Electra — Euripides (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)

Euripides’ Electra returns to the violent aftermath of the Trojan War through the children of Agamemnon. Electra lives consumed by the murder of her father at the hands of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, waiting for the return of her exiled brother Orestes. Their reunion leads to a carefully planned revenge, but Euripides refuses to make the killing of their mother a simple act of heroic justice, forcing his characters to confront the moral consequences of what they have done.

For Oxford’s Greek Tragedy in New Translations series, Janet Lembke translates the play with an introduction by Kenneth J. Reckford and supporting material for reading and performance. Suspense, recognition and grim humour run through a version of the myth that continually unsettles the heroic values its characters have inherited.