Antigone / Oedipus the King / Electra by Sophocles
ELECTRA
103 Io and her father Inachus: Inachus was the earliest king of Argos known to Greek mythology. Zeus became enamoured with his daughter Io, but turned her into a heifer in order to protect her from the jealousy of his wife Hera. Sophocles dramatized this story in his lost Inachus: Io makes an appearance in her bovine form in the Prometheus tragedy attributed to Aeschylus.
the market-place | That bears Apollo’s name: corroborative evidence that a temple of Apollo stood in the market-place at Argos is to be found in Pausanias 2. 19. 3.
Hera’s famous temple: Hera was the tutelary deity of Argos and intimately associated with the city in mythology.
Pelops’ dynasty: Pelops was the father of Atreus, grandfather of Agamemnon, and therefore great-grandfather of Orestes. See further below, note to p. 118.
as a baby: the translation is misleading. The Greek here implies that Orestes was a child when he was given by Electra to the tutor, but it is clear from Clytemnestra’s words at 778–80 that the boy had already been capable of threatening her.
my loyal servant: boys were entrusted to the care of male slaves whose duty was to oversee their upbringing and education. In tragedy they act as the equivalent of the ‘nurses’ who often attend aristocratic females. ‘Tutor’ is an approximate translation of the Greek term paidagōgos, ’pedagogue’.
104 I went to Delphi: i.e. to consult the famous oracle of Apollo.
Phanoteus of Phokis: this obscure mythical figure was thought to have had a feud with his brother Crisus, beginning with a fight in their mother’s womb. Since Crisus fathered Strophius, who had taken in the exiled Orestes, Phanoteus would be a natural choice for an ally of Orestes’ enemies, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
The Pythian games at Delphi: from 582 BC athletics competitions modelled on the more famous games at Olympia were held every four years as part of the festival of Pythian Apollo at Delphi.
104 Why should I fear an omen: it would normally be considered an inauspicious invitation to disaster for a living person to be described as dead.
those philosophers Who were reported dead: there were several stories of this type. Pythagoras, for example, was reputed to have reappeared after concealing himself in a chamber beneath the earth, thus engendering rumours that he was dead.
105 like the sun: the Greek actually says ‘like a star’.
a cry of bitter grief: in the Greek the tutor suggests that the cry is specifically that of a slave-woman.
Have you not heard: the translation omits the gruesome detail which Electra adds here. She describes the wild blows she strikes against her breast, making it bleed—a conventional sign of mourning.
106 No Trojan spear: Electra regrets that her father was not killed in battle at Troy, in which case he would have received the honour of a warrior’s funeral.
no god of war: the Greek explicitly names Ares.
the sorrowing nightingale: in myth Procne, an Athenian princess, was supposed to have been turned into a nightingale after murdering her son Itys. She killed the boy in order to avenge herself on her husband Tereus, who had raped and mutilated her sister Philomela. The nightingale’s song was explained as her unceasing laments for Itys. Sophocles wrote a famous drama portraying this story, his Tereus.
You powers of Death! You gods below!: The Greek text mentions by name Hades, Persephone, Hermes (the only Olympian who could pass between the upper and lower worlds) and a personified Curse.
Avenging spirits . . . marriage-vow: the Erinyes (see above, note to p. 37). These agents of divine retribution were responsible for the punishment of misdemeanours to do with the family, both intra-familial murder and, as here, adultery.
107 the sad nightingale: Procne. See above, note to p. 106.
Itys: son of Procne and Tereus. See above, note to p. 106.
Niobe: see above, note to p. 29.
108 Iphianassa: this is the only mention in the play of a living sister of Electra other than Chrysothemis. She is named as a daughter of Agamemnon in the Iliad (9. 145).
Plain of Crisa: an area of land to the south-west of Delphi which was kept unploughed as sacred to Apollo, and on which the horse races at the Pythian games are later said to have been run (see below, note to p. 124).
his own father: the Greek adds that along with Orestes neither the dead Agamemnon nor Hades himself will neglect the situation in Mycenae.
109 a Spirit loosed from Hell: an extravagant paraphrase of the plain Greek ‘a god’.
O God that rulest Heaven and Earth: Zeus, the chief Olympian.
110 Had any trace of spirit: the Greek is more accurately rendered ‘was a woman of high birth and character’.
111 the hearth-stone: banquets were customarily opened and closed with libations poured to Hestia, goddess of the family hearth.
the Gods her Saviours: especially Zeus in his capacity as Saviour (Sōtēr) and Apollo, to whom Clytemnestra later prays for protection (p. 122).
112 Your sister: the Greek adds for clarity ‘by the same father and mother’, thus distinguishing Chrysothemis from Electra’s half-siblings borne by Clytemnestra to Aegisthus (see line 588).
114 in some dark dungeon: in the Greek the punishment is to be even worse. Electra is to be held captive in exile, ‘beyond the borders of this land’.
116 the sun-god: Helios. It was conventional to narrate frightening dreams to him, as the god whose light dispels nocturnal fears and expiates them. Compare Euripides, Iphigeneia in Tauris 42–3.
117 mangled it: the Greek term makes it clear that Agamemnon’s corpse had been subjected to a ritual mutilation practised by murderers, probably taking the form of having his extremities removed and hung from his arm-pits and neck. This custom may have been intended to prevent the victim from retaliation after death, or to provide a gesture towards atonement.
and one of mine: the Greek adds the pathetic detail that Electra’s hair is unkempt.
118 Retribution: a rough translation of the Greek Dike (see above, note to p. 16).
two-edged axe: even the murder weapon is imagined as bearing a grudge against its users. In Athenian law inanimate objects could be put on trial for causing death (Aeschines 3. 244).
chariot-race of Pelops: Sophocles is using a version of the myth which referred the recurrent disasters afflicting this royal house back to a curse incurred by Pelops, Agamemnon’s grandfather (see also above, note to p. 105). He had competed in a chariot-race against Oenomaus, king of Pisa, for the hand of Oenomaus’ daughter Hippodameia. He won the race and the woman by treachery; he had bribed Myrtilus, Oenomaus’ charioteer, to sabotage the rival chariot. Oenomaus died in the ensuing accident; Myrtilus was thrown into the sea and drowned, but not before he had cursed Pelops. This myth may have suggested to Sophocles the means by which Orestes is said to have died in the ‘false’ messenger speech delivered by the tutor, pp. 124–6.
Myrtilus: see note above.
119 your sister: Iphigeneia, the eldest of Agamemnon’s daughters.
Artemis: the virgin goddess, in charge of female rites of passage, hunting, and wild animals. She is not, however, named here in the Greek, which says only vaguely ‘to gods’.
the only Greek: human sacrifice was regarded by Sophocles’ contemporaries as a barbarism permitted only in uncivilized, non-Greek lands.
The sons of Helen: in Homer Helen and Menelaus had only one child, a daughter (Odyssey 4. 14). There was, however, another attested tradition older than Sophocles that they had one son, Nicostratus.
120 my sister’s: Iphigeneia’s (not Chrysothemis’).
windy Aulis: a site on the eastern coast of Greece in Boeotia with a large natural harbour, at which the Greek forces had traditionally mustered before their expedition to Troy.
a forest that was sacred to the goddess: probably meant to be understood as the precinct of Artemis close to her temple at Aulis.
121 bear him children: different versions of the myth variously give Aegisthus and Clytemnestra a son Aletes and a d
At her age too: i.e. at her stage of maturity (not of youthfulness).
She is so impudent . . . not do: This sentence takes the form of a direct question in the Greek.
122 ’Tis you that say it . . . find me the words: the translation of these two lines has been borrowed from John Milton’s An Apology Against a Pamphlet (Otherwise known as Apology for Smectymnus), in Douglas Bush et al. (eds.), Complete Prose Works of John Milton (New Haven/London 1953), i. 905.
by Artemis: Artemis was the divinity thought to be responsible for the deaths of women. This adds weight to Clytemnestra’s threat.
123 Atreus: the father of Agamemnon and uncle of Aegisthus.
124 in the Festival: the translation here omits a corrupt line, which cited two events—some kind of race and the pentathlon.
Achaea: the term here designates a specific area in southern Thessaly.
Libya: the generic name for the Greek colonies in North Africa.
Thessalian mares: Orestes is given horses from Thessaly, which reputedly produced the finest horses and most skilled cavalry in the Greek world (see e.g. Herodotus 7. 196).
an Aetolian: Aetolia was a large inland district of mainland Greece.
Magnesia: a mountainous district on the east coast of Thessaly.
Aenia: an area in southern Thessaly.
125 The course: the Greek says ‘the plain of Crisa’ (see above, note to p. 108).
And as he drove . . . The stone: These lines have been transposed, following many editors, from after line 719.
126 so tall a man: ancient heroes were thought to have been far greater than later people in size and strength (Homer, Iliad 5. 303, Herodotus 1. 68—specifically on Orestes’ extraordinary stature).
126 he threatened me: this implies that Orestes had outgrown infancy when Electra had him sent away. See above, note to p. 103.
127 Nemesis: the goddess Nemesis’ special responsibility was to oversee the rights of the dead, and avenge any wrong done to them.
129 Amphiareus: an Argive hero. He married Eriphyle, sister of Adrastus, king of Argos. When Amphiareus refused to help Polyneices (Antigone’s brother) in the campaign against Thebes, Polyneices bribed Eriphyle with a golden necklace. She then cajoled her husband into joining the expedition, which resulted in his death.
a champion: Alcmaeon. Amphiareus’ death was eventually avenged by his son Alcmaeon, who killed his mother Eriphyle. Sophocles composed plays bearing the names of all three mythical figures.
I beg you: the translation omits here an interjection by the chorus, ‘What are you saying?’
130 In exile: the translation omits another choral interjection, ‘Alas!’
Our father’s memory: the Greek says literally ‘our father’s hearth’. See above, note to p. 111.
136 The anger of the gods . . . Enthroned in Heaven: this is a periphrasis diverging greatly from the Greek, which names the lightning-bolt of Zeus (with which he punishes miscreants), and Themis, a female divinity responsible for the safeguarding of law and order, often conceptualized as enthroned beside Zeus and sometimes described as a wife of his.
137 Never has she ceased to mourn: the Greek once again likens Electra to a nightingale, engaged in incessant lamentation (see above, note to p. 106).
those two Furies: Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. The Greek language could transfer the name of the Furies or ‘Erinyes’, the spirits who oversee acts of blood-vengeance, to both the victims of a crime and to those who had perpetrated it.
a foul pollution: the translation omits a hypothetical question delivered by the chorus here, ‘Who else would be so noble?’ (i.e. as Electra).
Laws of the gods: once again Sophocles refers to the supreme ’unwritten laws’, as at Antigone 454—5 (see also above, note to p. 5) and Oedipus the King 865–7.
in piety: the Greek adds ‘towards Zeus’, the supreme overseer of the ‘unwritten laws’.
138 nearest to them: i.e. she is their nearest relation by blood.
Strophius: Pylades’ father, the old friend of Agamemnon to whom the exiled Orestes had been entrusted, named only here in this play. See above, note to p. 104.
in my arms: the translation omits two lines here. Electra continues, ‘so that I may weep and wail, not only for these ashes but along with them for myself and for my entire family.’
139 sorrow: in the Greek the metre changes for this line, probably indicating that in the emotion of the moment Electra briefly begins to chant rather than speak.
142 friend: the Greek word should be translated ‘child’ or ‘son’, which is more appropriate to the pathos of this recognition scene.
Our father’s ring: the Greek makes it explicit that it is a signet ring with a recognizable seal-mark.
143 but wait: the translation here omits a lyrical interjection by Electra, ‘What is the matter?’
women . . . To strike a blow: the Greek actually says ‘Ares dwells in women too.’
and yet: the translation omits another lyrical interjection by Electra, ‘What shall I do?’
then I made no more delay: these words have been supplied by the translator to fill in a line missing from the Greek.
144 their end: the translation here omits an interjection by Orestes, ‘What are you asking of me?’
be prudent: the translation here omits two lines. Electra asks, ‘Do you grant what I ask?’, and Orestes responds, ‘Why not?’
146 those faithful hands: the translation, perhaps prudently, omits here a remark by Electra referring to the tutor’s feet as ‘kindly messengers’.
147 the gods that stand before the house: images of gods placed at the front of the palace. They included Apollo (addressed by Clytemnestra at line 637) and Hermes, the god who always presided over entrances.
147 the god of death: the Greek names rather Ares, the god of war and violence.
148 The minister of the gods: i.e. Orestes.
With Hermes to guide him: the chorus prays that Hermes will assist Orestes in his capacity as Hermes dolios (the god of trickery).
To stand on guard: Sophocles finds a reason to have Electra on stage during the murder of Clytemnestra, so that her bloodthirsty reactions can be fully appreciated.
149 cruelty: at least three lines are probably missing from the Greek between here and Orestes’ question at line 1430, ‘Are you sure you see him?’ The translation has been designed to offer a performable text.
150 you should know: the translation here omits a harsh phrase addressing Electra as ‘you who were formerly so bold’.
152 You could read the future | So well: there appears to have been a tradition that Aegisthus had some special mantic powers.
This house of Atreus: the Greek names, rather, the house of Pelops, in accordance with the play’s tracing of the sufferings of the family back to the original curse on Pelops’ head (see above, note to p. 118. Aegisthus, as son of Thyestes, Atreus’ brother, was of course also a Pelopid.
those to come: an implication that the deaths of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra may not put an end to the family’s calamities. See above, note to p. 121.
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