Read Philoctetes for Freshman Seminar 2010.
Read Ajax in 2011 before a performance of it at American Repertory Theater in Boston. Re-read Philoctetes for pre-lecture Seminar/lecture on 4/08/11.
Re-read Philoctetes and Ajax in 2011. Wrote this essay on Philoctetes: http://mwfogleman.tumblr.com/post/189...

The standout is the Philoktetes, which is a nice little piece to use as a heuristic for Hegel's theory of tragedy, insofar as Right comes into confrontation with Right, and about which I have written separately. Otherwise--

Aias

Accused of “an act of staggering horror” (22), Aias has “aimed a stroke at the whole Greek army” (44), a stasis in the camp at Troy. Athena here recalls Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, asking “Who was more full of foresight that this man, / Or abler, do you think, to act with judgment?” (119-20). Odysseus laments Aias’ “Terrible yoke of blindness” (123), finding in it “the true state of all us that live” (125). Some condemnation of those who “weave with false art a supposititious tale” (190). Indeed, “how shall I speak a thing that appalls my speech?” (214). Aias is alledegly “clear in mind” (258) and yet “anguish totally masters him” (275). The play comments on its own construction: “how at the start did this catastrophe / swoop down?” (282-3), pointing out that the catastrophe supposedly ends the tragedy, at least in the later definitions of Aristotle, Freytag, and others. Aias apparently believes that “a woman’s decency is silence” (295) and crying is “marks of an abject spirit” (320). The oikos as private abattoir, as in Aeschylus (345). His defect is perceived atimia: “but now in dishonor / I lie abject” (425). “my name is Aias / agony is its meaning” (431-2). “nor less deserving, yet am left an outcast, / shamed by the Greeks, to perish” (439-40). Tecmessa invokes Homeric moments in Andromache’s plea to Hektor (498 ff.) and Priam’s appeal to Achilles (507 ff.). “ignorance is an evil free from pain” (555), the disjunction of aesthetics and gnosis. Murder changes to suicide: “He swooned in death; this sword Hector gave Aias, / who perished on it with a death-fraught fall. / Did not a Fury beat this weapon out?” (1032-4) “Destinies of men, for the gods weave them all” (1038). Denial burial follows, a familiar difficulty—but “laws will never be rightly kept in a city / that knows no fear or reverence” (1073-4). This metaphor, which Menelaus seeks to apply to the army at Troy, violates the constitution thereof: “didn’t he make the voyage here on his own, / as his own master?” (1099-1100). A religious affront, also, in preventing the burial (1131). One of Aias’ complaints had been against Menelaus’ “procuring fraudulent votes” (1135), a democratic concept in this aristocratic myth. “how fugitive is the gratitude / men owe the dead” (1261-2). Odysseus as the voice of reason on the burial issue: “I hated him while it was fair to hate” (1347); “his greatness weighs more than my hate” (1357). The burial is Ananke (1365). Odysseus resolves to be Aias’ friend in death (1377)—cf. the Antigone for the handling of this issue—here, it is not a polis and thus not a stasis: ergo, no need to take sides in a ‘fight’ and no need for amnestia thereafter? No violations of the rules here means no reciprocal punishments required?

Trachiniae

Deianira opens by channeling Solon from Herodotus: “You cannot know a man’s life before the man / has died, then only can you call it good or bad” (2-3), and then insists that despite being alive, her life is “heavy and sorrowful” (5). She laments that Heracles’ war against the chthonians has been difficult: “This has been his life, that only brings him home / to send him out again, to serve some man or other” (34-5), the oikos placed at the service of the polis. She is advised, “if it is proper that the free should learn / from the thought of slaves” (52-3), that she should “use” her sons to sound out the “absent” father. (“This woman is / a slave, but what she says is worthy of the free” (62-3).) His latest resulted in his own taking of slaves: “he selected them when he sacked the city of Eurytus / as possessions for himself and a choice gift for the Gods” (244-5). The war resulted from Heracles’ wanting revenge for his own reduction to servitude (255 et seq.). Others argue that “love alone who bewitched him into this violence” (355), “inflamed with desire” (368). It is that “her city was completely crushed through desire for her” (431-2). Though “he has had other women before” (460), it is un decidable whether “he suffers from this sickness, / or that woman” (446-7), the same undecidability as in Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera and elsewhere, apparently a common refrain, becoming more arguably foundational the more often we trip over it, eros as less a solicitation of the constitutional order but a solicitation that is the constitutional order. Thereafter follows a lover’s revenge poisoning plot: “for this Justice who punishes / and the Fury will requite you” (808-9). Heracles himself appears late in the play, lamenting the lovecraftian problem of confronting “this inexorable flowering of madness” (999). His grievance is not unwarranted: “O most ungrateful of the Greeks, where are all you / for whom I destroyed myself purging so many beasts / from all the seas and woods?” (1011-13). His torment is “a woven, encircling net / of the Furies” (1051-2). “Neither the spear of battle, not the army of / the earth-born Giants, nor the violence of beasts, / nor Greece, nor any place of barbarous tongues, not / the landsi came to purify could ever do this. / woman, a female, in no way like a man, / she alone without even a sword has brought me down” (1058-63). “Long ago my father revealed / to me that I should die by nothing that draws breath / but by someone dead, an inhabitant of Hell” (1159-61).

Elektra

An equivocation of ‘justice’ (37) and ‘revenge’ (34). “no word is base when spoken with profit” (61). Orestes comes as “purifier” to his father’s oikos (68-9). Elektra angry that “like some dishonored foreigner / I tenant in my father’s house in these ugly rags” (188-9). Atreides have problems back to Pelops at least: “for never a moment since / has destruction and ruin / ever left this house” (510-2), the oikos as bearer of the curse. For her part, Clytemnestra thinks “justice it was that took him” (527), citing specifically the sacrifice of Iphigenia, a matter of the oikos—justice ergo a matter of household concern—hence coinciding without remainder in vendetta. Reading the lock (932). “must I then follow your conception of justice?” (1038)—which is to “yield to authority” (396). Tragic dilemma in “it is terrible to speak well and be wrong” (1039)? “no body of Orestes—except in fiction” (1217). “spare me all superfluity of speech” (1288). Matricide is in the oikos but resounds in the polis (1400 ff). “must this house, by absolute necessity, / see the evils of the Pelopidae” (1497). And yet: “justice shall be taken / directly on all who act above the law-- / justice by killing” (1505-7).

Note: This is a joint review with Jean-Paul Sartre's The Flies (which is in his Two Plays, with In Camera being the second)

Although there are four plays in this book I didn’t get much out of the first one as I began it, so jumped across and just decided to read Electra.

I found this very interesting for the use of deception to give oneself an advantage about the situation one is entering before admitting one’s alliance with another. But this is an example given by the gods in some plays, just as it is with humans in others. Here we have Athena reporting to Odysseus – oops, that’s the Ajax story. Let that one go – it is just that I then went on to reading Sartre’s The Flies, and he uses Zeus with Orestes, Electra and Clytemnestra in his play, whereas Sophocles has Orestes, Electra and her sister Chrysothemus, with a reference to a dead sister who is unnamed but sacrificed by their father for a transgression he made against a god. This seems to be partly why the wife Clytemnestra decides to have an affair with another man who kills him and becomes king beside her. But this new king has also sent her young son off to be killed, but those charged with the task could not bring themselves to kill the boy, and thus Orestes is believed to still be alive by the loyal daughter Electra, wishing for vengeance for her fathers’ demise.

In both plays Electra is portrayed as an outcast of sorts in her own home. Because she is so outspoken about the death of her father she has been imprisoned by her mother in the palace (in Sophocles) or treated as a slave doing menial tasks all year (in Sartre) but allowed to be a show princess for the Day of the Dead (which Zeus rules, and thus his presence).

The ancient play uses a chorus to act as the voice of the common people, and as the voice of conscience which backs up Electra. She trusts them, and they expect that she will eventually see through the plan she has to free them all from the tyrant and the false queen.

Sartre on the other hand, has Electra caught in the same chimera as the townfolk, who are all deceived by the King’s annual pageant of drawing forth the ghosts of the dead to shroud them all in shadows. Although Electra knows of this farce, when her brother turns up and carries out the deed which she has long hoped he would do, she goes into shock over his actions and denies her own complicity in it.

Although she takes 15 years in dreaming of the return of her brother Orestes to take revenge, when he arrives he is not the type of character she has envisioned. Instead he appears as a pacifist from his easy upbringing away from the social milieu of his home town. He tells Electra that there is another way to live, not as a promising fantasy, but as a reality he has already experienced. She uses this image to spur herself on, and claim that she will do the deed if he is not strong enough. But when her passion ignites compassion within him and he transforms into the character she expected him to be, she then pulls back again and doubts that it was indeed justice to follow through.

Thus we have quite different issues arising from the same story. And these issues are about the society within which the plays themselves were written and performed. The one is merely the carrying out of ‘destiny’ or what has been prescribed to be the remedy for a particular transgression against a family and its society. The other is the freeing up from prescription for choice to be made based upon one’s own principles and one’s own interpretation of them. And this is determined to be a higher ideal than living by prescription.
but the real question is: who is writing the script. For Orestes makes much of his own freedom, then sways and responds to the terms his sister seems to place upon him. Yes, he can change his mind. But what is the real basis then for his decisions and actions? Is freedom enough of an ideal that it overrides being influenced by others who do not seem to know of let alone believe in such an ideal? It is an interesting twist in this play. But it is a twist which also demonstrates the power within the individual to work through their own stance on issues. And it is the acceptance within oneself of the consequences of one’s own thinking and choices and actions. Rather than awaiting the judgement of any other, the judgment made of oneself is the force by which all forward movement can occur. And then it becomes an invitation to others to also step clear of their own shadows and doubts and find their own freedom also.

What can I say? All of the well-known Greek playwrights are important reading, both for their historical significance as well as the fact that they're excellent plays. They haven't remained famous for 2,400 years because they're not worthy of it.

Sofokles tunnetaan antiikin Kreikan kuuluisimpana tragediakirjailijana, ja onkin kulttuuriteko, että viimein loput neljä vielä suomentamaton draamaklassikkoa on käännetty erinomaisesti suomeksi. Draamojen lisäksi kansien välissä on oivallinen johdanto, kuka Sofokles oikein oli, mikä on hänen merkityksensä ja vieläpä hänen käyttämänsä tragiatekniikat.

Näytelmien jälkeen on ihan kattava selvitys alluusioista ja viittauksista antiikin myytteihin ja taruihin, jotta antiikin kirjallisuuteenkin perehtymätön tunnistaa ne ja hoksaa kulttuurikontekstin jne.

Näytelmät ovat samassa järjestyksessä alla niin kuin kirjan kansien välissä.

Trakhiin naiset

Näytelmä kertoo Sofokleen version Herakleen kuolemaan johtaneista syistä. Näyttämönä toimii Trakhis ja tarkemmin Herakleen palatsin miljöö, ja eletään aikaa muutama vuosi ennen Troijan sotaa.

Herakleen vaimo Deianeira saa tietää puolijumalamiehensä olevan tulossa kotiin, mutta odottavan lempeä himmentää mukana tullut kaunotar-ryöstösaalis Iole. Vaimo siis pelkää menettävänsä puolison rakkauden, ja silloin päättää käyttää kentauri Knessoksen hänelle neuvomaansa rakkauden eliksiiriä. Se paljastuukin hirvittäväksi kiroukseksi, kun Herakleen tappama kentauri olikin ilkeästi neuvonut kuolemansuudelman. Takaumassa päästään hetkeen, jolloin Deianeira muistelee keräämäänsä kuolevan Knessoksen verta, piilottaa sen auringolta ja kutoo tummaan vereen kastetusta kankaasta ihokkaan miehelleen luullen siten saavansa Herakleen varauksettoman rakkauden.

Näin ei käykään, ja ennen pitkää Herakleen uskottu mies Likhas tuleekin ilmoittamaan, että hänen isäntänsä kärsii suunnattomista tuskista, jonka vaimon lähettämä vaatekappale on aiheuttanut. Sitä Deianeira olikin jo pelokkaana ajatellut, kun kentaurin vereen kastettu ja auringonvaloon jäänyt kangassuikale oli leimahtanut tuleen.

Loppuhuipennuksessa Dianeira päätyy itsemurhaan, ja paareilla koriseva Herakles sanelee avustajilleen ohjeita, mitä Hyllos-pojalle tehdään ja miten hänen oma polttohautaus toteutetaan. Siitä alkaa matka Oitavuorelle ja matka jumalaksikorottamiselle. Siinä taustalla ja tapahtumien edetessä kuorona toimii Trakhiin nuoret naiset...

Filoktetes

Tua Korhosen suomentama Filoktetes on hieno näytelmä, joka perustuu Herakles myyttiin ja jonka oli kirjoittanut pari muutakin kirjailijaa aiemmin. Lähtökohtana oli siis Herakleen polttorovion sytyttäneen Filokteteen lahja: jousi ja nuolet, jotka osuvat aina maaliinsa.

Näytelmän taustalla on vangiksi saadun troijalaisen tietäjän ennustus, jonka mukaan Filoktetes tarvitaan jousipyssyineen, jotta Troija kukistuu. Sitä ennen matkalla sotaan, tämä miekkonen on hylätty karulle Lemnoksen saarelle kitumaan hulluuden partaalle ajaneen käärmeenpureman jälkeen, joka oli erään palvontapaikan suojelija.

Odysseus juonittelee Akhilleuksen pojan Neoptolemoksen narraamaan pyssy jousineen, jotta sota voitetaan. Nuorukainen tekeekin työtä käskettyä, mutta omatuntu alkaa soimata, jolloin päättää paljastaa Filoktoteelle petoksen. Siitä yhdeksän vuotta nälkää ja kurjuutta nähnyt kreikkalainen vain huutaa ja vikisee, jolloin jumalten on jälleen puututtava tapahtumiin. Seuraa klassinen deus ex machina, jolloin Herakles pyyhältää taivaalta kertomaan, että Filokteteesta tulee sankari ja hänen märkivä käärmeenpuremansa parannetaan, kunhan lähtee vihamiehensä Odysseuksen ja miehistön mukaan.

Näytelmässä on päähenkilön eksistentiaalista ahdistusta ja yksinäisyyttä, ja toisaalta moraalista pohdintaa, voiko hyvän tarkoituksen vuoksi pettää ystävänsä. Odysseuskin sanojensa mukaan tällainen: ” Olen sellainen mies jota kulloinkin tarvitaan.” Moraalinen ylevyys ja jumalan puuttuminen tilanteeseen voittaa ithakalaisen opportunistin tällä kertaa. Kuoron virkaa toimittaa Neoptolemoksen laivan miehistö.

Aias

Tommi Nuopposen Aias-tragedia on onnistunut käännös ja mukaaansa tempaava tragedia järkensä menettäneestä kreikkalaisesta sotasankarista Troijan-sodan loppuvaiheessa.

Nimihenkilö Aias päätyy puolessavälissä näytelmää itsemurhaan, ja sikäli huippukohta ajoittuukin lopun sijasta toisen näytöksen alkuun. Myös ajan ja paikan ykseys tässä draamassa rikkoutuu, kun alussa ollaan Aiaan Teltassa ja sen liepeillä ja toisessa näytöksessä yksinäisellä paikalla rannikolla Troijan edustalla.

Muutoin näytelmä noudattelee perinteistä tragedian kaavaa, niin kuin Sofokleella tapaa ollakin, eli tässä Aias aiheuttaa jumalan koston (Pallas Athene). Häntä oli siis varoitettu olemaan liian ylimielinen ja turvautua jumalien apuun, mutta toisin kävi. Aias oli väkevin soturi Akhilleuksen kuoleman jälkeen eikä piitannut vanhasta ennustuksesta. Jumala sekoitti miehen pään, kun tämä oli käymässä taistoon sekä Atreuksen poikia (Spartan kuningas Menelaosta ja koko joukon johtajaa Agamemnonia vastaan). Hulluuden vallassa Aias teurastikin ison joukon eläimiä ja niiden paimenia.

Näytelmän alussa ollaan Aiaan teltassa, kun järki alkaa pikku hiljaa palailemaan, ja puoliso Tekmessa poikansa kanssa yrittää auttaa onnetonta. Kuorona toimii Aiaan sotureita.

Toinen näytös lähtee liikkeelle, kun ennustaja Kalkhaalt tulee viesti, ettei Aiasta saa päästää mihinkään, tai huonosti käy. Teukros, joka puolestaan Aiaan velipuoli, lähtee miehineen etsimäään, kunnes löytävätkin Hektorin kaksiteräiseen miekkaan syöksyneen prinssin. Näillä miehillä oli yhteinen isä, kuningas Telamon, ja Teukroksen äiti puolestaan oli edellisen Troijan sodan hävinneen kuningas Laomedeen tytär Hesione.

Surmapaikalla tulevat vuoroin räyhäämään niin Menelaos kuin Agamemnonkin, ja jälleen kerran viekas Odysseus, Ithakan kuningas, onnistuu hoitamaan hommat parhain päin, ja kaikki onnistuvat säilyttämään kasvonsa. Lopulta veli hautaa veljensä.

Elektra

Vesa vahtikarin suomentama Elektra on luettavissa myös Euripiden ja Aiskhyloksen näytelmänä. Tässä versiossa puherooleja on yhteensä kuusi, ja niistä on enintään kolme yksittäisessä kohtauksessa.

Tarina on sama kuin muissakin Elektra-tragedioissa: Mykenen karkotettu prinssi tulee kostamaan isänsä surmaa eli hän tappaa äitinsä ja kuninkaan murhaajan. Agamemnonin paluun jälkeen hänen valtaistuimensa anastaa Aigisthos-serkku, ja teurastukseen oli osallisena myös Klytaimnestra eli Oresteen ja Elektran äiti.

Tapahtumahetkellä on käsillä entisen kuninkaan surman vuosipäivä, ja varsinkin Elektra ”surun morsian” ilmentää vaikerruksellaan ja valituksellaan kärsimäänsä tuskaa eli veljensä ja isänsä menetystä. Muutoinkin hän on hovissa kuin orjan asemassa ja muiden nöyryytettävänä.

Orestes saapuu vanhan palvelijansa ja ystävänsä Pyladeen kanssa panemaan ennustusta toimeen. Siitä kertoo muun muassa mykeneläisistä naisista koostuva kuoro.

Klytaimnestra teeskentelee miehensä surman olleen oikeutettu, ja tuskin malttaa odottaa, että Aigisthos tulee rankaisemaan tytärtään.

Muutamien juonenkäänteiden jälkeen päästäänkin loppuhuipennukseen, ja Elektran epätoivo vaihtuu Oresteen rinnalla iloon. Sitä ennen nuorempi sisar Khrysothemis yrittää kaikin keinoin Elektraa jo hyväksymään Tuhkimon osansa. Lopulta mennään sermin taakse ja hakataan yllätetyn Aigistoksen pää poikki.

I don't know what impulse buy this book was, I don't know why I thought I would like it

I loved it so much more than I expected I would! A welcome treat from other, extremely dense and convoluted ‘older’ literature (though not ancient like this).

The themes are incredibly relevant to modern society - from dealing with suicide and mental health issues, to isolation and exclusion, to jealousy, infidelity, manipulation and betrayal. The characters are so realistic, it’s easy to see why this mythology was once upon a time accepted as fact.

It’s quite difficult to pick a favourite. I enjoyed ‘Philoctetes’ the least - that is to say, it was a little slower than the rest and went round in circles a bit too much while the suspense built - however, it’s still a fantastic play. ‘Ajax’, ‘Electra’ and ‘Women of Trachis’ were all equally brilliant, but ‘Ajax’ conversely to the other two. It took the form of philosophical debate more than the successive plays, which were moreso really juicy, invigorating stories. The translator (who, by the way, is outstanding - I never would have guessed that he worked on this in the 1950s, it was so advanced!) mentioned in his introduction that many folks believe that the distribution of action in ‘Ajax’ is unsavoury, but I was enthralled by the intellectual wit of Teucer in the wake of the death of his half-brother.

This is going to be the text I’ll recommend to my friends out of all my recent reads for the next six months or so - not to be missed!

very fun!! women of trachis and Ajax were a little meh but Electra and Philoctetes were bangers!!!

Poor Clytemnestra! Poor Heracles! Poor Ajax! Fate, it seems, is filled with justice, and it paid all them their due. But most of all, poor Philoctetes! It is a pathetic mind that would rather see a wound glorified than healed.

چهار نمایشنامه جذاب و خواندنی از سوفوکل ، بزرگترین درام نویس دنیای قدیم و به عقیده ی من تمام دوران ها.بی نهایت از مطالعه ی این کتاب لذت بردم.هر چهار نمایشنامه، شیوا و روان و از لحاظ شخصیت پردازی فوق العاده قوی و ملموس نوشته شده بود

خلاصه ای از نمایشنامه ها
فیلوکتتس ، که فتح باروی تروا باید به دست او صورت گیرد،زندگی اندوهناکی را سپری می کند....هراکلیس و زن او دیانیرا نیز قربانی قهر تقدیر می شوند
سرنوشت آگاممنون ، سپهسالار یونان در جنگ تروا ، و خیانت زنش که به دستیاری عاشق خود هلاک شوهر را موجب می شود ، و انتقام دخترش ، الکترا ، از خون پدر نیز شگفت و عبرت انگیز است.....همین گونه است فرجام آژاکس ، دلاور یونانی ، که بر اثر ارتکاب خطایی چنان پشیمان می شود که خنجر خود را درون سینه ی خویش فرو می برد

آشنایی زیادی با یونان و نمایشنامه‌هاش ندارم. به‌عنوان کسی که فقط آواز آشیل و پنلوپیاد خونده اینا رو هم خیلی دوست داشتم.

فیلوکتتس: کسی که ادیسیوس و نئوپتولموس پسر آشیل خواستند با حیله راضی به بازگشت و تسلیم کردن کمانش کنند.


زنان تراخیس: تلاش دیرانیرا برای جلوگیری همسرش هراکلس از معشوقه گرفتن به فاجعه منتهی می‌شه...

الکترا: انتقام دخترِ آگاممنون از سلاخی پدرش توسط مادر و معشوقه‌ی وی با بازگشت برادرش اورستس محقق می‌شه.

آژاکس: داستان زوال و نابودی قهرمان جنگ‌های یونان و تروا (چقدر دراماتیک و بچه‌ان اینا=)))ا

I've only read one Sophocles' tragedy before (Antigone), but that was top-rate, so my expectations were high. Sophocles didn't disappoint: these were very entertaining and interesting plays that still have relevance, 2500 years after they were written.

Women of Trachis told the story of Heracles' suicide by funeral pyre. I was pretty unfamiliar with the mythos around Heracles, so the twists and turns of the story managed to surprise me. Not bad.

Ajax was the best of these four plays. Ajax was a hero of the Trojan war who got royally pissed when Achilles' weapons were handed to Odysseus instead of him. So pissed, in fact, that he decides to torture-kill all the leaders of the expedition. Sounds reasonable to me. Athene casts a confusion over him, so Ajax ends up killing only pack animals. When Ajax realizes his error, he gets ashamed of his actions - not the torture-killing bit, but the fact that he killed helpless animals, which is unbecoming of a warrior. He gets so ashamed, in fact, that he decides to kill himself. Once again, most reasonable logic.
The play has unusual structure: Ajax's suicide happens in the middle of the play, and then the story turns into Antigone part 2: for the rest of the play the conflict revolves around the burial of Ajax. Odysseus acts as a voice of reason, so the play ends on a more of less peaceful note.

In Philoctetes, on the other hand, Odysseus is depicted as a crafty and amoral manipulator. According to a prophecy the Trojan war can't be won without Philoctetes and his invincible bow. Odysseus comes up with a deceitful plan to get Philo back to Troy. The only trouble is that he drafts young Neoptolemy to lure Philoctetes, but Neo feels sorry for the poor man and decides to come clean and confess the whole plot. Philoctetes decides to have nothing to do with the whole war, Greeks be damned - but changes suddenly his mind after literal deus ex machina: Heracles descends from Olympos to tell Philoctetes to stop his whining and get back on board with the war business.
Philoctetes obeys, and the play ends - happily. Zero suicides, zero murders. Extremely unexpected.

With Electra we get back on the proper Greek tragedy track: here we have murders aplenty. This play tells the same story as The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus. Sophocles focuses more on Electra than Orestes. The most interesting bit was the dialogue between Electra and her sister Crysothemis. They are both living with their murderous mother, who they both hate, but Cryso has decided to accept her fate for the time being and submit to her mother's will. Therefore she lives in luxury. Electra, on the other hand, is relentless in her hate and isn't afraid to show how much she despised her mother. Thus she wears only rags and is treated like a slave. Both sisters try unsuccesfully to convert the other to their point of view. The audience is left to draw their own conclusions as to which way is actually better.