes in The Libation Bearers
The The Libation Bearers quotes below are all either spoken by Electra or refer to Electra. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Lines 1-585
Quotes
The proud dead stir under the earth,
They rage against the ones who took their lives…
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What to say when I pour the cup of sorrow?
What kindness, what prayer can touch my father?
Shall I say I bring him love for love, a woman’s
love for her husband? My mother, love from her?
I’ve no taste for that, no words to say
as I run the honeyed oil on father’s tomb.
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For our enemies I say,
raise up your avenger, into the light, my father—
kill the killers in return, with justice!
So in the midst of prayers for good I place
this curse for them.
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Your pain is mine.
If I laugh at yours, I only laugh at mine.
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You light to my eyes, four loves in one!
I have to call you father, it is fate;
and I turn to you the love I gave my mother—
I despise her, she deserves it, yes,
and the love I gave my sister, sacrificed
on the cruel sword, I turn to you.
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