Elektra (Euripides)

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Data
Title: Elektra
Genus: ancient tragedy
Original language: Greek
Author: Euripides
Premiere: between 420 BC BC and 413 BC Chr.
Place and time of the action: At a homestead of a Mycenaean farmer in the Argive mountains in mythical times
people
  • A Mycenaean farmer who is married to Elektra
  • Elektra, daughter of Agamemnon and Klytaimnestra
  • Orestes, her brother
  • Pylades (mute person)
  • Choir of Young Mycenaean Women
  • Old man who used to be Agamemnon's tutor
  • delivery boy
  • Clytaimestra, Queen of Argos
  • The Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux)

Elektra ( Greek  Ἠλέκτρα ) is a tragedy by the Greek poet Euripides . The play, which is rarely played today, is about the revenge of Electra on her mother Klytaimnestra , who killed Electra's father Agamemnon . Aeschylus treated the same subject in the second part of his Oresty and Sophocles in his tragedy Elektra . Aeschylus' work formed with its performance in 458 BC. The beginning. It is unclear whether the Euripidean or the Sophocleic Electra was written after this and - as well as the dating of the Euripidean Electra , which dates from 420 BC. BC and 413 BC Chr. Fluctuates - for over a hundred years one of the most contentious problems of Euripides research. According to Hellmut Flashar, Euripides' version differs from Aeschylus' and Sophocles' versions by a "provocative modernity" that was "a shock" for the Athenian theater audience of the time. Accordingly, Euripides' version could be the most recent.

Mythical prehistory

When the Greeks want to go to the Trojan War , Artemis prevents them from leaving the port with a headwind. On the advice of the seer Kalchas , the Mycenaean king Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to appease the goddess. After a successful war and return to Mycenae, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife Klytaimnestra and their lover Aigisthus in revenge for the sacrifice of Iphigenies. Aigisthus also wants to kill Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, who, however, escapes thanks to the help of his tutor and is brought up by Strophios , the king of Phocis and brother-in-law of Agamemnon.

action

Years have passed since then and Elektra , fearing that she might become the mother of a legitimate candidate for the Mycenaean throne, was married to a Mycenaean farmer who, however, treats her well, respects her and does not force her to work. Elektra lives with the farmer, who opens the plot and recounts the prehistory, in the Argive mountainous country, on the very edge of her parents' domain, which was transferred to Argos by Euripides. In this rural setting - in contrast to the treatment of the subject in Aeschylus and Sophocles - the entire plot takes place. Elektra suffers greatly from the loss of her social status and the murder of her father Agamemnon. She hopes that her brother Orestes will return soon. Then a stranger comes - the brother, not recognized by Elektra - and reports that Orestes is alive. Orestes puts Elektra to the test without being recognized and learns that she is ready, like himself, to kill Klytaimnestra together with her brother as revenge for the murdered Agamemnon.

An old man, who used to be Agamemnon's tutor and who brought Orestes to Phocis, enters the scene and recognizes Orestes. In disbelief, Elektra subjects the old educators to a sharp interrogation and gradually understands the reasons for the identification until she is convinced herself - it comes to anagnorisis , the recognition of the siblings. Thereupon the reunited siblings decide that Orestes Aigisthos and Elektra will murder Clytaimnestra themselves, in which they obey Apollo's orders to carry out revenge for parricide. With the help of the old teacher Orestes finds himself at a festival of sacrifices, where Aigisthus is also, whom he kills. This does not play on the stage in front of the audience, but is only reported to Elektra by a messenger.

Clytaimnestra, on the other hand, is lured to Elektra by sending the pedagogue to her with the false message that Elektra has given birth to a child and needs her help. Klytaimnestra, in the hope that her daughter's hatred would have subsided, rushes to her daughter - this is also a motivation for the action that does not occur in the other two tragic characters: there, Clytaimnestra is a cool and dismissive ruler. The two siblings now kill their mother and Elektra spurs on her brother like a fury, who finally thrusts the sword in the neck of Klytaimnestra.

Only at Euripides is Elektra actively involved in the murder. In contrast to Aeschylus, in which the deed is portrayed as legitimate revenge, the commenting chorus in Euripides considers the deed to be unjustifiable. The Dioscuri Kastor and Pollux, brothers of Helena , who started the Trojan War, and half-brothers of Clytaimnestra appear to clarify the situation: They predict that Elektra will have the Pylades , Orestes' friend and companion, as husband and that Orestes will be in Athens because of them accused of matricide - in contrast to other depictions, he is not persecuted by the Erinyes and driven out of the city. Since Apollo is to blame for this act, they do not have to atone with their lives.

interpretation

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
The quotations cited are not provided with proof of origin and seem, as in the case of Flashar, to be partly literal, partly paraphrased extracts from an indefinite source. Contrary to the quotation marks, they cannot be regarded as quotations in the actual sense and should therefore either be checked and verified or deleted. - Wanderer's shadow ( discussion ) 18:36, 25 Mar. 2020 (CET)

According to Gustav Adolf Seeck , Electra's active role in the act of revenge is remarkable. In addition, he identifies a negative attitude towards women at Euripides by saying: "Those viewers who were of the opinion beforehand that Euripides did not really trust women, could once again find themselves confirmed". He also thinks, when comparing the Sophoclean and Euripidean versions, that "the Euripidean [must] have looked more modern to contemporaries".

Also Hellmut Flashar says that "the Euripides Electra [...] by Aeschylus and Sophocles versions by a provocative modernity is different." He even adds: "Elektra - married, not befitting, without children, without marriage, poorly living in the country - that was a shock for the Athenian theater audience".

Even Gilbert Murray noted that "most of the critics have the distinct feeling that the two pieces of Elektra in the closest relationship to one another, in the relationship of the opposition". One is a deliberate protest against the other. In Elektra he finds “two special advantages, firstly a psychological realism of the most subtle kind, and then a new ethical atmosphere”. Euripides would have imagined "which people the children (meaning Elektra and Orestes) must have been who in this way nourished the seeds of hatred in themselves for many years (...)". He describes Elektra as “a mixture of heroism and broken nerves, a poisoned, tormented woman who consumes her heart in incessant brooding full of hatred and love; because (…) [Euripides] suspects, somewhat cruelly, that she might have lived with sufficient satisfaction had she only led a normal married life ”. Orestes was "carried away by the sister's stronger will". According to Murray, Euripides “first of all exposed the old bloodshed of the heroic splendor that surrounded it. His characters are not clear-sighted heroes who strive straight for their goal. They are erring human creatures, broken by passions, dominated by inhibitions, doubts and concerns. And furthermore, he leaves not the slightest doubt about the morality of matricide. It is an abomination and the God who ordained it - if that happened at all - was a power of darkness ”.

Martin Hose states that the piece "rather represents an act of self-destruction, which a hatred prepared in Elektra, a hatred that grew for many years and cut Elektra off from the world as it is". Because in the end, “her act is only an act against herself. With this, it seems, Euripides has highlighted a dimension of a crime that has never been described before: the psychological traumatization of the perpetrators. The Elektra thus prefigures the question whether doing injustice is worse than suffering injustice ”. However, he does not elaborate on this idea.

Like Hose, Franz Stoessl identifies a hatred in Elektra, an “abysmal hatred of the mother”, in which “something like apology” lies. He goes on to speak of "a psychology that seems to anticipate modern knowledge, [with which] (...) Euripides, repeatedly pointing out, [shows] how such deep hatred could arise in Electra's soul and grow into such insurmountable violence". He recognizes that Euripides "represents one of the primal relationships, a primal relationship of human existence and coexistence (...): the older, more mature, deeper and harder sister, marked by suffering and life, next to the younger, still boyish, more easily bearing and living brother" . He also notes, “By accusing Elektra, she begins to defend herself. As soon as the murder is accomplished, Electra's hatred is silent and the previously suppressed feeling of guilt breaks through victoriously and unchecked ”. Furthermore, Euripides “opened up a whole new dimension of the human soul in this scene of despair after the crime”. He states that “hardly anywhere else in Greek tragedy (...) people have become so consciously and internally guilty without external coercion as Orestes and Elektra in Euripides, and nowhere does remorse arise from the crime. But Euripides also has a new message of consolation for his people so deeply embroiled in despair. It is precisely their repentance that makes them worthy of salvation through divine grace ”.

Important productions

Expenses (selection)

  • Euripides, Elektra. Translation, notes and epilogue by Kurt Steinmann . Reclam, Stuttgart 2005.
  • Euripides, Elektra. Translated by Hellmut Flashar . Verlag Antike, Frankfurt am Main 2006.
  • Euripides, The Complete Tragedies and Fragments. Volume 3: The supplicating mothers, The madness of Heracles, The Trojans, Elektra. Translated by Ernst Buschor , edited by Gustav Adolf Seeck . Heimeran, Munich 1972 (original Greek text and German translation).

literature

  • Hellmut Flashar : staging of antiquity. The Greek drama on stage. From early modern times to the present. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Munich 2009.
  • Martin Hose : Euripides. The poet of passions. Munich 2008.
  • Gilbert Murray : Euripides and his time. Darmstadt 1957.

Web links