Gender and transgression in Sophocles’ Electra

Abstract

This study investigates some of the ways in which Sophocles' Electra debates and subverts elements of classical Athenian gender-ideology. Its primary concern is to explore the issue of whether Electra can be said to get what she deserves in the course of the play. I The most recent scholarly commentary on the Electra argues that its eponymous heroine 'approaches the revenge-action uplifted by love for her brother and radiant with the joy of their reunion', the episodes immediately preceding the close of the drama constituting 'her finest hour'. 2 This judgement has the great merit of avoiding the naïve Christianizing trap of condemning the revenge-act qua revenge, which places us in the impossible position of arguing that the morally correct course of action for the siblings was to turn the other cheek. I hope, however, to establish that there is reason to dissent from it. Having begun the action at breaking-point (119-20), Electra steadily deteriorates. The messenger-speech, the urn scene, the 2ξαηξ σιτιΚ and the killings destroy an emotional balance already disturbed. By 817-22, she is falling into suicidal despair, as also again at 1165-70 after receiving the urn. When Orestes reveals his identity, her extravagant (too-extravagant?) joy at 1232-87 is followed by a disturbing hallucination as she briefly identifies the paidagogos as her father (1361). By the end of the play, she is a broken woman, and it is not simply misplaced sentimentality which may lead us to shudder at the bitterness and savagery of 1483-90. Critics have frequently recognized that victory comes too late and cannot heal Electra's denatured psyche: Winnington-Ingram memorably described her as 'at once the victim and the agent of the Furies'. 3 Generally disregarded, however, is the fact that-on Athenian principles-Electra receives no more and no less than her just deserts. Although the details of Athenian women's quotidian existence are ultimately unrecoverable and we should probably not exaggerate the crassness of contemporary prejudice, the men of Athens were no feminists: ancient Greek texts repeatedly stress the inherent deficiencies of women. 4

Embodying the Tragic Father(s): Autobiography and Intertextuality in Aristophanes

“…The wolf seems to function as a symbol of iambic marginalization also in Archil, fr. Wheeler 2003, andFinglass 2007: 174-76. Interestingly enough, in the subsequent lines of the parabasis the play's Electra-inspired modesty seems to be sketched out through the intratextual filter of the ideal young man's profile delineated by the Stronger Argument in the agon (1009-21) and set in contrast with the disgraceful conduct of Philocleon in the closing scenes of Wasps. One cannot help noticing, in fact, that the forcefully trumpeted, if arguably tongue-in-cheek,'^'' refusal (538-39) of such a theatrical device as the thick (Kaxú) dangling leather phallus matches the Stronger Argument's contempt of sexual laxity linked to a well-endowed youth ( 1019).…”

Orestes and Electra’s Prayer Practices as Instructions to the City

“…Both Orestes and Electra in different spatial coordinates of the city assert their right to precept and seek support from the gods as the supreme preceptors. The protagonists view the city not only as a space where prayers are pronounced, but as a place where another character can speak, for example, through the chorus' lines or give tacit instructions through allusions to the details which appear in urban space descriptions 5 . Not only does the city hear the prayers pronounced by the heroes, but the city can also give additional power that enable those prayers to come to fulfillment.…”

“…It is not just a meeting point for Orestes and Electra, but a space outside the city walls which receives a symbolic power to become a place where the revenge plan is shaped. Orestes' prayer-speech is as follows: "Hermes of the nether world 6 , you who guard the powers that are your father's, prove yourself my savior and ally, I entreat you, now that 5 The issue of how far we can identify the chorus with the city is one of the most debated among researchers. In our opinion, the "voice" of the city is not only manifested through the chorus, and the chorus even expresses conflicting opinions on the same issue.…”