Electra and Other Plays (Penguin Classics)

Greek tragedy is an art form unparalleled in any other culture. I believe its particular form is bound up with the fact that the Greeks were the first Western civilization with the intuition that the world is fundamentally reasonable. That is, that the reasoning processes in men can uncover an explanation for all, or much, of the world’s phenomena. But this Greek optimism, this almost intoxication with reason, ran aground in confronting the question of human suffering. Why if everything is in the power of Zeus does he allow his sons and daughters to suffer? Why do men seem to exhibit more compassion towards the sufferer than the gods? And so, at one of their greatest festivals, the Athenians gathered to witness the retelling of the stories about their mythic ancestors in tragic form and thus to ponder that existential questioning of human suffering. To my knowledge, no Greek philosopher ever confronted this question directly and so it lay in the hands of the tragedians to somehow offer an answer that would accord with the reasonableness of the world, the benevolence of the gods and the sometimes painful aspect of the human predicament . In the modern world we can see of course that suffering is part of the life of all animals. That pain itself is an evolutionary adaption necessary to increase our chances of survival. But in the grips of immense suffering, which the modern world has seen so much of, how many people turn to Darwinian explanations and how many continue to follow the dramatic path first carved by the tragedians? Supreme examples of literature, the Greek tragedies should be part of any intellectual’s library. These retellings of ancient stories continue to inspire as one faces the decidely unintellectual question as to why human life must be full of so much pain and suffering. Highly recommended for all readers who share the conviction that life is reasonable but that some phenomena can also be explored in a dramatic setting.

Sophocles needs no comment. The translation is highly readable--admittedly I have no other comparison in the English language. The introductions by both Pat Easterling and David Raeburn are instructive--Raeburn's hands-on experience in performing most of the pieces adds a welcome layer of practical wisdom that brings Sophocles alive for the modern reader. I miss the homerotic aspect of Sophocles in the commentary, but that's perhaps a matter of taste (in my view, his homosexuality cannot be disconnected from his works; at least "Philoctetes" is homerotic through and through).

I found this to be much more satisfying than Aeschylus's Libation Bearers. Focusing on Electrca offers a much more nuanced examination of bitterness and what it means to be exiled from those one loves. It also ties up some of the loose ends about the murder that Libation Bearers sort of glosses over. Euripides gives a real sense of the grave magnitude of these crimes. The speech where Electra condemns her mother is one of the most powerful statements of personal anger I've ever read.

Must read. Now, more than then.

Great product. Very satisfied.

I love the greek plays. The bible for classical Greece.

The Kindle edition is not the Raeburn translation. It is the old Penguin edition Watling translation.

thanks