Electra is a story that takes place years after the Greek ruler Agamemnon sailed to the city of Troy to help recapture his brother's wife, Helen. To buy Artemis' blessing on their voyage, Agamemnon had sacrificed a daughter, Iphigenia; he returned victorious after ten years. However, while Agamemnon was away, his wife Clytaemnestra had taken another man, Aegisthus, as her lover. When Agamemnon returned, his wife and her lover had murdered him, and as the story begins, Aegisthus rules the house.

The ancient Greek idea of justice decreed that it was the duty of a son to avenge his father's death. Electra, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, had known that her mother and Aegisthus would kill her brother, Orestes, in order to save themselves from his vengeance; Electra had therefore saved Orestes' life by placing him in the care of a faithful friend, the Tutor...