An Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides

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Words are coined by pressing old words together into new compounds--"dayvisible" 54 , "dreamvisible" , "manminded" 9 , "thricegorged" , "godaccomplished" Metaphors come, go and reappear as fact; for example, the figurative "dragnet of allenveloping doom" that the Greeks threw over Troy materializes as the very real "dragnet--evil wealth of cloth" in which Klytaimestra snares Agamemnon to kill him Real objects are so packed with meanings both literal and metaphoric that they explode into symbol, like the red carpet or cloth over which Agamemnon walks as he enters his house When talking about the violence of paint, it''s nothing to do with the violence of war.

It''s to do with an attempt to remake the violence of reality itself We nearly always live through screens--a screened existence. And I sometimes think, when people say my work looks violent, that I have been able to clear away one or two of the veils or screens. He uses language the way Bacon uses paint, especially in the Kassandra scene where he stages the working of her prophetic mind--the veils, the screens, the violence, the clearing away. She is a microcosm of his method. Francis Bacon thinks of himself as a realist painter, although he admits this requires him "to reinvent realism.

They both have an instinct "to trap the living fact alive" in all its messy, sensational, symbolic overabundance. Let''s return to the red carpet that Aiskhylos unrolls as if in slow motion in the famous carpet scene that carries Agamemnon into his house and his death. This amazing red object can be interpreted as blood, wealth, guilt, vengeance, impiety, female wile, male hybris , sexual seepage, bad taste, inexhaustible anger and an action invented by Klytaimestra to break Agamemnon''s will.

As a woven thing, it reminds us that women are the ones who weave and that weaving is an analogy for deceptiveness. Klytaimestra will use cloth again when she snares Agamemnon to kill him. As a red or purple-red object, the cloth is bloodlike but also vastly expensive and ruined by trampling. Agamemnon fears that this action will look insolent or impious or both--he feels all eyes upon him. As a cause of dispute between husband and wife, the red cloth unfolds her power to master him in argument and outwit him in battle.

For this is a battle, and when he enters the house, he has lost it. Notice he enters in silence while she comes behind. Then she pauses and turns at the doorway to deliver oneof the most stunning speeches of the play "There is the sea and who shall drain it dry? It is a truism of ancient stagecraft that the one who controls the doorway controls the tragedy, according to Oliver Taplin. The carpet scene is like a big red arrow Aiskhylos has painted on the play to underscore the fact. Violence in Agamemnon emanates spectacularly from one particular word: Notice how often this word recurs and how many different angles it has.

Almost everyone in the play claims to know what justice is and to have it on their side--Zeus, Klytaimestra, Agamemnon, Aigisthos and according to Kassandra Apollo. The many meanings of the word justice have shaped the history of the house of Atreus into a gigantic double bind. No one can stop the vicious cycle of vengeance that carries on from crime to crime in its name. The bloodyfaced Furies are its embodiment. I don''t think Aiskhylos wants to clarify the concept of justice in any final way, although lots of readers have seen this as the intention of his Oresteia overall.

So far as Agamemnon goes, no definition is offered. The play shows that the word makes different sense to different people and how blinding or destructive it can be to believe your "justice" is the true one. This is not a problem with which we are unfamiliar nowadays. As Kassandra says, "I know that smell" , The play is set at the palace of Agamemnon, also known as the house of Atreus, in Argos. Agamemnon has been away for more than ten years at the Trojan War.

It is the middle of the night. A watchman is lying on the palace roof. Free me from this grind! It''s one long year I''m lying here watching waiting watching waiting--propped on the roof of Atreus, chin on my paws like a dog. I''ve peered at the congregation of the nightly stars--bright powerful creatures blazing in air, the ones that bring summer, the ones that bring winter, the ones that die out, the ones that rise up--and I watch I watch I watch for this sign of a torch, a beacon light sending from Troy the news that she is captured.

Those are the orders I got from a certain manminded woman. But whenever I take to my restless dreamless dewdrenched bed I cannot close my eyes--fear stands over me instead of sleep. And whenever I think to sing or hum a tune to stay awake then my tears fall. This house is in trouble. The good days are gone. It wants to weave the three great Greek tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides into a collaboration about the House of Atreus that will allow its readers to get a feel for all three, as well as a coherent story.

And by a terrific poet and translator, to boot! And it gets off to a promising start, too, with a terrific rendition of Agamemnon. I've read two other translations - Fagles and Hughes - Ah, it kills me to do this: I've read two other translations - Fagles and Hughes - and this one stands up just fine with them.

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But it goes downhill from there. Elektra just isn't Sophocles' best; it's a retelling of Aeschylus's Libation Bearers, and it's not as good. Not the fault of the translation, just the way it is. And by the time we get to Euripides' Orestes again, not his best work I kinda felt like Carson was losing interest. Euripides is a brilliant playwright - sly, nasty, modern, complicated and brash - but Carson picks up on his impish habit of upending themes and tropes and takes it as simple mischief, instead of the deadly serious commentary Euripides intended it to be.

She includes modernizations that are badly out of place. I marked one or two, but my book's not with me - will try to get them in later. So in the end I think Carson's Oresteia more or less fails. It's fine to read, but its goals are higher than its reach. May 05, Jeremy Allan rated it really liked it Shelves: I was tempted by the fifth star. These three translations are wild.

They stretch uncomfortably between courtly speech of ancient greek dynasties and the idioms we hear on the street in New York City. Therefore it isn't easy to just experience these plays as rendered by Carson. We are constantly aware of them as spectacle, even as they exist before us as text. They are uneven, raw, and sometimes hilarious. And these things make for a reading experience full of surprise. I would careen from a mome I was tempted by the fifth star.

I would careen from a moment where a line lays me out flat on my bedroom floor, into another moment where I'm laughing at the audaciousness of an idiomatic snark. Such is the genius of these translations, which is to say little about the genius of the source plays themselves. Only four stars, but only because the final selection by Euripides unraveled a bit too much for me to say, "Perfection! Jun 18, James Murphy rated it really liked it. I'm serving 2 interests here: She's taken 3 plays concerning justice and vengeance and timed around the return of Agamemnon and Menelaus from Troy and combined them into a continuity.

The primary attraction here is Carson's poetry. I find everything she writes terribly interesting. Here she's limited a bit because the e I'm serving 2 interests here: Here she's limited a bit because the emotion the language generates is already prescribed. But she's able to give us a modern feel to the language, a modern phrasing, which helps to streamline the action.

The best verse is given to the Chorus, and it's often rhymed. This was an interesting read. I think Carson previously did this with 4 plays by Euripides, and I'm telling myself I should look into them. Nov 13, Stephen Kiernan rated it liked it. For a while I thought this translation of the great Greek plays was brilliant, innovative and accessible. But then the language became inconsistent for me admittedly very much a non-scholar of this classic material so that the diction would sweep from high Shakespearean to practically street talk without a guiding reason or method.

I stopped on pg Jun 23, Francesca rated it really liked it. Really digged this translation. Not enough death, tho. Jan 13, pearl marked it as to-read Shelves: You're mad--godstruck godswept godnonsensical and you keep making that sound, it's not musical. Like the nightingale who wails her lost child, you're inexhaustibly wild.

Sorrow this, sorrow that, sorrow this, sorrow that. But yes think oh think of the clear nightingale-- gods put round her a wing a life with Kassandra: But yes think oh think of the clear nightingale-- gods put round her a wing a life with no sting but for me waits schismos of the double-edged sword: I read this at the same time as the traditional Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus so that I could compare and contrast. The last two plays take place at basically the same time as the usual last two plays by Aeschylus Libation Bearers and Eumenides.

They are written at very different times by different authors, and the last one doesn't have the same storyline at all. So, comparing the choices of plays, I very much liked the choice of Sophocles' "Elektra", but I found Euripides' "Orestes" to be wei I read this at the same time as the traditional Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus so that I could compare and contrast. So, comparing the choices of plays, I very much liked the choice of Sophocles' "Elektra", but I found Euripides' "Orestes" to be weird and not affecting. I preferred the emotional content of "Elektra" to "Libation bearers" even, but "Orestes" was a let down for the last part.

It's just such a strange piece and the ending is particularly weird and abrupt. As for the translations, that is most easily seen in comparing both versions of "Agamemnon" by Aeschylus. I really liked this translation by Anne Carson over the more traditional one, because it is translated into contemporary English that flows and allows the emotional content to come through.

This is because when it is translated into English more directly or into an archaic English, you are so busy trying to figure out what it really means and basically re-translating it into contemporary English. However, I did find that when idiomatic phrases were used, it threw me out of the play. I was so immediately conscious of these phrases being modern that I kept stopping and wondering what the original phrase might have been.

This became a problem for me while reading the second two plays for which I didn't have another version to compare them. The last play "Orestes" in particular seemed to have too many of these idiomatic phrases that I know are estimates and not real translations and it kept pulling me out of the story. So, while I prefer the more contemporary translation, I do feel like it went a little too far with the obvious idiomatic phrases. You may also find this review on my blog, The Literary Bystander! This book fills me with nothing but guilt.

I mean, one of my creative writing teacher said it was one of her favourite books of all time - the kind of book that she'd chose if she could only save three pieces of work lest she was on a deserted island or something. And I thought it was just okay. There is so much cultural baggage and they are just held in such high esteem, that when I, an inconsequential reader who normally reads nothing but crappy internet fanfics and contemporary genre fiction, have come across something like this, then I am just filled with shame for not liking it.

An Oresteia

I probably enjoyed Aiskhylos' Agamemnon the most out of the three plays they are plays right? My tutor kept referring to them as poems which confused me , if only because I was the most actively engaged with the story with all of them tension and suspense and it left me the least annoyed and bewildered. Klytaimestra is probably my favourite character, just because she is just a total badass. While her actions are pretty godawful but never to the no-hands-barred, go-hard-or-go-home extent that Medea does , you really do understand why she felt she was justified in her actions.

Also she had the best monologues, I mean her words were just scrumptious to read through. I'm sorry, I get that she has been cast aside and badly mistreated from like everyone in the play, but after awhile - you kind of understand why. I mean, my god was she just annoying and just would never stops talking. If Anne Carson didn't give me a pretty legit explanation for her ramblings, I'd been more than content just straight up disliking her. But then again, all she really does is bemoan about the death of her father, complaining about her mother, her lover yet never doing anything about it.

She seems like such a headstrong, strong-willed character that it kind of confuses me while she remains such a passive character and just waits for eons for her brother Orestes to return and seek vengeance. Which he does, but not without being a tool and messing around her at whether he's really dead or not.

Also, those two are what I supposed Ancient Greek equivalent of Saturday morning cartoon villains. Seriously, I mean there is a difference between monologuing your evil plan to your victim, and then there's just screaming your plan before you plan to enact it. You guys are lucky the old man had good timing before you yapped to half the town about your revenge plans. Now the final play by Euripides, Orestes really is like a complete and utterly bleak look at the aftermath of what happens after Orestes committed matricide against Klytaimestra to which I was like, no!

Don't kill the only character I like!

Elektra is like next to useless, and it just looks into what it feels like for these two siblings being at the bottom of the barrel. Just when I thought things would just end on a completely downbeat ending, something happens that just Menelaos, distraught and pissed off, demands to see the body of his wife and pleads for Hermione's life. Just when you think there will be more bloodshed, Apollo appears out of nowhere. Yeah, that Apollo, who had been manipulating Orestes to murder his mother, amongst other things, etc etc.

Anyway, so Apollo is suddenly like: I'm going to tell you what y'all gonna do. Menelaos, take a breather, because your wife Helen is chilling with us up at Mount Olympus, cause she's one of the fifty million daughters of Zeus, aka "I like to put my penis into everything".

So you go enjoy your wife's dowry up in Sparta, while Orestes, you get to rule Argo in which I totally imagine Orestes just fist pumping into the air and just being like "sweet! No joke, that is pretty much how the play ends, and I am just sitting there like: I mean, I get that you don't want to exactly anger a god of all people I think a lot of unlucky folks from Greek mythology can attest to that but still, what the hell was that? You can't have a whole dedicated to showing the utter tragedy and horrors that come with a family that is full of bloodshed, anger and hatred; and then, you know, just give me this as an ending.

I'm sorry, I found it to be a totally anti-climatic ending that totally that just threw me off from enjoying this play. Dec 27, Lauren rated it really liked it. If I had read these adaptations in high school rather than the mandated dry-as-dirt translations, I would have developed an appreciation for this era much earlier. Aug 25, Jeff Buddle rated it it was amazing.

Kinda fun to read the three Greek greats as they take on the story of Orestes and crew, especially as filtered through the sure hand of Anne Carson who brings a colloquial liveliness to such ancient texts. Aeschylus's themes still come through, each play demonstrates the step-by-step maturation of Greek civilization as it moves from primitive tribal eye-for-an-eye vengeance to a system of laws, courts and trials.

In this case Euripides , it takes Apollo to intervene with a deux ex machina flour Kinda fun to read the three Greek greats as they take on the story of Orestes and crew, especially as filtered through the sure hand of Anne Carson who brings a colloquial liveliness to such ancient texts. In this case Euripides , it takes Apollo to intervene with a deux ex machina flourish, but still, we're on our way to a more recognizable form of justice.

Leave it to Anne Carson to turn the ancients into a contemporary page-turner. Jul 23, NaomiRuth rated it it was amazing Shelves: I fell in love with this book. I need to own it. I want to wrap myself around every word and drink it in.

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Anne Carson is a beautiful translator. I couldn't put it down and I tried, I had other plans tonight, laundry to do, and gods only know what else. Excellent Truly an excellent translation from a legend in her field. I adored Agamemnon and like Elektra quite a bit. Did not care for Orestes, though that is no fault of Ms. Jan 31, Basil Ortiz rated it it was amazing. Apr 21, anidiom rated it really liked it.

Jul 30, Neha rated it it was amazing. I lovelovelove Anne Carson's translations. Brings a whole new dimension to these plays.

Sep 10, Ana rated it really liked it. On the other hand she didn't rip my heart out and stomp on it like her other works. Could be just me. Dec 25, Ella rated it really liked it. Feb 27, ren rated it really liked it. Jan 07, Meghan rated it really liked it. It was easy to read and understand. The lines were short, instead of some translations which say a line with too many words. Although I had already read Agamemnon and Elektra in other books, I really like the idea of publishing the Greek tragedies that pertain to one another in one book.

She could have included the Iphigenia plays here as well and it would have made for a wonderful succession of storyline. This play takes place on the heels of what Elektra covers. Reading them right in a row, I would think I was almost reading the same play with all the plots of murder. Orestes has just killed his mother and this play covers the reactions of the city and his family before he goes on his journey of madness.

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In the following lines, Elektra refers to the goddesses sent to madden Orestes as Eumenides. Yes gods are on his case now — Those ghastly flashing goddesses I hesitate to name: Repeat after me, Eumenides! How is it some people manage to come out On top every time? May the gods hate you! You wrecked me, You wrecked a whole generation of Greeks! Proper, righteous, within the law. He was right to think her evil But this murder makes him more to blame.

The worst part after all this is decreed is that Menelaos, Elektra, Pylades, Orestes, and Hermoine all promptly agree to what is directed by Apollo. Feb 17, Farren rated it liked it. Okay, so here is the obstacle I keep running into as I'm trying to formulate my thoughts about this translation: The problem is, like, Okay, so here is the obstacle I keep running into as I'm trying to formulate my thoughts about this translation: The problem is, like, big chunks of the story are sort of missing?

Like, Agaememnon doesn't really have a death scene? Klytaimnestra just rolls onstage and goes "Okay it's done! The text is so spare, with such wide uncharted spaces between scenes, I can't help but throw up my hands and go, What happened here? Did I get stoned and miss a bunch of lectures? Should I take an incomplete?

I will walk with my song torn open Chorus: Why are you suddenly speaking clear as day? A newborn child could construe what you say. It gives me a bloody pain to hear all the griefs you name. Some heavy spirit swoops in on you and takes your breath— out comes Death. Which makes me want to opine that the entire project, start to finish, is a better inter-textual critique and conversation with other translations than a translation entire.

Which makes me feel a little sucker-punched, but Anne, I ain't mad atcha. Oct 08, Captain Sir Roddy, R. Anne Carson has done an amazingly marvelous job with her fascinating translation of her version of 'The Oresteia. I have to say that it is a simply brilliant combination. This is contemporary poetry at its absolute finest!

Her interpretation is modern, lyrical, and quite powerful. Carson's Agamemnon is bleak, dark, and sinister; and one Anne Carson has done an amazingly marvelous job with her fascinating translation of her version of 'The Oresteia. Carson's Agamemnon is bleak, dark, and sinister; and one can't help be astounded with the power and rage exhibited by Klytaimestra and the penetratingly prophetic and haunting voice of Kassandra. The second play, that of Sophocles' Elektra , is equally riveting. In this rendition, Carson's interpretation gives Elektra's language great power and emotion as she incites her brother, Orestes in their plan to murder their mother, Klytaimestra.

It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up as you read these lines, and watch the siblings enact their terrible vengeance upon their mother and her lover. The final play is Carson's rendition of Euripides' Orestes , and deals with Orestes' deep and emotional descent into the internal hell of his guilt over his killing of his mother. The people of Argos are all too ready to condemn and execute him for his matricide. His sister, Elektra, steadfastly stays at his side, and tries to help him cope with the madness which afflicts him, i.

Ultimately, it takes the intervention of Apollo to absolve Orestes of his matricide and restore order and justice to the Argive community. If you have read Aeschylus' monumental masterpiece The Oresteia and any of the tragic plays of Sophocles and Euripides, I highly recommend this wonderfully contemporary treatment of the Oresteian tale by Anne Carson.

Personally, I would simply love to see this version performed on the stage some time soon. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. He is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict among them; previously, characters interacted only with the chorus. Unfortunately, only seven of an estimated 70 plays by Aeschylus have survived into modern times; one of these plays, Prometheus Bound , is sometimes thought not to be the work of Aeschylus.

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