Electra was written towards Sophocles last years. Although an exact date can not be established, specialists usually consider that the tragedy was written around 409 B.C.
The play constructs another powerful character – Electra. The subject was very popular to ancient literature.
The events are presented in the Odyssey, but the story appears in the work of all three great tragedians- Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Because both the date of Sophocles' Electra and Euripides' are uncertain, one of the debates of the critics was which play influenced the other, without leading to an exact answer.
Sophocles follows the main lines of Aeschylus' Choephoroe and bases his play on a very popular story for Greek audiences, the legend of the House of Atreus.
Some of the things important to the story take place before the first line of the play.