Elektra

In Mycenae, Elektra, daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, awaits her father’s return from the ten-year Trojan War. She reflects on her devotion to him and her difficult relationship with her mother. One night, Elektra sees a chain of signal beacons lit across the mountaintops, realizing it means Troy has fallen and her father is coming home.

The narrative flashes back to Clytemnestra’s youth in Sparta. Powerful suitors, including the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus, gather for the hand of her beautiful twin sister, Helen. To prevent conflict, the suitor Odysseus proposes an oath that all will defend the chosen husband’s right to Helen. After the oath is sworn, Helen chooses Menelaus, while Clytemnestra is drawn to the brooding Agamemnon. Helen later explains she chose Menelaus for his gentle nature. She also reveals that her father, King Tyndareus, will provide the brothers with a Spartan army to reclaim their throne in Mycenae from their uncle, Thyestes. Agamemnon will rule Mycenae, and Menelaus will stay in Sparta. Clytemnestra privately advises Agamemnon that showing mercy to Thyestes’s young son, Aegisthus, would be a greater display of power.

In Troy, Queen Hecabe, wife of King Priam, has a prophetic dream that she gives birth to a flaming torch that destroys the city. A seer declares the unborn son, Paris, will cause Troy’s ruin and must be killed. Unable to do so, his parents give him to a shepherd to be abandoned on a mountain, but the shepherd secretly raises the boy. Back in Sparta, Agamemnon and Menelaus return victorious. Agamemnon tells Clytemnestra he spared Aegisthus in her name. He then marries Clytemnestra and takes her to Mycenae.

In Troy, Cassandra becomes a priestess of Apollo, hoping for the gift of prophecy. Apollo appears, kisses her to bestow the gift, and then demands she lie with him. When she refuses, he curses her: she will always see the truth, but no one will ever believe her. In Mycenae, Clytemnestra adjusts to her new life. She gives birth to a daughter, Iphigenia. Worried about the curse on the House of Atreus, she learns the family’s full history of murder, cannibalism, and betrayal from a slave, fearing the cycle of violence is not over.

Years later, Paris returns to Troy. He recounts being chosen by the goddess Aphrodite, who promised him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Cassandra tries to warn her family that he will bring destruction, but they ignore her. Paris sails to Sparta and returns with Helen. Cassandra receives no new vision upon Helen’s arrival, realizing Troy’s doom was already sealed. In response, the Greek kings gather their armies to retrieve Helen. Before departing for the port of Aulis, Agamemnon boasts that he is a better hunter than the goddess Artemis.

At Aulis, the Greek fleet is unable to sail due to a lack of wind. Agamemnon sends a message to Mycenae, announcing he has promised Iphigenia in marriage to the warrior Achilles. Clytemnestra and an excited Iphigenia travel to Aulis, but the camp is tense and their reception is strange. The next morning, Iphigenia is led to an altar on the beach. Clytemnestra is forcibly restrained as she realizes it is a trap. Agamemnon sacrifices Iphigenia, slitting her throat to appease Artemis and gain favorable winds. As the army sails, a devastated Clytemnestra vows revenge.

Clytemnestra returns to Mycenae, consumed by grief. She tells her younger daughters, Elektra and Chrysothemis, that their father murdered Iphigenia. Young Elektra rationalizes the act as a necessary sacrifice demanded by the gods, preserving her idealized image of her father. Clytemnestra withdraws emotionally, even after giving birth to a son, Orestes. She asserts her authority and begins ruling Mycenae. Years pass. In Troy, Cassandra forms a quiet friendship with Helen. In Mycenae, a traveler reveals himself to Clytemnestra as Aegisthus. Finding a shared hatred for Agamemnon, they become lovers and plot his murder. Elektra, now a young woman, is disgusted by her mother’s affair. She befriends a farmer’s son, Georgios, and raises her brother, Orestes, to revere their absent father.

In the tenth year of the war, after a series of escalating conflicts, Achilles kills the Trojan hero Hector. The news reaches Mycenae, signaling the war’s end is near. Soon after, the Greeks feign retreat, leaving behind a giant wooden horse. Despite Cassandra’s frantic warnings, the Trojans bring it inside their walls. That night, she attempts to burn the horse but is stopped and locked in her room. Greek soldiers emerge, open the city gates, and Troy is sacked. Cassandra is raped by the Greek hero Ajax in Athena’s temple; in retribution, an enraged Athena sends a storm during the voyage home that destroys much of the Greek fleet. The surviving Trojan women are gathered as spoils of war. Agamemnon claims Cassandra as his prize.

The beacons are lit, announcing the Greek victory. An ecstatic Elektra watches the palace prepare for Agamemnon’s return. Fearing interference, Clytemnestra has Elektra locked in her chamber. Agamemnon’s ship survives the storm, and he arrives at the palace with Cassandra. Clytemnestra greets him with feigned reverence, goading his pride until he agrees to walk into his home on a carpet of precious purple tapestries, an act of hubris. From her window, Elektra sees her father approach and screams a futile warning. Clytemnestra leads Agamemnon to the bath, traps him in a robe with its openings sewn shut, and kills him with an axe. Afterward, she goes to Cassandra’s cell. Overwhelmed by loss, Cassandra silently begs for death, and Clytemnestra kills her as an act of mercy. She and Aegisthus then present themselves as Mycenae’s new rulers.

Released from her room, Elektra finds Orestes is missing. At Agamemnon’s tomb, she finds Georgios, who has rescued Orestes. Knowing Aegisthus will see the boy as a threat, Elektra sends her brother into exile with Georgios’s help, making him promise to return one day for revenge. Years pass. Elektra marries Georgios to avoid being married off by Aegisthus, living in poverty near the palace. Clytemnestra, haunted by nightmares and fearing for Orestes’s safety from an increasingly bold Aegisthus, travels to Sparta in disguise, but Helen confirms Orestes is not there. Years after the murder, news arrives that Odysseus has returned from his travels, during which he visited the Underworld and spoke to Agamemnon’s spirit, who wept over his dishonorable death. The story renews Elektra’s resolve.

Soon after, two strangers arrive at Agamemnon’s tomb. One reveals himself as the adult Orestes, returned with his friend and cousin, Pylades. Orestes explains that the Oracle at Delphi commanded him to avenge his father or face Apollo’s wrath. He is resolved to kill Aegisthus but conflicted about killing his mother. Elektra manipulates his sense of duty, convincing him he must kill Clytemnestra as well.

At dawn, they go to the palace. As they approach, Elektra has a vision of the Erinyes, or Furies, gathering on the roof. Orestes and Pylades shout that Orestes is dead. When an overjoyed Aegisthus runs out, Orestes kills him. Clytemnestra emerges and faces her children. Seeing Orestes’s hesitation, but believing her death is the only way to give her children peace, she does not plead for her life. Spurred on by Elektra, Orestes kills his mother. Immediately, the Erinyes descend and begin tormenting Orestes for the crime of matricide. As he screams in agony, Elektra covers her mother’s body with a cloak. She and Pylades help the tormented Orestes, and the three walk away together.

Years later, Elektra reflects on the aftermath. She, Pylades, and the tormented Orestes wandered Greece as outcasts until Orestes was purified at Delphi, freeing him from the Erinyes. Orestes returned to rule Mycenae justly, with Georgios as an advisor. Elektra married Pylades and now lives a quiet, anonymous life in a remote settlement, raising their infant daughter and having finally found peace.