Of death! A God hath counselled ye.
[CASTOR _and_ POLYDEUCES _disappear_.

CHORUS.

Farewell, farewell!--But he who can so fare,
And stumbleth not on mischief anywhere,
Blessed on earth is he!

NOTES TO THE ELECTRA

The chief characters in the play belong to one family, as is shown by the
two genealogies:--

I.

TANTALUS
|
Pelops
__________|__________________
| |
Atreus Thyestes
_________|__________ |
| | |
Agamemnon Menelaus Aegisthus
(=Clytemnestra) (=Helen) (=Clytemnestra)
_____|________________________
| | |
Iphigenia Electra Orestes

(Also, a sister of Agamemnon, name variously given, married Strophios, and
was the mother of Pylades.)

II.

Tyndareus = Leda = Zeus
____________________| ____|_________________________
| | | |
Clytemnestra Castor Polydeuces Helen

P. 1, l. 10, Son of his father's foe.]--Both foe and brother. Atreus and
Thyestes became enemies after the theft of the Golden Lamb. See pp. 47 ff.

P. 2, l. 34, Must wed with me.]--In Aeschylus and Sophocles Electra is
unmarried. This story of her peasant husband is found only in Euripides,
but is not likely to have been wantonly invented by him. It was no doubt
an existing legend--an [Greek: on logos], to use the phrase attributed to
Euripides in the _Frogs_ (l. 1052). He may have chosen to adopt it for
several reasons. First, to marry Electra to a peasant was a likely step
for Aegisthus to take, since any child born to her afterwards would bear a
stigma, calculated to damage him fatally as a pretender to the throne.
Again, it seemed to explain the name "A-lektra" (as if from [Greek:
lektron] "bed;" cf. Schol. _Orestes_, 71, Soph. _El_. 962, _Ant_. 917)
more pointedly than the commoner version. And it helps in the working out
of Electra's character (cf. pp. 17, 22, &c.). Also it gives an opportunity
of introducing the fine character of the peasant. He is an [Greek:
Autourgos] literally "self-worker," a man who works h