The Libation Bearers — Parodos
Clytemnestra has had a dream. She has sent her women to pour libations at Agamemnon's grave — to soothe a dead man's ghost she has reason to fear.
Summary
The women of the chorus enter in mourning, sent by Clytemnestra to pour libations at the grave. They are not willing servants — they are captive women, enslaved to the household that killed the king they loved. Their song is the grief of the occupied house: they mourn in secret, they cannot speak openly, they pour the offerings without the prayers of love.
Clytemnestra has had a dream. The chorus describes it obliquely: a serpent was nursed at a woman's breast and drew blood along with milk. The dream frightened her. The wisest interpreters in the house understand it as a threat from the dead king's ghost, and she has sent these offerings to appease him. But the offerings will not appease him. The dream, as the play makes clear, is prophetic — the serpent is Orestes, and the woman's breast is Clytemnestra's own.
Electra walks at the head of the procession, unsure how to pray. What words can she use to pour libations sent by her mother? She cannot dedicate them "from a loving wife to a loving husband." She turns to the chorus for guidance.
- Scene 1The watchman on the palace roof sees the beacon from Troy after a year of waiting. He shouts, dances, calls for the queen — and...
- Scene 2The old men of Argos enter singing the history of the expedition — the omen of the eagles, the prophet's warning, the sacrifice of...
- Scene 3Clytemnestra announces the fall of Troy to the disbelieving chorus. Her proof is a chain of relay-beacons she herself designed...
- Scene 4The chorus sings of Zeus's law — that wisdom comes only through suffering — and of Paris's crime. The ode moves toward the...
- Scene 5The herald reaches Argos after a decade's absence and weeps at the sight of his homeland. He brings news of Troy's fall and...
- Scene 6The chorus sings of Helen through the image of a lion's cub raised as a pet — beautiful, then fatal. The ode circles the question...
- Scene 7Agamemnon arrives home. Clytemnestra greets him with a speech of exhausting flattery and persuades him to walk into the palace on...
- Scene 8The chorus is afraid and cannot explain why. Troy has fallen, the king has returned, the gods have been thanked. The ode turns on...
- Scene 9Cassandra, silent until now, begins to prophesy. She sees the children of Thyestes. She sees the bathtub and the woman holding the...
- Scene 10The scream from the palace. The chorus in paralysis. The doors open: Clytemnestra stands over the bodies of Agamemnon and...
- Scene 11Eight years after the murder. Orestes arrives at his father's tomb and cuts offering-locks of hair. He sees a group of mourning...
- Scene 12Clytemnestra has been woken by a nightmare and sent these women to Agamemnon's tomb with libations. They sing of the terror of the...
- Scene 13Electra discovers a lock of hair and then footprints at the tomb. Then Orestes steps forward. The recognition scene — the most...
- Scene 14The three-way lyric exchange at the tomb — Orestes, Electra, the chorus — calling on Agamemnon's ghost for strength and authority....
- Scene 15Orestes lays out Apollo's command and his plan — enter the palace as a stranger, announce his own death, kill Aegisthus first...
- Scene 16The chorus sings of women who committed terrible crimes — Althaea, the Lemnian women, Scylla — before turning to the justice about...
- Scene 17Orestes kills Aegisthus. Then Clytemnestra appears and faces her son. She bares her breast and pleads. Orestes hesitates. Pylades...
- Scene 18Orestes, mid-justification, begins to see the Furies — the chorus cannot. He names them, tells the chorus he will flee to Delphi...
- Scene 19The Pythia opens the shrine of Apollo at Delphi with a solemn prayer, goes inside, and comes back out crawling on her hands. At...
- Scene 20The ghost of Clytemnestra rises and wakes the Furies from their sleep — Orestes has escaped Delphi while they slumbered. The...
- Scene 21Orestes reaches Athens and grasps the ancient statue of Athena as a suppliant. He calls on the goddess to hear his case. The...
- Scene 22Athena arrives, hears both parties, and announces that she cannot judge this case alone. She founds the Areopagus court — twelve...
- Scene 23The Furies sing in defence of their own principle — the awe of bloodguilt — and warn that if it is overruled, the old laws that...
- Scene 24The first trial before the first jury. The Furies prosecute; Apollo defends; Orestes testifies. The votes are counted. They are...
- Scene 25Athena casts for acquittal; the tied vote breaks in Orestes's favour. He departs thanking Athens. The Furies begin their stasimon...
- Scene 26Athena reasons the Furies through their rage with patient, precise argument: they are not defeated; their principle is preserved...