The Libation Bearers

Content Warning: The source material of this study guide features violence, murder, and revenge, including intrafamilial violence.

The play is set in Argos, by the burial mound of Agamemnon, who was the king of Argos before being murdered by his wife Clytaemestra and her lover Aegisthus. Several years have passed since Agamemnon’s murder. Agamemnon’s son Orestes enters, accompanied by his close friend Pylades, and approaches his father’s tomb. In a short Prologue speech, Orestes invokes the gods and the shade of his father, explaining that he has secretly returned to Argos after being exiled by Clytaemestra and Aegisthus. Now he plans to avenge his father by killing Clytaemestra and Aegisthus.

As he speaks, Orestes hears women approaching, and he and Pylades hide. The Chorus, made up of enslaved women carrying libation offerings for Agamemnon’s tomb, enters together with Agamemnon’s daughter, Electra. They sing the first choral song, the parodos, in which they lament the cycle of bloodshed that has plagued Agamemnon’s house. Electra mourns for her father and hates her mother. At first she is not sure what to say as she delivers her offerings. Guided by the Chorus, she finally invokes the gods and her father, praying that her brother Orestes will soon return to bring justice and avenge Agamemnon’s death.