« Vous ne pouviez agir sinon ensemble.
Vous n’avez qu’un destin.
Une malediction unique vous a tous deux broyés. »

:(

E mult mai bună (și mai tristă) decât Electra lui Sofocle

Euripide a reușit să creeze niște personaje mai umane, care nu sunt atât de vindicative încât să nu realizeze urmările actelor sale. Nu e doar problema “mi-am ucis mama, pentru că ea mi-a ucis tatăl și m-a căsătorit cu Plugarul”, ci “mi-am ucis mama din ura resimțită în toți anii aceștia, dar oare trebuia să o fi ucis? Era totuși mama.”
Electra și Oreste se confruntă cu efectele acestea, încearcă să săvârșească dreptatea zeilor de capul lor, însă sunt pedepsiți de societate cu sentimentul de vină și cu exilul. Euripide este mai empatic, înțelege că ura și dorința de răzbunare sunt nuizibile, mai ales după ce vor fi fost îndeplinite. Tu îți poți săvârși crima dorită, dar ce faci după? Cum rămâne cu regretul care însoțește mereu o faptă ireversibilă?
Cam asta se întreabă și Raskolnikov și Albert III și e reconfortant să găsești aceeași preocupare și undeva cu aproximativ 2500 de ani înaintea ta.

▪︎ خوندن یه فانتزی ۷۷۷ صفحه‌ای به خدا که برای من آسون تر از خوندن نمایش‌نامه کلاسیک ۷۷ صفحه‌ایه!

I really enjoyed Medea, she's one of my favorite heroines ever; Vindictive, unapologetic, clever and passionate but not wise, very feminine but darkly so, she's the force of animus that destroys Jason, a temptress and a witch who goes to the ultimate extreme and murders her own children to get back at an unfaithful husband. That is to say: not your typical run of the mill woman. She's so dangerous and scary that ultimately she seems supernatural to me (she IS a witch) and although I understand her feelings I can't identify with her but merely gape at her in awe and be stupified. I adore her but she's not quite so down to earth as to be human - she does fly away on a dragon chariot of some sort at the end of the play, so dramatic -
Then there is Electra; The Mother-Killer. Sounds quite as horrendous and thank all the gods Euripides doesn't feel compelled to sugar coat any of the grisly details.
I started reading this in hopes of getting to experience something akin to Medea. But in Electra I found none. She is ridiculously akin to a teenager (which she is); prone to mood swings, self inflicting harm for attention and playing the victim (which she more or less is) and despite wanting to appear miserable and pitiable she is suffering quite no more than a loss of wealth and status. I did find someone I root for however: Clytemnestra. She's the more human rendition of Medea, less viscious, less showy, more capable of reason and remorse. She did what her impulse drove her to do but she understands her actions and its consequences and is now living with it and trying to make things work. quite frankly I don't blame her for murdering Agamemnon. It's interesting the machinations of classical Greek society and the involvement of the gods in the deciding of things. Euripides treats the subject matter of revenge and justice in a way that reveals the complications and the misleading nature of such system and puts the blame on the gods - Here Apollo - for giving unwise commands and for being untrustworthy. In the end is justice really served after Clytemnestra and Aegisthus are tricked and butchered? Euripides takes precious time to establish that both of them, though traitors and murderers are not 'villains' and even provokes the reader to sympathize with Clytemnestra. This is in contrast with Electra's character who doesn't wish to account for the mutual guilt her parents share and has an absolutist approach, expecting her mother to have remained bound by her failed marriage and pointing out undeserved accusations to her mother, a behavior that I can't help but believe stems from her dissatisfaction with her own fall from grace and resulting resentment rather than absolute support of her father.
It's a very interesting book and Euripides is becoming one of my favorite playwrights. He employs parody, sarcasm, pokes subtle fun at different literary traditions and take a a stance that is both clever and unconventional.

ما پیش از آن که باقی زندگی‌مان را زندگی کنیم چه مدت باید غصه بخوریم و اندوهگین باشیم؟

I'm sorry I tried to root against Clytemnestra, but she's just done nothing wrong.

"The husbands are to blame - but they are not criticized. Suppose Meneleus had been abducted secretly, would I have had to kill Orestes, to get back my sister's husband Menelaus? Would your father have stood for that? No: he'd have killed me if I touched his son; he killed my daughter - why should he not die?"

Electra:
... Bize merhamet et, çünkü acımız merhamet ister!

yknow that tiktok audio of all the girls screaming with the violin music in the background? yeah this is what this play feels like

Euripides focuses on psychology and moral ambiguity more than fate and the gods.

من از ستیز در میدان کردار آمده‌ام، نه جولان‌گاه کلمات.

حکایت خاندان آترئوس یکی از جذاب‌ترین حکایات تاریخ است. نفرینی که تا قیام قیامت گریبان نسل در نسل این خاندان را می‌گیرد و ول‌کن ماجرا نیست. داستان انتقام گرفتن الکترا از مادرش که با هم‌کاری برادرش اورستس صورت می‌گیرد از مشهورترین داستان‌های مربوط به این خاندان است و شاعران زیادی درمورد این داستان نمایش‌نامه نوشته‌اند. تا به امروز می‌توانم بگویم ضعیف‌ترین نسخه‌ از این داستان، همین روایت اوریپید است که به گرد پای روایت آیسخولوس(نیازآوران) و سوفوکل (الکترا) نمی‌رسد و حتی - می‌دانم که روزی از این گفته پشیمان می‌شوم - روایت سارتر از این داستان (مگس‌ها) را بیشتر دوست داشتم. البته این اثر هم نکات بسیار قابل توجهی داشت. نقد اوریپید نسبت به نیازآوران آیسخولوس از مشخصه‌های بارز آن است. مثلاً آن بخشی که الکترا اذعان می‌دارد که نمی‌تواند از روی مو یک فرد متوجه هویت او شود، نقدی به گره‌گشایی آیسخولوسی می‌کند. یکی دیگر از مسائل متن، عقل‌گرایی اوریپیدی‌ است که نیچه مفصلاً در زایش تراژدی به این بحث پرداخته و اوریپید را بخاطر این رفتارش سرزنش کرده است. در این نمایش، اوریپید برخلاف آیسخولوس نیروی خدایان را پس می‌زند و سعی می‌کند تمام بار نمایش را روی دوش انسانیان بگذارد. در این متن اثری از آپولون نیست و در نهایت هم هنگامی که اسمی از او به میان می‌آید به جهت سرزنش کردنش می‌باشد و حتی اورستس با کلمات تندی از او یاد می‌کند که این عمل در آن دوران به نوعی کفرگویی محض بوده است. کلوتایمنسترا و آیگیستوس در این اثر به آن بدی همیشه نیستند و ممکن است مخاطب با آن‌ها حتی هم‌دلی کند و برای‌شان دل بسوزاند. تجربه‌ی عجیبی بود. اوریپید همیشه آدم را متحیر می‌کند، حتی با یک روایت ضعیف

My girl gaslit, gatekept, and girlbossed the entire way through.