This text forms an enquiry into the poetics of authenticity and authority in Sophocles' "Electra". The author reveals "Electra" as a self-referential play about play-writing.

In this groundbreaking inquiry into the poetics of authenticity and authority in Sophocles' 'Electra', Ann G. Batchelder looks at Aegisthus and Orestes as rival dramatists, who each use the illusions of the theater in a struggle for control of the kingdom of Mycenae.