Elektra
Remy Boyd-Sandoval
An Oresteia, as translated by Anne Carson, is a collection of three plays by different poets- Aiskhylos' Agamemnon, Sophokles' Elektra and Euripides' Orestes. The divide between the versions of Elektra that exist is considerable. For example, in Sophokles’ Elektra, our heroine is prepared to kill her mother’s lover on her own with no thoughts of revenge against her mother Klytaimestra while in Euripedes’ version, she takes an active role in planning her mother’s demise (Morford et al. 454, 458). Carson seeks to present a coherent narrative that reconciles the discrepancies between the various different versions in a way that does justice to all the figures present for a modern audience.
While Elektra is not the central focus of all three of these plays, there is no denying her importance. She is after all the titular Elektra. However, perspective on Elektra as a mythical and literary figure often reduces her to a secondary figure in her own story. To say that all women in ancient myths and literature were insignificant would be doing them a disservice. However, so would be denying historical and contemporary misogyny both in fiction and its reception. Much as her mother is reduced to a villainous aldulteress despite having clear and understandable motivations, Elektra is at times reduced to an accessory to her father and brother. Often, she is depicted as either the archetypal grieving daughter, or an irrational and twisted fanatic with little in-between. Carson’s use of source material from different authors in her combined translation allows for Elektra to possess depth, prominence, and nuance in the narrative.
The issue of Elektra’s grief is an interesting one. Characters around her chastise her for it and Elektra herself acknowledges its excess. “I am ashamed, women, if it seems to you that I am too excessive in my suffering and my many complaints”/”Women I am ashamed before you: I know you find me extreme in my grief.” (Morford et al. 451, Carson 77). Carson, though translating existing work, interprets Elektra and subsequently her grieving in a nuanced and sympathetic way that diverges in some ways from traditional expectations and depictions. Carson's portrayal of Electra is marked by a profound exploration of grief and its transformative power. The tragedy of her circumstances are felt deeply by the audience. Elektra’s hopelessness and isolation in the household of her mother who murdered her father pervades the text. Carson, in her introduction to Elektra, describes Elektra as “[A] torrent of self. Actionless, yet she causes things to happen” (79). Indeed, Electra's mourning for her father is not portrayed as a passive lamentation but rather as a force that propels her towards action. Her grief becomes a catalyst and an insurmountable force, rather than foolish hysterics.
The nature of Elektra’s actions are not lessened by this perspective- rather, the inevitability and even understandability of how Elektra and Orestes can perpetuate the cycle of violence that has destroyed their family impresses the horror and tragedy of their circumstances onto the reader. Carson retains the ethos of the original tragedy while expertly weaving together the shifting philosophies and perspectives of the original creators to create something new. Much of Carson’s portrayal of Elektra is obviously owed to the original plays she translated. However, her care in selecting which versions of each play to bring together as well as her own ability with prose, contribute a great deal to bringing the plays as well as Elektra as a character to contemporary audiences.
Nikolai Crawford
Elektra’s depictions are as different as they are similar, often acting more as commentary than rigidly structured stories; the tragedies written by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides provide a patchwork of her character set within the same broad strokes of continuity. In The Three Electras(2022) author Sean Kelly outlines the differences in the three playwrights depictions of the tragic heroine as well as the broad story of the character. What these depictions represent is a shift in the Athenians view of their own society, as time passes and reverence moves to cynicism and outright mockery (there is a quote attributed to Brian Kulick that is cited by a few articles that I have read and yet I can find no origin for it, the quote is as follows) “In Aiskhylos' hands the story of the house of Atreus is designed to end in a valedictory celebration of Athenian democracy and its newborn sense of justice; when Sophokles takes over the tale it becomes more complex and contradictory; with Euripides the design is completely turned on its head. We follow a trajectory from myth to mockery. What happened to affect this? History happened. Aiskhylos composed his Oresteia shortly after Athens' victory at the battle of Marathon, which marked the height of Athenian military and cultural supremacy; Euripides finished his Orestes almost a hundred years later as Athens headed for ruin, due to her protracted involvement in the Peloponnesian War...The house of Atreus, for these tragedians, was a way of talking about the fate of Athens.”.
The fundamentals of the story remain the same in all tellings of this tragedy, with some meaningful if not massive changes in the depictions of characters. Elektra is the daughter of Agamemnon and Klytaimestra, after the events of the Trojan war (in which Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia) Klytaimestra and her lover murder Agamemnon on his return from the war. This eventually leads to their son Orestes who lived separately from the rest of the family returning and with Elektra's help taking revenge on their mother. The diversion comes with this act of revenge and Elektra either being a willing participant or more of an unattributed partner. What this gray area has provided Carson with is the opportunity to arc out the character as a mirror to the societal shift in opinion towards the homeric code (Kelly,2022).
The three versions of this Elektra are all represented in Anne Carson’s An Oresteia(2009) as she translates Aeschylus first play in his Oresteia cycle; Agamemnon, with Sophocles and Euripedes plays following, both titled simply Elektra. What Carsons compilation of these three iconic depictions show is the very social shift that her friend Brian Kulick encouraged her to follow. The mixing of the authors is not only tonally sound, as the story progresses it does become more and more violent and deranged, but it provides a complete arc (structurally) to the character of Elektra. An Oresteia takes Elektra from her less prominent and more bystander role from Agememnon to her malicious and vengeful form in Sophocles Elektra and finally to the seemingly unstable and unreliable version of Euripides.
Works Cited
Carson, Anne. “An Oresteia.” PEN America, 15 Sept. 2010, pen.org/an-oresteia/.
Emily on December 7, 2010 10:50 PM, et al. “An Oresteia: Agamemnon, Elektra, Orestes.” Http://Www.Eveningallafternoon.Com, www.eveningallafternoon.com/2010/12/an-oresteia-agamemnon-elektra-orestes.html. Accessed 16 Feb. 2024.
Kelly, Sean. “The Three Elektras.” Classical Wisdom Weekly, 7 Jan. 2022, classicalwisdom.com/culture/theater/the-three-elektras/.
Morford, Mark, et al. Classical Mythology. 12th ed., Oxford UP, 2023.