|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three of Aischylos' seven surviving plays deal with the legend of Orestes; his Oresteia is named after the hero. In the second play, the Choephoroi, Aischylos gives us a dutiful and religiously oriented Elektra, who carries out the will of Zeus, ratifying the values of the polis; the darker Erinyes are enlisted in the service of the clan-culture as the Eumenides. Aischylos' position assimilates the values of the old aristocracy to the new polis, at the same time as religion is used to shore up the traditional values of the old clans. Their power will reside in the Areopagos, and Orestes is seen to endorse the values of the old nobility by representing and carrying out the interests of the father. Through the establishment of a law court, vengeance in the future will be contained in the civilizing framework of the polis. Aischylos shows us the problematics of killing with the conflicting rights involved. Klytemnestra, the victim of clan warfare, has powerful arguments on her side. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nine of Euripides' nineteen surviving plays deal with the family of Elektra and Orestes. Euripides does not reflect the values of the clan, nor those of the city, but rather concentrates on the individual. Demoting the house and the polis, he enters into internal space; his discourse is enacted within the individual. He shows us a psychologically unbalanced Elektra, distraught that she is deprived of her inheritance (El. 10881090),20 a relatively sympathetic Klytemnestra and almost defensible Aigisthos, with more right on their side than the vicious and neurotic children that kill them. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In three of his surviving plays Sophokles mentions the family of Atreus (Ajax, Philoktetes, Elektra), but only one speaks of the vengeance of Orestes and Elektra. In his Elektra, Sophokles gives us an Elektra who is not as much concerned about her inheritance (452, 457, 960) as she is about effecting her personal justice, including that of the genos, and in this context where tyrants rule, the exercise of clan justice takes on the dimension of the exercise of freedom. This latter is the emphasis now. We see the development from Aischylos, whereby Elektra is now a representative of the genos fighting, as Antigone did, for the values of the family. But she also frees the polis from tyrants, a popular anachronistic theme that Sophokles adopts. In this version Klytemnestra and Aigisthos are despicable in their abuses. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
20 Cacoyannis found Euripides' Elektra so unappealing that, in his film based on Euripides' play (1961), he portrayed an essentially Sophoklean Elektra. See McDonald (1983) 283. I am surprised that Easterling (1989), in giving background for this opera, hardly indicates that the three representations by Aischylos, Sophokles and Euripides show us three different heroines. From Easterling's title and exposition one might believe that there was a consistent story. The dissonances among the three versions might be interpreted as cacophony by some, but at least they should be acknowledged. |
|
|
|
|
|