Editing Electra (section)

==Murder of Agamemnon==
[[Image:Orestes Elektra Hermes Louvre K544.jpg|thumb|[[Orestes (mythology)|Orestes]], Electra and [[Hermes]] at the tomb of [[Agamemnon]], [[lucania]]n red-figure [[pelike]], {{circa}} 380–370 BC, [[Louvre]] (K 544)]]
Electra was absent from [[Mycenae]] when her father, King Agamemnon, returned from the [[Trojan War]]. When he came back, he brought with him his war prize, the [[Troy|Trojan]] princess [[Cassandra]], who had already borne him twin sons. Upon their arrival, Agamemnon and Cassandra were murdered, by either Clytemnestra herself, her lover [[Aegisthus]], or both. Clytemnestra had held a grudge against her husband for sacrificing their eldest daughter, [[Iphigenia]], to the goddess [[Artemis]] in exchange for a fair wind so that he could set sail for Troy. In some versions of this story, Iphigenia was saved by the goddess at the last moment.

Eight years later, Electra returned home from [[Athens]] at the same time as her brother, [[Orestes]]. (''[[Odyssey]]'', iii. 306; X. 542). According to [[Pindar]] (''Pythia'', xi. 25), Orestes was saved either by his old nurse or by Electra from being killed by his mother, and was taken to [[Phanote]] on [[Mount Parnassus]], where King [[Strophius]] took charge of him. When Orestes was twenty, the [[Pythia|Oracle of Delphi]] ordered him to return home and avenge his father's death.