دو زن روبروی هم.
الکترای شوی نادیده داغ دیده ی پدر و جفای مادر و شوهر مادر کشیده، در آتش انتقام می سوزد. او هوادار قانون پدر است:
که زن گرش عقل و هوش باشد
باید که سر پیش مردش فرو آرد
و آن زن که غیر از این پندارد
در چشم من جوی عقل ندارد
کلوتمنسترا شوهرکشی که دلیلش را دخترکشی شوهرش و خیانت او می داند.
دیالوگ روشنگری بین این دو قبل از قتل کلوتمنسترا در می گیرد.
سرانجام خشم الکترا اراده ی برادرش را برای کشتن مادر استوار می کند.

I've been going through The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Women at the Graveside, Orestes in Athens, An Oresteia, and other facets of the story. Now, last, I've gotten to Euripides version. In many ways this was my favorite version. I loved how Orestes was reluctant to kill his mother and Electra pushed him into it. I loved how compelling the argument was from Clytemnestra for sparing her life (more compelling than the emotional appeal of displaying her breast in Aeschylus's version) and how Euripides more effectively shifts perspectives and sympathies than other versions do. I loved the sly ways in Euripides made fun of the previous versions, like the idea that Orestes footprints or hair would be recognizable decades later, something that felt dramatic and exciting when I first read it but is obviously preposterous. And perhaps best was the way in which Apollo seems to be wrong in his command to Orestes to kill his mother and Orestes realizes it, pushes back, but does it anyway. All around, this play felt fresh, alive and exciting to me.

الکترای اوریپید اولین تجربه‌ی خوانش اسطوره‌ها از تراژدی نویسان یونان بود. متاسفانه قبل از این مستقیما هیچ کدوم از متون رو نخونده بودم و مواجهه‌ام با اسطوره‌ها از بازنویسی‌های جدیدتری مثل مگس‌ها یا زنان تراوای سارتر بود.
متن بسیار کوتاه و بسیار ساده‌است و توی کمتر از نیم ساعت خوانده میشه. من ترجمه آقای شهبازی رو خوندم اما متوجه شدم که ترجمه‌ای از کوثری هم وجود داره و اون بهتره. این نمایشنامه اونقدر برام جذابیت داشت که بلافاصله متن آقا کوثری رو پیدا کنم و بخونم.
قبل از شروع، خوب هست که آشنایی مقدماتی با بک‌گراند ماجرا، اسطوره‌ها و روابطشون داشته باشیم (حتی در حد دیدن فیلم تروی!) که متوجه شیم روابط خانوادگی چطور پیش میره.
درون‌مایه‌ی اصلی نمایشنامه، "انتقام" و احساسات و قضاوت‌های خانودگی است.
آگاممنون در جریان شروع جنگ تراوا، دختر کلوتایمنسترا، ایفیگنیا رو به پیشگاه آتنا قربانی میکنه. کلوتایمنسترا با کینه‌ای که از آگاممنون به دل میگیره، همراه با معشوقه‌اش همسرش رو میکشه و در ادامه پسرش، اورستس رو از ترس انتقام به جای دیگه‌ای می‌فرسته و دخترش الکترا رو به همسری دهقانی درمیاره.
داستان حول انتقام الکترا و اورستس از مادر و همسر مادرشون می‌گذره.
نکات قابل توجه داستان برای من این بود که بار تصمیمات و پیشروی داستان بیشتر انسانی بود و اوریپید خدایان رو کمتر دخالت داده بود. حتی زمانی که آخر داستان از آپولو سخن میگه، وجهه مثبتی رو ازش به نمایش نمیذاره. فکر می‌کنم این موضوع خیلی در زمان خودش پیشروانه محسوب میشده.
علاوه بر این حتی منفی‌ترین شخصیت‌های داستان هم وجهه‌هایی مثبت داشتن و ممکن بود همدلی‌ات رو برانگیزن. دلیل کلوتایمنسترا برای کشتن آگاممنون رو میتونی درک کنی و همسر کلوتایمنسترا هم در بخش کمی که حضور داره وجهه‌های مثبت اخلاقی مثل خوش‌صحبتی، مردم‌داری و مهمان‌نوازی رو نشون میده. اون‌طور که خوندم توی دو نمونه‌ی دیگه‌ی این نمایشنامه (از سوفوکل و سوخولیس) اینطور نیست و شخصیت‌ها سیاه‌ترن.
الکترا سویه‌ی مادرکشانه‌ی ادیپ هست. هنوز نمی‌دونم برای شروع مورد مناسبی رو انتخاب کردم یا نه، اما توصیه‌ش می‌کنم و قطعا تراژدی‌های یونان رو ادامه خواهم داد.
مونولوگ اورستس بعد از شناخت دهقان قسمت مورد علاقه‌ام از نمایشنامه بود.

اگه مثل من تاحالا توی زندگیتون چیزی از اسطوره های یونانی نشنیدین بنظرم کتابو بذارین کنار و یه ذره سرچ کنید بعد بخونید وگرنه هیچی نمیفهمید.

I remember liking this one a lot, much more than the Electra of Sophocles, back when I first read it maybe five or six years ago. I thought it had cooler lyrics, and a better atmosphere.

That impression holds up re-reading it now, although side by side with his Orestes it seems the tamer work. I do like the choice of the county cabin as the setting (picture a charred, smoky sky lighting up the pastures) and the lyrics hold up. I think too much is made of Electra's supposed hysteria (critics are always trying to show Euripides for his mysoginy but I think they get it way wrong).

It was written in 420, while Orestes was in 408, four years before the Pelopponesian War would end. It seems that by 408 Euripides was much more disillusioned than before, as none of the reconciliation here finds its way into the latter play.

Fav quote:
"Phoebus, you hymed the law in black melody / but the deed has shone white as a scar."

no way Freud

Páris rapta Helena, a mulher de Menelau, que é irmão de Agamémnon, o qual sacrifica a filha, Ifigénia, à deusa Ártemis para que esta acalme os ventos e os barcos possam partir para Tróia. No regresso de Agamémnon a casa, Clitemnestra vinga a filha, Ifigénia, matando o marido. Electra e Orestes, irmãos da sacrificada, vingam a morte do pai matando a mãe. Toda esta matança é por culpa de Helena que, segundo Eurípides, nunca esteve em Tróia mas sim no Egipto.

Adoro ler estas peças. Parece ser tudo igual mas há sempre algo diferente. Não gosto é muito da Electra pelo pouco apreço que ela tem pelas outras mulheres.

I can't believe I've never logged Electra

Well, first of all, let me introduce myself to you as a reader: I'm all for tears, hair pulling, family issues and some long due retribution. I crave for dramatic situations, plot twists and happy (though) unexpected endings.

In this play, Elektra is an outcast, banished from the Palace she belongs to after her mother, Clitemnestra, has schemed to have her father Agamemnon (Troy's anti hero) murdered by her lover Egystus. So they take the 'realm' and have Elektra married to a peasent, who is too humble and kind to claim her as his wife, so basically he only hosts her in his cabin, giving her shelter and maintenance; Elektra's brother, Orestes,still hasn't returned from the war and the first scene is composed by Elektra's longing for Orestes to come back and avenge their treacherously deceived father.

There is one catch, though: in case Orestes does so, he will be persued by the Wraths, three creatures who punish bloodline crimes, and is vely likely to be driven insane. Now don't dare to ask me "Why doesn't Elektra take the matter into her own hands and poisens Clitemnestra or urges her people to recover her palace?" because, as we all know, women were nothing but strategical possessions for powerful men.

I do recommend it to all you soap opera lovers as to see how far the Mexican sources come from!

An excellent play by Euripides that captures what makes the Agamemnon-Orestes cycle of Greek mythology so powerful.

It might be my favourite cycle in Greek myth because of the way that there’s a strong sense of Electra and Orestes righting a deep and old wrong. But the fact that Clytemnestra is nevertheless not entirely evil for avenging the death of Iphigenia and the slight done to her by Agamemnon bringing Cassandra home to Argos makes the myth even better. And the way that Orestes is tormented by the Furies afterwards reflects the moral complexity of the crime that Orestes and Electra commit.

This particular play does the best job of capturing that complexity of any I have read. It opens with Electra living with a farmer that Aegisthus has married her to, when Orestes and Pylades arrive with their identities hidden from Electra. When she learns who they are, Orestes and Pylades kill Aegisthus brutally in a ritualistic-sacrifice kind of way. The group then eventually turns on Clytemnestra, before Clytemnestra’s brothers, the Dioscuri, reveal the moral complexity I mentioned earlier: on the one hand, these children have killed their mother, but on the other hand, it isn’t an unjustified act. Electra and Orestes go their separate ways as each faces their own unique punishment, and Euripides left me with some considerable unease as Orestes has to go seek justice in Athens.

Красиво і сумно, під кінець історії вболівав за Клітемнестру (слей квін???). Старий як світ сюжет про помсту та коло насилля, що не дає чітких відповідей. Автор хотів спитати.

My review of this book disappeared so I am reposting it!

The three great Greek tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, dramatized Electra and Orestes' quest for revenge for their father's murder by their mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegtheis. While Aeschylus and Sophocles see this dual revenge killing as troubling yet ultimately justified, Euripides questions if matricide is warranted. He contrasts Electra's certainty with Orestes' ambiguity. Consequently, I found it the most interesting of the three plays.

This version of Euripides' Electra is part of a series that pairs a poet with a classical scholar. The exquisite translation, with fine-tuned writing, flowed throughout, making the play a joy to read.

I read all three versions back to back as part of a course on Greek tragedy. I enjoyed the sequential reading and recommend the play to anyone interested in Theater, the Classical World, or both.