Anne Carson

In this innovative rendition of The Oresteia, the poet, translator, and essayist Anne Carson combines three different visions -- Aischylos' Agamemnon, Sophokles' Elektra, and Euripides' Orestes, giving birth to a wholly new experience of the classic Greek triumvirate of vengeance. Carson's accomplished rendering combines elements of contemporary vernacular with the traditional structures and rhetoric of Greek tragedy, opening up the plays to a modern audience. --from publisher description.

Agamemnon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides

An Oresteia

Marek Hnatiak

CHORUS : Did longing for your home afflict you there?

MESSENGER : Oh yes, oh yes, so that my eyes are filled with tears.

KASSANDRA : People never say that to a lucky person do they?

And this man has the libation he deserves.

He filled this house like a mixing bowl to the brim with evils, now he has drunk it down.

I’m ready for blessings, many blessings.

They didn’t wait for legal arguments but cast their vote straight into the urn of blood.

CHORUS : You’re mad—godstruck godswept godnonsensical and you keep making that sound, it’s not musical.

I ask this one thing: let me go mad in my own way.

ELEKTRA : PHEU! I wish we could die by the same sword and lie in the same tomb.

ORESTES : That would be sweet. But we’re short of friends to arrange this.

CHORUS : Can you just tell me what’s happening inside?

SLAVE : Where I come from people say bad shit happening

Slash with the two-edged sword that father-forsaking husband-forsaking cause of death cause of tears for so many good Greek men on the banks of the river of Troy!

An Oresteia quotes

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