When Dizzy O’Brian first had the inspiration to compose a work called ‘The Electra Suite, a collection of alternative rock music tracks, he started to read up on the origins and story of Electra. After all, it would be more interesting to thematically link the various movements together somehow.
The story goes way back to Greek Mythology and the name Electra originally meant ‘The Bright One.’
‘The Bright One’ made sense; maybe she was a distant relative of Uncle Fester and could shoot out lightning. No wonder Marvel picked up the character.
The earliest versions of her story came from two Greek plays and this was disappointing as they were both tragedies; a long string of murder and revenge and the Furies driving her insane at the end.
As such, the story really made no sense. There was no real hero in the story. Electra’s father had sacrificed her sister in exchange for favorable sailing conditions from the gods, yet Electra was not antipathetic towards Agamemnon.
Agamemnon brought back a lover from the Trojan Wars and carried on under Clytemnestra’s nose.
Clytemnestra (Electra’s mother) had Agamemnon murdered by catching him in a net while they were bathing so her lover could kill him with an axe.
At some point (believing her brother to be dead) Electra leaves the palace life, either because she is exiled or because she has just had enough. She goes out to find out how the other half live, shacking up with a shepherd but not marrying the man.
She later finds her brother alive and returns to the palace, convincing her brother to kill Clytemnestra.
Upon digging deeper, Dizzy found that the early Greek plays were just as subject to alteration as our current time stories, with commentaries of the day being woven in and apologetic endings being applied.
Let’s assume that this started out as a story of insurrection; that Electra wanted to change things for the good of the ‘common people’ and she was a strong heroine who led this change.
Dizzy chose to set the story free and return to the idea of ‘The Bright One,’ a dark heroine who reclaims her birthright from the forces of suppression.