The Electra Plays

by Peter Meineck (Translator), Cecelia Eaton Luschnig (Translator), Paul Woodruff (Translator)

The Libation Bearers ; Electra ; Electra

Genres: Plays, Classics

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2009

About the author

Peter Meineck (b. 1967) is Professor of Classics in the Modern World at New York University. He is also the founder and humanities program director of Aquila Theatre and has held appointments at Princeton University and University of South Carolina.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Electra is a dynamic character in Greek mythology, especially in Sophocles’ telling. She seeks an almost fanatical revenge for her father’s death and with Orestes plots the death of their mother. It is interesting to compare these three different characterizations of her and her story. The translations, though, are unremarkable at best, and weak at worst. The introduction is not as insightful as I hoped it would be.

The Chicago University translations remain for me the best translations of these plays.

Here are my thoughts on the plays as I read them:

The Libation Bearers – This is a straightforward, uncomplicated revenge play. Orestes comes back and kills his mother and Aegisthus for the murder of his father, Agamemnon. The complications arise in the next volume of the trilogy, The Eumenides (or The Kindly Ones). The centerpiece is the confrontation of the vengeful son and the murdering mother, and the continuation of the blood feud within the house of Atreus.

This translation is good, but not remarkable. The few footnotes are helpful. I’d still refer people to the Lattimore translation, along with the accompanying Hogan notes.


Electra by Sophocles – This is an oddly casual, colloquial translation. It feels like it is trying to appeal to teenagers with phrases like:

- You mean suck up to them (398)
- You just flew into a rage (628)
- My lips are sealed (632)
- Before our family is clean wiped away (1010)
- Time will tell (1030)

And so on.

The translation is not exactly cliched, but it’s casual bordering on slangy. It betrays the gravitas of what I think should be elevated and emotionally charged language. This might be a good translation for high schoolers, but I thought it betrayed the depth and language of Sophocles.

[Joey Sills]

Read this for a comparative literature class, "Adaptations: Literature, Stage, and Screen." Essentially, what we have here are three versions of the same story, Euripides' and Sophocles' being adaptations of Aeschylus', which itself is an adaptation of a much older story that goes back to Homer.

I've read Aeschylus' before — The Libation Bearers — but the other two were new to me. I think I dig Sophocles' the most, it's a lot more different from the other two and feels like the fullest, most developed story. It's also the one that places Electra most explicitly in the center of the narrative, Sophocles clearly knew she's the most interesting character here.

I didn't love some of the translation choices throughout, at times it felt very matter-of-fact and almost stunted, if that makes sense. There's one point where Aegisthus says "What the hell is this?" and it just feels really out of place for the time period. But other times the verse is really beautiful, so I don't know it's a mixed bag. I'm not aware of the other translations for Sophocles' and Euripides' plays, but I think I preferred Oliver Taplin's translation of The Libation Bearers.

I love ancient Greek tragedies!

[Gabrielle Jarrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say about the three Electra plays? I am nowhere near a Greek scholar. I read them for the psychological origins of the Electra Complex in Jungian psychology. Electra is not "in love" with her father as the popular notion goes. She honors him and want to honor his death with a proper funeral as well as the death of her mother and her current husband. They were the ones who murdered her father. Electra also mourns her brother who went into hiding as an infant. Their reunion and successful revenge and restoring balance is the main theme of the story.

[Molly Lenig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for class

[Jhoel Centeno · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5*

I love a good tragedy ! Cannot get enough of this one !

[Dane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classics.