Apollo in Sophocles’ Electra

Francis M. Dunn (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Sophocles’ Electra continues to arouse debate as to whether the matricide is justified, and Apollo continues to play a central role in this debate (MacLeod, Dolos and Dike) -- unsurprisingly, since Sophocles’ version lacks either the divine sanction explicitly announced in Aeschylus or the criticisms voiced by Orestes and Castor in Euripides (Roberts, Apollo and his Oracle). This paper does not propose to settle that scholarly debate but to show that arguments over Apollo’s endorsement obscure an important feature of the god’s portrayal. The dramatic construct of a divine persona, either supportive or indifferent, is replaced in Sophocles with a series of secular functions that render the issue of divine will irrelevant.

The earliest reference to Apollo, in the opening lines of the play (6-7), alludes to a temple of Apollo in Argos that plays no part in the drama. Apollo is here introduced as a feature of civic topography.

In the prologue, Orestes recalls his visit to Delphi (32-37) and the riddling language with which the oracle answered his question. Apollo is here introduced not as an interested deity but as the familiar (and typically obscure) response delivered to a questioner at Delphi.

Two instances frame the central episodes. Troubled by her dream, Clytemnestra prays for a favorable outcome to Apollo Lykeios (645, 655); then Electra, after her reunion with Orestes, prays to Apollo Lykeios (1376, 1379) that his revenge will succeed. Apollo is here the name typically invoked (Jebb, ed.) -- without assurance of success (de Roguin, “Apollon Lykeios dans la tragédie,” Kernos 1999) -- to harm one’s enemies.

At the center of the play is the Tutor’s speech falsely reporting Orestes’ death in a chariot race at the Pythian Games (680-763). Apollo is here the (unnamed) underwriter of a panhellenic competition.

Finally, just before the matricide, Electra asks Pylades to pay his respects to the god (1374-75), referring to the marker of Apollo Aguieus that stood outside the stage door (Fehrentz, “Der antike Agyieus,” DAI 1993 and Arnott, Greek Scenic Conventions). Here Apollo is a part of domestic architecture invoked for good luck.

Apollo, as a set of secular functions, cannot motivate the matricide as in Aeschylus (and in some readings of Sophocles); instead, I shall argue, Sophocles’ characters make instrumental use of these several Apollos, leaving spectators to accept the action on strictly human terms.