“and as he was bending down, thy brother rose on tiptoe and smote him on the spine, severing the vertebrae of his back; and his body gave one convulsive shudder from head to foot and writhed in the death-agony”
~ ‘Electra’ by Euripides (Edward P. Coleridge translation. GB5 - p. 334)
The play starts with a monologue from a peasant who has married Electra, the princess of Argos. He explains the background of how that happened. Agamemnon, the king of Argos defeated the Trojans and came back victorious but was killed by his wife Clytaemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, who was also his cousin. Agamemnon’s son Orestes was carried away secretly to safety by one of the servants, but his daughter Electra remained in Argos. After they grew, Aegisthus put a bounty on Orestes’ head and married Electra off to a peasant. The peasant says though he is poor, he is honorable and has not consummated the marriage out of respect for Electra’s noble birth.
When Electra goes to get water from a nearby well, she meets Orestes and his friend Pylades. She doesn’t recognize them. Orestes has come in disguise to Argos to seek revenge on his mother and step-father for killing his father after consulting an oracle of Apollo. He went to his father’s tomb and made some offerings along with a lock of his hair and has now come to the countryside seeking his sister. He does not reveal himself to his sister, though. He tells her that he is Orestes’ friend and has come to tell her that Orestes is alive and wants to avenge their father. When they come near Electra’s home, her husband, the peasant, welcomes them inside since they are Orestes’ friends Electra sends the peasant to fetch the old man who was the foster father to Orestes.