#Electra translated by Anne Carson

[our-lady-of-laurels]

Me when

ORESTES: How could you recognize me after all these years?

ELEKTRA: What a stupid question. I was born knowing you.

[devoutlywished]

“She is no Antigone—not noble or lovable or “deserving of golden honor,” as Sophokles says of that other lone female. But she is always worth listening to.”

Elektra by Sophocles: Introduction by Anne Carson / Spider-Man (2002) dir. Sam Raimi / Spider-Man 2 (2004) dir. Sam Raimi / Spider-Man 2 Novelization by Peter David

[transbutchblues]

i think there’s a reason why the two ancient plays i’m the most obsessed with are antigone and then elektra. both by sophocles. and with very similar yet very different main characters. antigone and elektra as sister-figures, girls from incestuous cursed families repeating the cycle of incest and curses, girls strangely attached to their fathers and brothers, both having another sister who is always forgotten, both dead before their death,…

[splendidemendax]

managed to quote my all time fav academic article (alessandro barchiesi's "future reflexive: two modes of allusion and ovid's heroides" my beloved) in an essay that i'm writing for ao3. this feels like some kind of victory.

[mournfulroses]

Sophocles, from "Electra: A Tragedy," translated by Anne Carson

[antigonick]

Hi!! Would you happen to have any recs for good retellings of Greek myths? A lot of books I've seen recommended are usually not up to the mark and I trust your taste!

In terms of contemporary fiction retellings, I don't have much to offer; the few I've picked up were always a let-down, and some older ones too (I goddamn hated Mary Renault's). I do have some favourites in poetry or in older books, but they're usually fairly transformative; and I like picking up different translations of the same ancient texts (especially with plays); they offer a new eye on the text every time, and it's usually a more interesting eye than what's huh... going on with the chain-making of Greek retellings going on these days. What I'm interested in is seeing the same story being spun differently again and again. Oh, okay, there are two that I'm excited to pick up though I haven't: Ali Smith's Girl Meets Boy and Chigozie Oboma's An Orchestra of Minorities; but I can't say anything on them yet. Anyway, a short list of options! Alice Oswald, Memorial Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus Anne Carson, Bakkhai (verging on adaptation translation) Anne Carson, Antigonick Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red Anne Carson and Rosanna Bruno, The Trojan Women Jean Anouilh, Antigone Jean Giraudoux, The Trojan War Won't Happen Jean Giraudoux, Electra Sarah Kane, Phaedra's Love Jean Racine, Phèdre Jean Paul Sartre, The Flies Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level C. S. Lewis, 'Till We Have Faces Christa Wolf, Cassandra Louise Glück, Meadowlands Louise Glück, Averno Gregory Orr, Orpheus and Eurydice: a Lyric Sequence

I hope you enjoy these!

[lionofchaeronea]

Reading Anne Carson's An Oresteia -- an amalgamation of three Greek tragedies (Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Electra, and Euripides' Orestes) that treat the myth cycle of the House of Atreus from radically different perspectives. I was a little skeptical beforehand as to how well the undertaking would work, but it turns out it's marvelous. Carson's translations carry an exceptional charge that crackles even on the page, to say nothing of performance.

[dionysism]

hey! if you don't mind answering, what's your favorite greek mythology themed book? the iliad, the odyssey or something third? also, i'm really curious what are your favorite translations of the books i just mentioned? it's always a pleasure to visit your blog btw <3

the odyssey is my fav of all time and i love the iliad dearly too but i'm also a big fan of the oresteia & related plays (sophocles electra & the euripides plays on house of atreus) but also eurpidies bacchae and also his herakles.. but medea too... (i love euripides if you can't tell 😭) also i know i mainly talk tragedy on here but aristophanes' comedies are great, you ever read lysistrata? if not you should. really funny. play is about women refusing to sleep with their husbands until they sue for peace and stop the war.

for iliad and odyssey translations i've gone into a few of my favorite translations here

the rest i couldn't offer as wide a variety of translations as with the iliad & odyssey cause some of them i've only read one translation of & i have more on my tbr but i haven't gotten to them yet so i couldn't say my thoughts. for the oresteia i have read one full trans (currently reading another) and one other agamemnon. i've read fagles (love fagles trans) & i'm reading sarah ruden's rn (great so far!) and the agamemnon comes from anne carsons (her trans is an orestia that includes aeschylus' agamemnon, sophocles' elektra & euripides' orestes and i haven't read other translations of those two yet so all i can recommend is anne's) same with euripides' iphigenia at aulis (trans by w.s. merwin & george dimock) & iphigenua among the taurians (trans by anne carson) are the only two i've read but i did enjoy them both! i also haven't read this one in full yet so take with a grain of salt but i've seen a few excerpts from robert icke's translation of the oresteia and i liked what i read so i hope to read that one soon

medea i've read three translations: oliver taplin, gilbert murray & philip vellacott. i loved all three of them but if i had to pick a favorite i'd say taplin's probably. (but, woman, can you steel yourself to kill your body's fruit? ... you would become the wretchedest of women / then let it be)

the bacche i've read anne carsons & john davie's, again both of which i enjoyed but i'm partial to carson. (dionysus' "okay ladies, up we get! no more crouching, no more sobbing!" is cute. i wouldn't describe the entire play as cute tho LMFAO. well. unless you find bacchanals and ripping people to shreds cute, which, maybe i do)

herakles i've read anne carson's, robert potter's & philip vellacott. now as ive said i do really love anne carson but potter's might take it for me as the favorite this time. one of my favorite theseus appearances in mythos too

and for lysistrata i've read douglass parker's. this is probably in my top 3 aristophanes plays. comedic genius he was

[evilios]

do you have recommendations for the best translations i can find for euripides plays and for the bacchae? i’m trying to get into more classics. i’m currently reading emily wilson’s translations of the iliad and odyssey and am planning to attempt fargles translations later.

Hey, thank you for asking! The "best" translation is going to heavily rely on what you're looking for in the text but here's ones in English I have on me that I read and liked, name of the text + translator:

Trojan Women/Troiades: Alan Shapiro*, Gilbert Murray, Richmond Lattimore

Iphigenia among the Taurians: Anne Carson

Iphigenia in Aulis: Charles R. Walker

Electra: Emily Townsend Vermeule

Medea: Oliver Taplin

Hecuba: Anne Carson

Ion: Gilbert Murray, William Simone Di Piero*

Cyclops: William Arrowsmith

Hippolytus: Anne Carson

Bacchae: William Arrowsmith, Gilbert Murray

These are my select favorites but these are not all Euripides' plays out there. A lot of these and the remaining plays are included in a series of published translations by University of Chicago Press. There are five separate books that include various English translations of Euripides alone. [ Here's a link ] to their official "guide" to the editions/texts. Anne Carson's translations are part of her Grief Lessons (aside from Iphigenia).

*It's probably excessive but I also recommend reading the introduction and notes by Peter Burian both of these come with, they were enriching!

[finelythreadedsky]

What do you think about Anne Carson’s An Oresteia

i absolutely love the translations but i'm not sold on the three plays as a unit or as "an oresteia" honestly. they do work fine as sort of a sampler of the three major tragedians (i.e. agamemnon is classic aeschylus, electra is classic sophocles, and orestes is classic euripides) but i'm not sure they really work as a sequence-- partially bc i think sophocles is much complicated more than an intermediary step between aeschylus and euripides, thematically as well as simply chronologically. i don't think being all about the house of atreus is ultimately enough to tie them together. they're not really three playwrights' takes on the same subject the way that, say, the libation bearers and the two electra plays are. now that's a 'sampler' of the three major tragedians that lets you compare them rather than just sample them.

[filmnoirsbian]

I have also been working on a modern, mommy-issues centered retelling of the Oresteia (been working on it for years before I founds you blog lol) but I wanted to ask what your favorite translations/adjacent media to the Oresteia is?

Electra by Sophocles, Oresteia by Robert Icke, Electra by Tom McGrath, Girl on an Altar by Marina Carr, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell that was Once Her Heart: A Rave Fable by Caridad Svich, An Oresteia by Anne Carson, The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), A Wounded Fawn (2022)

[flowerprose]

So Hades + Persephone retelling embargo aside, I was wondering if you had any good retellings you've read? Or just good greek myth retellings in general? I have started Circe. Also, do you have any recommendations for like good places to start learning more about the original myths? I know about Theoi but I'd love other resources if you have them? Thank yoooooooou <3

yes! many.

greek myth retellings i've read and enjoyed:

circe, the song of achilles by madeline miller

stone blind, a thousand ships by natalie haynes

the penelopiad by margaret atwood

lore by alexandra bracken

mythos, heroes, trojan by stephen fry

autobiography of red by anne carson

resources for greek mythology:

the iliad by homer (translated by richard lattimore, robert fagles, or emily wilson, whose edition is set to debut this fall)

the odyssey by homer (translators same as previous, though wilson's is already available)

an oresteia trans. by robert fagles, anne carson

grief lessons trans. by anne carson

sophocles, electra trans. by anne carson

sophokles, antigone trans. by anne carson

fragments of sappho trans. by anne carson

metamorphoses by ovid (albeit roman fanfiction of greek mythology, but verbose, heady, and necessary)

the homeric hymns

mythology: timeless tales of gods and heroes by edith hamilton

i would also like to loop in @andromedaexists, who studies classics, and @authoralexharvey, a hellenistic pagan, as they read widely and probably have a host of recommendations themselves.

[ptolomeas]

‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎#BECKETT,          @andarrows  disgusts  her  (  no,  he  delights  her,  he  is  the  erinyes  stripping  her  apart  until  she  is  nothing  but  herself  —  the  more  appropriate  word  would  be  terrifies,  horrifies,  sickens  )

i.   goodreads  discussion  answer  /  goodreads  user  jackie  l.   ii.  &  iv.   red  desert  (  1964  )  /  dir.  michelangelo  antonioni   iii.  &  v.   electra  /  sophocles,  translated  by  anne  carson   vi.   the  lover  /  marguerite duras   vii.  the  fruits  /  paris  paloma   viii.   thread  reply  by  c  (  user  @andarrows  )   ix.  saltburn  (  2023  )  /  dir.  emerald  fennell   x.   theatrical  trailer  for  house  /  hausu  (  1977  )  /  dir.  nobuhiko  ôbayash   xi.  if  we  were  villains  /  m.l.  rio   xii.   l'eclisse  (  1962  )  /  dir.  michelangelo  antonioni   xiii.  necktie  (  2013  )  /  dir.  yorgos  lanthimos   xiv.  the  secret  history  /  donna  tartt

[mournfulroses]

Sophocles, from "Electra: A Tragedy," translated by Anne Carson

[saintarmand]

8, 17, 21 & 22 for the iwtv ask thingy! 🤍

8. Who's your favorite actor?

jacob anderson. come on now. they're all great but he is ethereal. second place assad zaman

17. Have you read or watched anything because it was referenced in the show?

oh just a few things

love's coming of age by edward carpenter

chéri by colette

nausea by jean-paul sartre (louis was reading this in ep6 when lestat and claudia are playing chess while talking about nicki. you can't see the full cover but i went detective mode and figured it out)

madame bovary by gustave flaubert

a moveable feast by ernest hemingway (s2 first look "esurient hearts beating as one, the rumbling beast of the moveable feast")

iolanta (tchaikovsky opera)

don pasquale (donizetti opera)

pelléas et mélisande (debussy opera)

a doll's house (henrik ibsen play)

a streetcar named desire (tennessee williams play) + the movie with marlon brando

i didnt read the full text but i did hunt down and read parts of "de masticatione mortuorum, the chewing dead" that claudia mentions, full title "dissertatio historico-philosophica de masticatione mortuorum" by philip rohr (1679) (view the original manuscript here + english translation here)

i havent finished all of emily dickinson's poems yet but im getting there! (some of these i had read before ofc but im reading them all in order now)

ive also previously watched nosferatu (and rewatched it for iwtv) and the trimph of the will (NOT rewatching 💀 that was for a film history class) and ive read dante's inferno which louis mentions ("if i was to join dante's wood of the self-murdered...") and i highly recommend it!!! absolute fav

there's also stuff that wasn't directly referenced in the show but the fandom has drawn parallels to, that i've read and watched for that reason.

anne carson's an oresteia (to better understand all the agamemnon iphigenia clytemnestra electra comparisons people make)

giovanni's room by james baldwin

rebecca (1940 film)

theres def more movies but i cant remember lol

and theres some nonfiction books i've yet to finish bc im slow at nonfiction

the vampire: a casebook by alan dundes (cited by writers as s2 inspo! about irl vampire folklore)

black new orleans 1860-1880 by john w. blassingame for historical context

the theatre of fear and horror by mel gordon, on the grand guignol aka the inspiration for theatre des vampires (i did finish this one except for the summaries of all the plays, i decided to skip that there's so many. very engaging read and gives a lot of insight into the some of the bts stuff we've seen about the theatre)

louis's favorite movies from the tale of the the body thief!

la belle et la bête (1946)

the company of wolves (1984)

the dead (1987)

i may be forgetting some stuff. there's also so much more on my list that i mean to get to. a prayer for owen meany by john irving, of "memory is a monster" quote fame is locked and loaded for example

if anyone's interested to hear my thoughts on any of these feel free to ask i would love to talk about it!!!

all this and i've still only read the first 6 of the actual vampire chronicles. and im still procrastinating starting merrick

21. What was your favorite monologue of season one?

HMM the obvious one is louis's confession. ive watched the whole sequence from the funeral to the end of the episode a truly unhealthy number of times. also claudia's coffin monologue

22. Who's your favorite character? Why?

LOUIS. probably because i relate to him so much. instant connection. tricked into loving myself. also like hes literally louis how could i not love him do i need to even explain this

when i started reading the books i didnt care for book louis that much lol but i did become an armand stan. possibly bc i also relate to him im selfish like that i guess. also just his whole backstory and the way it informs everything he does is so fascinating to me. ppl say hes incomprehensible and hes literally not. everything he does makes sense when you consider his life experiences

iwtv ask game

[xuanelle]

Electra, Sophocles, translator: Anne Carson