Electra

Electra waits outside the house, keeping watch for Aegisthus. She describes what the men (including her cousin Pylades) are doing inside the house to the Chorus. Clytemnestra cries out for Aegisthus, ironically shouting “Oh child my child, pity the mother who bore you!” (1875). Electra comments that Clytemnestra has only ever pitied herself, never Agamemnon or Orestes. Clytemnestra cries out that she has been struck twice. Orestes exits the house and tells Electra that their mother will no longer insult her. Aegisthus soon approaches the house. Electra tells him that the men are inside with proof of Orestes’s death. Aegisthus demands the gates be thrown open to reveal this proof, to which Orestes and Pylades disclose a covered body. Orestes tells Aegisthus that the corpse is not his—that Clytemnestra is not about the house but right before him. Before Aegisthus can speak, Electra interrupts him out of fear that he will play word games.

Orestes tells Aegisthus that he will die in the same spot that Agamemnon did. He tells Aegisthus to enter the house, and that he will follow behind. Aegisthus, Orestes, and Electra walk into the house.