flores-et-dracones

[flores-et-dracones]

thoughts on electra as a character? :)

Aeschylus’ Electra appears only in one scene in one play of his great Oresteia trilogy. She is the Athenian ideal of a “good” woman - she stays indoors, in the private female sphere; she leaves the house only in the context of performing her religious duties (the only aspect of public life in which women played a prominent role); she is loyal to the men in her family (her father and her brother), and she prays to be more chaste than her gender-role transgressing mother. After performing her religious rites at her father’s tomb, and welcoming home his male heir, she retreats back into the house at the command of her brother, and we never see or hear from her again.

Sophocles’ Electra refuses to stay inside the house. She sits at the palace doorway, lamenting her father and the wickedness of her mother and her mother’s lover for all to hear. This is the only form of resistance she can muster - her brother has not answered her letters for help, and her sister refuses to rise up with her against the usurpers. Her voice is the only weapon she possesses, and she refuses to be silent - despite being deemed shrill and hysterical by both her enemies and her allies alike. She is like Antigone, in some ways - raw, stubborn, relentlessly demanding justice from those in power. But the weight of her suffering and the passivity inflicted on her turn her cold and cruel. In a twist of tragic irony, she ends the play as Creon, rather than Antigone - murderous and sacrilegious. But while Creon finally sees the light and recognizes his folly, Electra does not.

Euripides’ Electra, like Sophocles’, is driven by a hatred of her mother. She is more active than both her Aeschylean and Sophoclean counterparts, taking part in the matricide along with Orestes - her hand is on the sword as they plunge it into their mother’s heart. This is bold, too bold - Apollo’s command applied only to Orestes, not to her (but then, Orestes in this play is weak and Electra is his backbone). Unlike Sophocles’ Electra, Euripides’ Electra immediately recognizes the horror of what she’s done, the pollution that now contaminates her. She is filled with remorse. Suffering is knowledge. She suffers, and thus comes closer to understanding the tragedy of the human condition.

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“Metaphysical silence happens inside words themselves. And its intentions are harder to define. Every translator knows the point where one language cannot be rendered into another.”

— Anne Carson, Variations on the Right to Remain Silent, in Nay Rather

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views from the acropolis (athens june 2018)

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Who did they pray to,

The dying and the dead,

Mothers for their sons,

Sisters for their brothers?

I would shear my head,

Rip my face open,

Drown Greece with tears,

And flood wretched Troy.

I would bleed my nails,

I would stain my soft skin,

This is the face that torched

The citadels of Troy.

For this body, my body,

Her men and maidens burned.

The earth was quaking,

I gave birth to tears and blood.

Pray for good fortune?

No, pray for mercy.

- Euripides’ Helen: A Version by Frank McGuinness

[flores-et-dracones]

imagine this: you're the baddest bitch in the Roman Republic. you have spent the past few decades fighting, fucking and planning to take control of the known world. you've killed millions of people. you became the fucking pontifex maximus and used some guy's idea to reinvent the calendar. you were the first roman to have a terrible vacation experience in the UK. you won a civil war. your best friend likes to commission naked statues of you and stand in front of them calling you a king at parties.

it's the 15th March 44 b.c.e and life is good. the people love you and you just became a dictator for life. you leave your mansion, ignoring your wife's pleas for you to stay (venus above that woman is in love with you) and shake off the soothsayer who keeps following you around and talking about your doom (spurinna is obsessed with you). you swagger into work, sit down, and are immediately stabbed by a bunch of your coworkers. you stagger around for a bit feeling sorry for yourself, before collapsing down dead at the statue of the guy that you had that civil war against. what a way to go.

[flores-et-dracones]

October 2022

Juno & Mercury | Palazzo Altemps, Rome

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4th June 2023

The Roman Baths | Bath, UK

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May 2023

Temple of Poseidon, Cape Sounion

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October 2022

Palazzo Altemps, Rome

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October 2022

Palazzo Altemps, Rome

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Rome, October 2022

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April 2023

Cambridge, UK

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Rome, October 2022

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New Year so young it still yawned and stretched

Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, trans. Armitage

[flores-et-dracones]

Hii. I saw your pics from budapest in march. Can you tell me how were the weather there? i'm going to there next month!

The weather was dry and sunny, but cool enough during the day - we wore coats! - and very very cold at night (hats & scarves definitely required!). But I think if you are traveling there in May it will probably be a good bit warmer! It’s a beautiful city, enjoy your trip 🙂

[flores-et-dracones]

16th April 2022

some (slightly) unexpected places the phd has taken me today

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16th April 2022

a lot of Iliads