i dont know how this got left out

One of the more curious aspects of the Electra’s that I found was the relationships between the children and Clymnestra. The act that begins this whole tragedy was the slaying of Clymnestra’s daughter. However, following Agamemnon’s departure she treats her children terribly. Orestes has been forsaken and Electra, while her fate varies between the three stories, has also been made a prisoner by her father’s murder. So, it appears that Clymnestra, in truth, cares little about her children. If this the case, then Clymnestra’s actions are completely unjustified, for if we are asserting revenge as a form of justice then one of the major factors in the delivery of this justice is motive. If Clymnestra’s motives were impure then she is most certainly an evil character. Despite her claims to be avenging her daughter, her actions are even further sullied by her affair with Aegisthus. Also she states that if Agamemnon had not returned with a mistress the she might have not murdered them. This indicates that it was not an act of revenge, but of jealousy, which certainly is not justified grounds for killing them. In short, Clymnestra has her own gain in mind in killing Agamemnon. She has reigned in her husband’s absence and I believe she has no intention of relinquishing that position with his return. As we had mentioned Clymnestra might embody what the Greeks though of as the danger of the feminine and reading further into her actions, I believe, solidifies that fear.