CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction:
I The Myth
II The Play
III This Edition
Bibliography
PARALLEL GREEK TEXT AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Commentary
King Agamemnon is long dead and his murderers rule at Argos.
His son Orestes returns from exile to kill them his own
mother Clytemnestra and her seducer Aegisthus. Thus he will release
his sister Electra from oppression and reclaim his home and kingdom.
This is the only episode from Greek legend treated in surviving
plays by all three of the great Athenian tragedians of the fifth
century B.C. Aeschylus in his Libation-bearers (part
of the Oresteia trilogy), Sophocles and Euripides each
in plays called Electra. Together these plays give us a
unique opportunity to compare and contrast the very different
treatments by the three playwrights of a central Greek legend.
In Sophocles' hands the focus of the play is on Electra herself:
her endurance and loyalty to the dead Agamemnon while oppressed
and persecuted by Clytemnestra and Aegistus; her intense grief
when she believes Orestes dead; her equally intense joy when she
discovers him actually at her side; her final deliverance through
his triumphant execution of vengeance on the murderers.
But is there more to the play than this story of triumphant revenge
and restorations? The introduction of this book includes a survey
of the main interpretative issues, as well as a summary of other
treatments of the myth and a discussion of the problematic question
of dating. The commentary, which is based on the translation,
elucidates the action.
Jennifer R. March was formerly Lecturer and Research Fellow at University College London and author of The Creative Poet (BICS Suppl. 49, London, 1987). Also editor of the Classical Association periodical CA News.
240pp. A5 cl. 575 5 $59.99 / £35; pb. 576 3 $28 / £16.50 (October 2001)
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CONTENTS Preface Introduction: Bibliography PARALLEL GREEK TEXT AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION Commentary |
SOME COMMENTS BY REVIEWERS
"M's edition achieves its purposes and serves
well its target audience. It should be recommended as an excellent
introduction to Sophocles' Electra." BMCR
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