The Flies

The Flies reimagines the ancient Greek myth of Electra and Orestes, centering on Orestes's return to Argos and his assassination of his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. The city is plagued by swarms of flies representing remorse and guilt imposed by the gods, and Orestes must choose between submission to divine authority and asserting his freedom.

The Flies premiered in Paris in 1943 during the German occupation of France. Remarkably, the play was staged at the Théâtre de la Cité under the nose of the occupying authorities, who did not initially grasp its veiled anti-occupation themes.

The play dramatizes core existentialist ideas through Orestes's deliberate choice to commit murder and accept full responsibility for it, rejecting the guilt that Jupiter and the flies try to impose. It illustrates Sartre's concept of radical freedom, where individuals must act without external moral authority and bear the consequences of their choices.

The Flies is based on the ancient Greek myth of the House of Atreus, specifically the story of Orestes and Electra avenging the murder of their father Agamemnon. Sartre reworks the classical narrative from Aeschylus's Oresteia to serve as a vehicle for existentialist themes of freedom and responsibility.