#I'm reading The Oresteia

[chronomally]

In the expensive and insanely over-the-top version of The Oresteia that torments me in all my waking hours, I imagine Clytemnesta played by someone with Gwendoline Christie's height/build

[finelythreadedsky]

now THIS is experimental philology

[morosexualhoratio]

so i'm doing an intensive program on greek tragedy this summer and to prepare i'm gonna be reading a ton of plays in the next 2 weeks. i'm probably gonna liveblog the plays i read and maybe the program as well if i remember while i'm there so if you don't wanna see that block "#graces tragedy summer" . much love <3

[slettlune]

i've just rearranged my bedroom and suddenly have a lot of prime wall space to decorate. i'm thinking about getting some art prints

i keep thinking it'd be REALLY funny to put neoclassical art depicting great anguish/fury/remorse directly over my bed. like imagine gently dozing off under a huge print of orestes pursued by furies or something:

[ilions-end]

uh oh guys i'm only a few pages into agamemnon and i'm already hissing FUCK out loud in my living room as the chorus summarizes the sacrifice of iphigenia

PAIN BOTH WAYS

see this is why i think agamemnon is so much more interesting to approach as a tragic character within the confines of a tragedy than simplistic pop cultural "agamemnon = villain man, boo". he made a horrific choice but it was the fact that he had to choose that was horrific! "the worst will break me once i rend my child". FUCK

[agnesandhilda]

do you think the time my actual irl father held me at knifepoint is evident in how insane I get about iphigenia's sacrifice and the binding of isaac

[myblacknightworld]

I might've just impulsively bought 30€ of books, and they might be the Bacchae, Medea and the Oresteia in Italian with the greek text upfront

[rotisseries]

everything on earth and heaven above and also hell below is conspiring to make sure I don't get to read this one damn book

[queencvbra]

me versus my hatred for the s*xualization of Elektra's character and her feminine rage to the point that there is a psychological complex named after it

[erebus-luckycharm]

Emptied out my shopping cart on the second hand books website and snagged a 1959 copy of The Haunting of Hill House, soooo excited for it to arrive in the mail🌝🌚😩😩

[allbeendonebefore]

ok agamemnon is on the scene it is Time to summon my lover perseus dot tufts dot edu to help me read

[chronomally]

"[Clytemnestra] is no loyal Penelope; she is a female Odysseus..." Would you like to go reread The Odyssey? I can wait

[fred-erick-frankenstein]

Klytaimestra did nothing wrong.

[catilinas]

Hello! I apologize if im bothering, and wish you all the best in upcoming year! I wanted to ask, do you perhaps have some suggestions for modern plays ( written in last 20 or so years) inspired by greek tragedies (either serving as motifs or beibg retellings), particularly Oresteia? I am asking because I see lots and lits of literary retellings, but with few exceptions, rarely dramas. Thank you anyway, sorry for bothering, and have great holidays!

hi!!! i can think of a few but but because i'm more of a roman epic person the list is mostly plays i've actually seen. i think literary retellings are probably easier to find people talking about online because like. they aren't performed and so there's not the access barrier of needing to Go And See The Performance. and then also there are plays where you then can't get hold of the script! i'm also assuming you're interested in plays that aren't just translations / close adaptations of tragedies, because those are a lot easier to find and also like. more common?

here are some plays that i have either read or seen that fit your criteria and also fuck immensely:

the burial at thebes: a version of sophocles' antigone - seamus heaney

antigone the musical - marina mccready (does cool things w genre; version of antigone that has made me feel the most genuine sympathy for creon)

the cure at troy: a version of sophocles' philoctetes - seamus heaney (this isn't quite within the last 20 years but you may be interested anyway!)

phaedra's love - sarah kane (also a bit older but it's sooo good. although it is maybe more senecan tragedy than greek tragedy?)

phaedra - simon stone (based on euripides' hippolytus but also the plays by seneca and racine. but also it isn't any of them. but also it IS)

oresteia - robert icke (maybe my favourite play of all time ever) (robert icke has also done a version of oedipus but it was in dutch and i don't think it's possible to get the script?)

girl on an altar - marina carr (inspired by the oresteia but. not. also very cool in that it incorporates a Lot of iphigenia at aulis and yet iphigenia never appears. and then the whole play is about her)

also! if you aren't aware of the archive of performances of greek and roman drama productions database you might also want to rummage around in there! like i am Aware of things like a recent musical version of medea / iphigenia in splott but they are almost certainly in that extremely filterable database :D

also also clutuals pspspspsps if you have any particularly cool additions to this list. hi. hello.

[libraincarnate]

astrology notes: 18 (love quotes) 🦇‧₊⁺⭒

quick note: i'm absolutely not an astrologer and this post is just for fun. i understand that some of these quotes or excerpts may not be about love when you consider the full context of the poem or work of literature, but this is how i am intepreting and applying them without context. lastly, keep in mind that i'm not reading your birth chart and i know nothing about you. these are just quotes that remind me of the signs so you may or may not be able to relate to them. enjoy!

𓆩♡𓆪 aries:

“If we meet each other in Hell, it’s not Hell.”

— Geoffrey Hill, Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012

𓆩♡𓆪 taurus:

“The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity...” 

           — George Orwell, 1984 ↟♡↟

𓆩♡𓆪 gemini:

“The next day I write him one of the most human notes he has ever received: no intellect, just words about his voice, his laughter, his hands.”

— Anaïs Nin, from Henry and June: From “A Journal of Love”: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1931-1932

𓆩♡𓆪 cancer: 

“…Your chest is becoming the field I want to be buried in.” 

— Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, from The Year of No Mistakes: “Atlas”

𓆩♡𓆪 leo: 

“Attention is the beginning of devotion."  

           ― Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays 🦇

𓆩♡𓆪 virgo: 

Pylades: I’ll take care of you.

Orestes: It’s rotten work. 

Pylades: Not to me. Not if it’s you.

― Orestes by Euripides from An Oresteia, translated by Anne Carson

𓆩♡𓆪 libra:

“If there is life after the earth-life, will you come with me? Even then? Since were bound to be something, why not together.”

           ― Mary Oliver, from “West Wind” ↟♡↟

𓆩♡𓆪 scorpio:

“They had made love in every possible way, or so they believed, and they theorized about new ways but came up only with death.”

― Roberto Bolaño, from '2666', translated by Natasha Wimmer

𓆩♡𓆪 sagittarius:

"All roads lead to you even those I took to forget you."

           ― Mahmoud Darwish 🦇

𓆩♡𓆪 capricorn:

“She turned to me and said, ‘hold me’. So I dropped the world I had been holding and picked her up with both hands.”

           ― Zachry K Douglas ↟♡↟

𓆩♡𓆪 aquarius:

“I feel the distance between myself and others. I guard that distance … But when you move away from me, even just the least bit, a blackness descends upon me, I feel engulfed.”

— Henry Miller, "A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller 1932-1953"

𓆩♡𓆪 pisces:

“I asked if you heard the rain in your dream and half dreaming still you only said, I love you.”

           — Edwin Morgan, When You Go 🦇

this was just something cute and extra since I haven’t posted anything in a while. if you read this until the end i hope you enjoyed it & thank you so much for reading. ♥︎♥︎♥︎, those hearts are for you.

[glitter-stained]

Let's build Jason a bookshelf !

Pride and Prejudice - homeboy is an Austen fan canonically, we need at least this one.

Hamlet -do I need to say more? Do I?

Water for the elephants: He won't admit it, but the book reminds him of Dick, and he reads it any time he misses him. It's angsty enough to maintain a front while actually being a romance with a satisfying ending.

The Outsiders: It's not just that the story is relatable and really well written; it's the themes of loyalty, grief and heroism, and the imagery and hopefulness shining through, and it's the way Johnny reminds him of Roy and sometimes, after Roy's death, he will close his eyes and picture the two of them together in an abandoned church, in that quiet space safe from the war raging outside, reading Gone With the Wind while Roy provides uncharitable commentary about the characters' decisions.

Under The Whispering Door (TJ Klune): This one was gifted to him by Tim because "the main character is an asshole ghost, I thought you might relate." Of course, these idiots could talk to eachother about emotions and go to therapy, but why do that when you can bait your brother into reading a story that will help him process a bit of his relationship with his own death and the family? The worst part is, it worked great, and Jason is so upset that it became one of his favourite books. (The part about the stages of grief is scientifically inaccurate, though. He would know.)

A compilation of TS Eliot's works: Maybe it's because I'm a big fan of TS Eliot and Jason, but every time I reread one of his poems, I think about Jason and I'm sad. The Hollow Men, in particular about the fallen soldiers from WWI, hits so hard as a Jason poem, especially when you consider he lived through the explosion but died of smoke inhalation.

Flowers for Algernon: After losing Bizarro, Jason rereads it often, sitting on rooftops, every time the sky is bright enough to see the stars. He reads it out loud, and the words burn his tongue and taste bitter every time every time, but he likes to pretend his friend is listening, and feels a little less alone.

The Oresteia: This one belongs to the list Jason has read many times and should probably read less, because he projects the tragedy onto his real life and it's a bad influence that comforts him in the idea that he was doomed from the start and might as well burn the remains of the bridges with his family. Good luck trying to pry it out of his hands though! He also loves the idea of being seen at his worst, in the midst of all his hopelessness, and being loved anyway, cradled with unwavering devotion.

Frankenstein : He's a huge Mary Shelley fan, both as a person and a writer. As for Hamlet and the Oresteia, he definitely projects maybe a little too much of some of the characters, but hey, not everybody can brag that they relate to the Creature on such a visceral level.

What else would you guys add?