Is there a polis in sophocles' Electra?

J__/eona MacLeod's recent monograph on Sophocles' electra (MacLeod 2001) combines a meticulous examination of past scholarship on the play with numerous fresh and original contributions of her own, and all future students of the play will be indebted to her work. But it is only to be expected that such a thought-provoking book should cause other scholars to debate some of her more innovative suggestions. In this article I re-examine a subject which forms an important part of MacLeod's work: namely, the significance of the polis in the play. I investigate her arguments together with those of Jasper Griffin, who in a recent article takes a position diametrically opposed to MacLeod's. I argue that for all their insights, neither has appreciated the precise significance which the polis has for the drama, and hope to point towards a more nuanced understanding of what this significance might be. For MacLeod, the polis lies at the heart of Sophocles' play. Throughout her monograph individual characters have their actions and motivations explained in terms which relate to it. In particular, Electra and Orestes are said to behave in a manner informed by the polis and its values. They may be fighting for their dead father and for the oikos of which he was the head, but their struggles are just as much on behalf of the much wider social unit and the ethical principles for which it stands. Unfortunately, despite the vigour with which MacLeod argues for this position, on many occasions it seems that she has read too much between the lines, and in so doing has pushed the evidence of the play too far. As a consequence, she has seen references to the polis in places where the play itself makes no explicit or implicit reference to it. An example of this tendency occurs in MacLeod's interpretation of the oracle given to Orestes at Delphi (32-37). In this passage Orestes describes how he was instructed by Apollo to carry out his mission through trickery {dolos) rather than through force of arms. According to MacLeod (2001: 33), Apollo gives this command to Orestes because such a strategy "protects the polis from the dangers of an invading army." Yet the play does not tell us that this was Apollo's motivation in giving the oracle. If we choose to speculate, we can come up with many other practical reasons why dolos might commend itself as a strategy: the need to surprise the enemy, the difficulty of raising an army in exile, the likelihood of defeat at the hands of battle-hardened Mycenaean troops_The play provides no more and no less evidence for these explanations than it does for