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.

A good compilation of classic Greek tales of tragedy. These stories form the basis for many modern adaptations.

There is something about Greek literature, Sophocles and Homer most especially, that buries itself in the mind so that it remains unforgettable. The moaning, groaning, wailing, and suffering becomes “your own heart’s speech.” It’s more than a little eerie to identify so well with ancient mythological figures, but their grief and agony articulate the distant voices of the collective unconscious.

Perhaps I’m easy to please, but I found all the plays in this edition extraordinarily compelling. My favorites are the Ajax and Philoctetes, about two great warriors fallen low, so exquisitely low that their contemplations of suicide become existential commentaries on the significance of life.

Like the ancient Greek audiences, most readers who choose this book already know the basic plots of each play, but there are surprising turns in the language and in the nuanced depiction of the characters. In general, I was surprised how much hate is directed at Odysseus, although I felt a little sorry for him in the Ajax. And even though he is hard and tricky in Philoctetes, Odysseus, who at one point says “What I seek in everything is to win,” is simply obeying the gods’ directives in deceiving the maimed and suffering hero out of his famous bow.

The agony is monumental in each play. Ajax suffers as a result of his wounded pride and shame. Deianira unwittingly becomes the cause of her husband Heracles’ physical torment and death. Electra’s moaning is the result of her long-enduring desire to revenge her father’s murder, and Philoctetes’ physical torment from a festering, odiferous wound results in his ten-year abandonment on a desert island. All the plays express human truths and reveal Sophocles’ great understanding of the behavior that results from a human mind and heart after intense trauma. It seems that Ajax has the line that speaks for all: “No, none, to ease my pain. / For God’s sake, help me die!” Death, it seems, is the only cessation to suffering.

These plays, particularly Ajax and Philoctetes, are just too good to be true. So many timeless themes of honor v survival, will v fate, family v justice, sorrow, the psychological trauma of war, the unintended consequences of measures taken out of insecurity, the addiction to misery, and the ultimate hollowness of class and rank distinctions when it comes down to it.

This comment is for AJAX, not the other plays in this collection. Simply: a very good translation of a great play.

Not keen to fall behind on my Ancient Greece reading, I picked up these four plays from the great Golden Age revitalizer of Athenian theater, responsible, in his time, for producing works of vastly increased sophistication - in set design, structure, psychology and dramatic heft - related to what came before. “Ajax” is, for a tragedy, somewhat hopeful of a tale, one of post-mortem redemption and former enemies moving past grievances. “Electra”, on the other hand, is a true-to-Gods tragedy of intrafamily cut-throating, its final matricide seeming to merely leave the survivors wallowing in their continued cycle of violence. Bipartite “Women of Trachis” weaves a family’s downfall to cunning and deceit. Finally, in “Philoctetes”, death and downfall are averted, and it manages to be the most optimistic of the bunch, with re-established allies setting sail for Troy, in accordance with the will of the Gods (not that one would have an alternative in this type of tale).

Drugi tom tragedii Sofoklesa to kolejne cztery utwory uzupełniające zachowany w pełni dorobek siedmiu sztuk najbardziej znanego greckiego tragika. Dwie pierwsze, czyli Ajas i Filoktet są bardzo ciekawym spojrzeniem na wojnę trojańską, które skupia się nie na heroizmie jej uczestników, a na ich wadach, podłości i ciemnej stronie jej prowadzenia tym bardziej przez tak długi czas. Osobiście uwielbiam to jak przedstawiony w tych dwóch tragediach jest Odyseusz, którego dopiero co poznałem jako wspaniałą postać w Odysei Homera, która w przedstawieniu Sofoklesa okazuje się jako najbardziej śliska z bohaterów wojny trojańskiej. Na osobne wyróżnienie zasługuje genialny monolog Ajaksa w Epejsodionie II. Elektra z kolei to znany motyw zemsty, przedstawiony w bardzo interesujący sposób z perspektywy innej niż mściciela. Jest to chyba najbardziej oryginalna ze wszystkich tragedii Sofoklesa.

Najmniej podobały mi się Trachinki, być może już z winy przesytu.

Podobnie jak w przypadku pierwszego tomu tekst Libery jest niewiarygodnie plastyczny, czyta się wspaniale i daje dużo przyjemności z obcowania z antykiem.

Previously I had read Oliver Taplin’s translations of Aïas and Philoctetes. So here I read The Women of Trachis translated by Michael Jameson and Electra by David Grene. All together, Sophocles is my favorite among the tragedians, though I still have about half of the works of Euripides left. Euripides according to Plutarch was the better loved by those beyond Athens borders, yet Sophocles was the winningest playwright.

Reviews for Aïas and Philoctetes appear in an earlier review, so here I will only add to a holistic comparison of all four works, and then add specific thoughts on The Women of Trachis and Electra. What thread might connect the four works here are time and the emotions: betrayal and rage, betrayal and rage, betrayal and rage, betrayal and rage.

Ajax tells of the fall of the mighty son of Telamon, of his rage and sense of betrayal in the the brothers Atreus proclaiming Odysseus the winner of the Shield of Achilles. A powerful unsung tragedy of the Trojan War.

The Women of Trachis tells one story of Heracles, and his separation from Deianira for twelve years, only to return with a young girl bride, and the consequences of such on the family. This ought to be compared with Euripides Heracleidae where the outcome is quite different.

Sophocles’ Electra is a powerful work adding to the saga of the family Atreus, of the consequences for the sacrifice of Iphigenia, and of the even older family transgression of Thyestes by Atreus. Here Sophocles diverges from Aeschylus and Euripides in the portrayal of Electra. She is vengeful and bitter, and in a unique way mirrors the just virtues of Antigone while Chrysothemis’ self preservation mirrors Ismene’s conservatism.

Electra
You may be sure I am ashamed, although you do not think it. I know why I act so wrongly, so unlike myself.
The hate you feel for me and what you do compel me against my will to act as I do.
For ugly deeds are taught by ugly deeds.

Clytemnestra
O vile and shameless, I and my words and deeds give you too much talk.

Electra
It is you who talk, not I. It is your deeds, and it is deeds invent the words.

Clytemnestra
Now by the Lady Artemis you shall not escape the results of your behavior, when Aegisthus comes.

Electra
You see? You let me say what I please, and then you are outraged. You do not know how to listen.

Another tale of the Trojan War, Philoctetes is an incredible story about the necessity to recover Philoctetes from Lemnos, where Odysseus and the Greeks abandoned the injured bowman to his screams. His possession of the mark-perfect bow of Heracles is prophesied a requirement for victory. Yet he rages at Odysseus and it is only by his cunning use of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus and the divine intervention of Heracles that Philoctetes is persuaded.

In all, all of these remaining plays are critical to understanding the Homeric epics. Their tales are woven throughout the larger mythology, and it is an understanding of the variations that one can come to understand the depths of Athenian tragic interpretations.

☆ 3

If you thought the ending of the extended version of the Lord of the Rings was protracted, wait until you read the back and forth between Neoptolemus and Philoctetes in Philoctetes, the last of four plays in this collection.

That said, all four plays are marvelous. It is easy to see why they are considered classics. Vivid and evocative verse, powerful characters, discussing important intellectual and moral topics: justice, retribution, duty to one's honor versus duty to one's family, and more. Ajax was my favorite, but again, all four plays are great.

Order starting with my favorite below:

1. Electra
2. Philoctetes
3. Women of Trachis
4. Ajax

Sophocles wrote emotionally moving plays that depict powerful collisions between two conflicting views on honor and morality. With the exception of Electra, each play ends with the two warring sides transcending their polarized viewpoints and reaching a resolution together. This resolution is triggered by the counsel of an outside influence, be it another character who shows up fashionably late or a ghost come back from the dead.

This exploration of conflict has a few recurring themes. Sometimes the point of contention is the burial rights over one's enemy (Ajax & Antigone), sometimes it's the returning of an exile to the group from which they were cast out (Oedipus at Colonus & Philoctetes), and sometimes it's over a character's well-meaning actions that yielded unintentionally tragic results (Oedipus Rex & Women of Trachis).

I didn't find these stories to be as interesting as those in his Oedipus trilogy, however I still felt an empathy and at times an emotional connection made with the characters. His version of Electra was less interesting than those of Euripides and Aeschylus, yet it was perhaps easier to understand the emotional turmoil of Electra than in the versions penned by his contemporaries. I found Ajax to be the most moving and interesting of the bunch and was absent of the sort of afterthought intercession or slapdash story resolution that the endings of Women of Trachis and Philoctetes had. A variety of viewpoints mix together in the play Ajax, and the story flows and resolves naturally and owing more to good character than to any trick of the story.