Much better than Aeschylus's version of Orestes's revenge told in 'The Libation Bearers'. I find Sophocles' narration through Electra's POV to be much more emotional and dramatic compared to Orestes's POV in Aeschylus's story.

While I loved the dialogue, the pacing of this Hamlet and Antigone caper was a bit rushed. The chorus was particularly effective, the atmosphere resonates with revenge. Electra pines but does not waste. Her timid sister cringes in comparison to this inferno of vengeance. Then suddenly she has a cohort and the circumstances of his arrival afford their nemesis interlopers opportunity to even further impugn their deeds—or do they?

Aegisthus, what were you thinking? There is a nobility in the Divine. There’s also Icarian agency. Think Cobain, “Come back as Fire/Burn all the liars/Leave a blanket of ash on the ground. The plot was the only one pursued by three of the Greek masters (Euripides and Aeschylus being the other two) which invites comparisons, though apparently the chronology is regrettably unclear.

Anne Carson begins her translator's foreword by saying, “a translator is someone trying to get between a body and its shadow,” which is the best description I've ever heard of what it means to translate. Shadows are interesting things in folklore. To be separated from one's shadow is often a sentence to eternal soullessness, and that's exactly what too many translations do: divide the soul of a work from its body, condemning it to eternal indifference.

There is none of that here. Carson's language choices are sublime, electric. Yeah, yeah. I went there. Maybe I should have started by saying that Electra and I have never gotten along.

She's always been a difficult figure for me; I've never quite managed to like her. From the first time I encountered her in kiddie editions of Greek mythology, she grated. Finding her again in translation after translation didn't change that initial impression, though Eugene O'Neill and some of the less academic Aeschylus almost succeeded. I've spent most of my life rolling my eyes at poor Electra. She's even been a consistent, shrill presence on my list of most irritating characters, alongside King Lear and Victor Frankenstein.

And this is why Anne Carson's phenomenal translation has to be the focus of this review. Because of it, I can never find Electra annoying again. Her personal torment, which too often comes across as screechy and overwrought, is allowed the psychological complexity it likely always had. Electra listening to her mother's death is easily one of the most chilling scenes in drama, and I didn't recognize it as such until Anne Carson.

This is a beautiful translation. Read it, then read the excellent introduction by Michael Shaw and Carson's stellar foreword, then read the play again. Greek tragedy's shadow is rarely allowed to stay this close to its body.

In closing, here's one of the raddest things a chorus has ever said:

The curses are working
Under the ground
dead men are alive
with their black lips moving
black mouths sucking
on the soles of killers' feet

and here we can see sophocles who wrote both my favorite greek play (antigone) and the one that fills me with the most rage (elektra), everyone let's appreciate this man's range.

listen it's very hard for me to read this play because not only am i clytemnestra apologist but also (spoiler btw! this play is two thousand years old but still) elektra does... almost nothing? she simply waits until her brother returns and then he does all the killing. so like what am i reading then. she also condemns her mother for killing someone in response to a murder, then says she wants to kill her mother for killing agammenon. make it make sense.

with all this said, the translation i read was good and the writing did go kinda hard i said that but i stand by it. like say what i will, but this was written in 410bc right, and obviously there's a lot that separates us from the ancient greeks which make it so things get lost for me (there's over two thousand years of difference of culture between sophocles and me, and i'm not a classist where it'd be easier for me to close the cultural gap), but like this is fun.

this also made me really want to read the oresteia which i'm counting as a win.

anyway this was fun though! elektra is just not a protagonist i enjoy most of the times even if she has her moments, and overall i hate agammenon with a burning passion, so it's hard for me not to root for clytemnestra here, who is written as a villain.

Anne Carson's is the definitive Electra. An unmatched, harrowing intensity.

With a weirdly dismissive introduction by the editors.

I mean, its Sophocles!

What I liked the most is the decisions Carson as a translator took.

An exceptionally crafted play that examines the psychology of shame and rage, and how those inform our choices regarding morality and action. Some rationalise morality, and others who emotionalise it, and it's clear where Sophokles and the tragedians tend to fall.

And this, I think, moves to a larger discussion about why we should read the tragedians: we should know that feeling strong emotions is essential to a fully lived life. We should be more comfortable exploding in rage at injustice, or exploring the shame of being unsure and feeling trapped, or the paradoxically cathartic yet hollow victories that may come after vengeance.

As always, Carson does a fantastic job.

I am dropping my rating to 4 stars, this is not a criticism on the play, it’s more a reflection of my journey as a reader, where this time round, I read this with less awe and being starry eyed.

I chose to read this again when this came up as one of the Goodread groups this month, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but have read again since 2019.

This time, I wanted to read a translation written outside our time, so I chose one from 1906 by Lewis Campbell.

Back in 2019 it was harder for me to connect to Electra’s depth of grief, where nothing consoles her. This time it was different. This had nothing to do with the translation: quickly skimming over again Anne Carson’s translation, it flows better but Lewis Campbell’s translation, that is in the public domain, is good enough.

This difference comes from me having a better grasp of this old world – so once what seemed melodramatic now feels heartfelt.

However, my sympathies are still torn between both Electra & Clytemnestra. It’s really clever how the drama is presented so I can empathise with both their point of views.

It’s this complexity that makes this one easy to return to and read again.

Way more straightforward than [b:Euripides'|5280532|Elektra|Euripides|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1225144863s/5280532.jpg|6278827] and [b:Aeschylus'|11380405|Coephori. Greek and English. 1893 Aischylou Choephoroi. the Choephori. with an Introd., Commentary and Translation by A.W. Verrall|Aeschylus|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347559019s/11380405.jpg|44467549], Sophocles' treatment of the story improves on the latter's pacing and does away with the underlying amusement of the former. It's probably my second favourite retelling, though the one I like best among Sophocles' work.