imal. Day by day she mourns for her father Agamemnon, who has been
murdered by her mother's lover Aegisthos.

The maids find fault with Elektra's strange behaviour and haughtiness.
They believe her to be dangerous and suggest, that her mother should
lock her up safely. One maid reproves them however. She respects in
Elektra the dead King's cherished daughter, who, though in rags and
brought so low by her unnatural mother, that she is compelled to eat
with the servants, yet bears herself more queenly than Clytemnestra
herself. The others beat their companion for her allegiance to
Elektra, who appears again, moaning for Agamemnon. His poor murdered
body seems to arise fresh before her every day. Her one aim in life is
vengeance on his murderers, and her only hope is her brother Orestes,
who has disappeared.

{530}

She is joined by her sister Chrysothemis, who implores her to abandon
her vindictive thoughts, the cause of their common captivity. She
further reveals to her, that their mother means to imprison her, but
Elektra laughs at her terror.--Chrysothemis longs for freedom, the love
of a husband and children, and is utterly alien to her sister's dark
thoughts. Hearing her mother's step she entreats Elektra to go away,
Clytemnestra having had evil dreams about her son's coming home and
killing her. Elektra, regardless of her prayers meets her mother with
a cruel stare. The latter is in her darkest mood, which grows worse at
her hated daughter's appearance. But Elektra, accosting her as a
goddess for once quiets her suspicions. Clytemnestra dismisses her
servants, who tries to warn her against her daughter. When they are
alone, the Queen complains bitterly of the frightful dreams that haunt
her, and wants to know, what she can do to banish them.

Elektra answers enigmatically, that a woman must be sacrificed, and
that a man, but not Aegisthos the coward, must do it.

Clytemnestra, vainly guessing at his name, is reminded of her son
Orestes, whom the mother has made to disappear, while he was a child.
Her troubled looks convince Elektra that Orestes is living, and casting
off her disguised mood, she sternly tells her mother, that she herself
is to be the sacrifice.--In a long wild monologue she reproaches her
for all her treachery, ending by {531} depicting the awful fate that
awaits her, and rejoicing over it.

Clytemnestra's terror is appeased by the appearance of her attendants,
one of whom whisper