P. 73 Itys: the song of the nightingale was commonly a symbol of grief, the bird Philomela being supposed to lament for her lost child Itys.
Iphianassa: Homer gives Agamemnon three daughters, Chrysothemis, Laodice (Electra), and Iphianassa, the last being generally identified with Iphigeneia who was sacrificed at Aulis. Sophocles, however, evidently assumes that there were four daughters.
P. 83 Pelops’ chariot-wheels: Pelops, an ancestor of Agamemnon, competed in a chariot race against Oenomaus, king of Pisa, to win the hand of his daughter. By one account, Myrtilus the charioteer of Oenomaus tampered with his master’s vehicle so as to give the victory to Pelops, but later, incurring the enmity of Pelops, was hurled by him into the sea. It would seem that Sophocles has some slightly different version of the story in mind.
P. 93 There was a king: the point of the instance is to show example for the dead being avenged on the living murderer. Amphiaraus, an Argive prince, was persuaded by his wife Eriphyle, whom Polyneices rewarded with a golden necklace, to join the expedition of the ‘Seven’ against Thebes (cf. Oedipus at Colonus). In the flight of the vanquished host from Thebes, Amphiaraus was swallowed alive in an earthquake. Sophocles wrote a tragedy and a satyric play on this subject.
P. 97 To help me kill the man: it is characteristic of this play that the problem of matricide is soft-pedalled. The death of Aegisthus is given prominence as the climax of the play, and we are almost led to suppose that Clytaemnestra might have escaped if she had happened to be out of the way at the critical moment. Yet, when the moment comes, Electra is vehement for her mother’s death; and indeed it has been clear all along that her hatred of her is mitigated by no sense of filial duty or moral scruple. It is not difficult to agree with Sophocles’ feeling that Electra would shrink from revealing to her sister the full horror of the deed on which her heart was set.
P. 100 Will we not learn? The Chorus are not, of course, supporting Chrysothemis. The ‘debt to parents’ in this case excludes the guilty parent: a rather grimly unfortunate piece of moralizing, in the circumstances.
P. 107 O light, O joy: from the recognition onwards, the swiftness and economy of the drama, and the justice of its psychology, show Sophocles at his most masterly. Orestes faces his task loyally, but with no vindictive pleasure – rather with an increasing distaste and a hint of misgiving. Electra, almost unhinged by the sudden revelation of good fortune, looses all the pent-up flood of her passion to sweep him on to the hateful act.
P. 114 If Apollo was right: if Sophocles meant to carry our thoughts forward to a further chapter in the history of Orestes, and the coming torments of his guilt-ridden conscience, he has done it with the barest possible hint. The closing lines of the play suggest nothing but finality. To those who complain that the author has shirked the vital issue, the best answer on his behalf seems to be that he was not, like Aeschylus, writing a trilogy, and his artistic sense preferred a compact and completed story to any suggestion of a sequel. What happened afterwards could if necessary be made the subject of a new play. And the Chorus, in any case, are not infallible judges.