Who is Chrysothemis in Electra?

Chrysothemis is Electra’s sister, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the play’s voice of pragmatic survival. Where Electra chooses public mourning and open hatred of Aegisthus, Chrysothemis advises concealment: do not provoke beatings, accept what power allows, and wait for better days. She is not indifferent to their father’s murder, but she believes Electra’s strategy only increases suffering without freeing Argos.

Sophocles uses Chrysothemis to test Electra’s absolutism. Their debate is one of the play’s best classrooms for gender and power: women without armies must calculate risk differently. Chrysothemis also carries news — offerings at Agamemnon’s tomb — that foreshadows Orestes’ return. She is neither villain nor heroine; she represents the ordinary person crushed between tyrants and avengers.