#Klytaimestra

[adhd-mess]

The chorus: “why grieve in advance?

Whatever turns up I hope it’s happy—“

*Klytaimestra enters the chat*

[fred-erick-frankenstein]

Klytaimestra did nothing wrong.

[trvgcdiv]

#SpartanGIrlGang & fertility: summary

TW for discussions of pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, and early infancy death (and implied rape)

All of the #SpartanGirlGang have fertility issues, well. Maybe I shouldn't put Klytaimestra here, but they all struggled to get their beloved male heirs at least lmao

Starting with Pen because I never start with her, but. Hers is the most obvious, with no successful births until nearly a decade of marriage. Despite this, for all appearances it looks like Odysseus remained faithful to Penelope the whole time.

Klytaimestra is particularly fruitful, with her three daughters, but it still took nearly a decade for Orestes' birth. It's my firm belief that Klytie took it upon herself to "take care of" any bedmate of her husband—no matter how unwilling—and any production of such a union thereof. Knowing both their personalities, there were many such women who had no choice in either respect.

Helen was in an in-between sitch. She gave birth to Hermione fairly quckly—clearly got pregnant right after marriage—but otherwise... nothing. Maybe a pregnancy or two, only one of which came to term and didn't survive a year. Menelaos, too, had a reaction between both extremes. Neither a monogamist (few Achaeans of his time and society were) nor adulterous by nature, he did fall to the pressure of producing a male heir with another which... well, it certainly didn't help the already existing friction in their marriage (due to said fertility issues)

[abissusandiuno]

KLYTAIMESTRA

Now you're making sense—

to call upon the thricegorged evil demon of this family.

Deep in its nerves is a lust to lick blood and no wound heals

before the next starts oozing.

- Agamemnon, Aiskhylos - translated by Anne Carson

[konigsberg]

would you consider (if you havent already) making a rec list for books/authors/poets/etc? your breadth of classics knowledge and the source material you draw inspiration from always intrigues me.

I'd be happy to, but I think I might (accidentally) give the impression of being more familiar with a lot of these things than I actually am haha.

I'll focus on classics or classics-related recs, but there are some things I'll throw in here because, even though they aren't classics (or classics in the sense I think you probably mean, as in directly related to ancient Greece etc.), they've influenced what I’ve written in some way. I should also be clear, I haven’t read all of these things, sometimes only pieces, or they’re things I’ve been meaning to read and keep putting off but people might be interested in. And I’m definitely not an expert. I’m not properly educated on these topics, so I’m not sure if anything I include might be considered a bad resource by someone with a background in this field.

Also, as I was putting together this list… I was gawking at the prices of so many of these. Like 90% I grabbed at my local secondhand bookstore and I would encourage anyone interested to try to get these used (Thriftbooks is an online store to look at if you don’t have a good local store, though I’m not sure where all it ships to) or from a site like Project Gutenberg etc. Libraries are always good too, of course (some might be on Archive.org, which is a place where you can check out books online). I may be able to help you find ways to get your hands on some of these sources if you’re struggling to find it.

Fiction

Aethiopica by Heliodorus (tr. Moses Hadas) - An ancient Greek novel. “The Aethiopica tells the story of an Ethiopian princess and a Thessalian prince who undergo a series of perils (battles, voyages, piracy, abductions, robbery, and torture) before their eventual happy marriage in the heroine’s homeland.” Summary from here.

An Oresteia (tr. Anne Carson) - Carson’s translations of Aiskhylos' Agamemnon, Sophokles' Elektra, and Euripides' Orestes. Literally anything Carson touches is gold, please just read everything translated or written by her here, even if you’ve read other translations. “After the murder of her daughter Iphigeneia by her husband, Agamemnon, Klytaimestra exacts a mother's revenge, murdering Agamemnon and his mistress, Kassandra. Displeased with Klytaimestra's actions, Apollo calls on her son, Orestes, to avenge his father's death with the help of his sister Elektra. In the end, Orestes is driven mad by the Furies for his bloody betrayal of family. Condemned to death by the people of Argos, he and Elektra must justify their actions ― or flout society, justice and the gods.”

Arete: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources by Stephen G. Miller - All about the concept of arete. Exactly what it says on the tin.

The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece by John J. Winkler - Another that’s exactly what it says on the tin. “For centuries, classical scholars have intensely debated the "position of women" in classical Athens. Did women have a vast but informal power, or were they little better than slaves? Using methods developed from feminist anthropology, Winkler steps back from this narrowly framed question and puts it in the larger context of how sex and gender in ancient Greece were culturally constructed. His innovative approach uncovers the very real possibilities for female autonomy that existed in Greek society.” (My friend has another book from this collection (?) called The New Ancient World, which I want to get if I ever actually… finish reading this one. But that one is called One Hundred Years of Sexuality, I think, and there’s another called Games of Venus, which also looks very interesting so I want to mention them.)

The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) by Apuleius (tr. E.J. Kenney) - This is another that feels like it might go without saying, but whatever. This is where the story of Cupid & Psyche is told. If I understand correctly, this is the oldest (surviving, and possibly only?) extended account of Eros & Psyche’s myth, though art of the two appears much earlier so I assume Apuleius was drawing from older sources. “Written towards the end of the second century AD, The Golden Ass tells the story of the many adventures of a young man whose fascination with witchcraft leads him to be transformed into a donkey. The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner - encountering a desperate gang of robbers and being forced to perform lewd 'human' tricks on stage - until the Goddess Isis finally breaks the spell and initiates Lucius into her cult.” Actually, this is the physical copy I have and I got it just because I really wanted a physical copy, but I haven’t read it. I read a version for free online years ago when my obsession with Cupid & Psyche first took shape and I… have no clue who translated that one. But, well, here we are. You can definitely find this on Project Gutenberg, probably by a different translator, though.

Greek Fictional Letters (edited by C.D.N. Costa) - “This book explores a relatively unfamiliar and under-appreciated area of Greek literature: imaginary letters written between about 100 BC and 500 AD. Many of them are light-hearted and funny, and describe the lives of ordinary people--fisherman, farmers, courtesans. Others look at more serious and philosophical aspects of life. All the letters are translated, and the notes offer help to both expert and less informed readers.”

Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides (tr. Anne Carson) - Carson’s translations of the plays Herakles, Hekabe, Hippolytos, and Alkestis. “Herakles, in which the hero swaggers home to destroy his own family; Hekabe, set after the Trojan War, in which Hektor’s widow takes vengeance on her Greek captors; Hippolytos, about love and the horror of love; and the strange tragic-comedy fable Alkestis, which tells of a husband who arranges for his wife to die in his place.”

The Iliad by Homer (tr. Robert Fagles) - Do I need to include this? I’m including this, if only to say this is the translation I have.

Medea by Euripides - This is, of course, the play depicting what happens when Jason attempts to remarry, betraying Medea. I can’t find my copy right now to specify which translation, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it anyway (the translation, not the play to be clear). Here’s a copy on Gutenberg.

The Odyssey by Homer (tr. Emily Wilson) - Again, just noting this is the translation I have more than anything.

The Voyage of Argo: The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes (tr. E.V. Rieu) - Covers Jason’s quest. You can find various translations for free on Project Gutenberg.

Nonfiction

The Black Andromeda by Elizabeth McGrath - This is a paper about Princess Andromeda’s race and how it has been depicted throughout art and literature. It’s relevant to the Aethiopica and how it handles or fails to handle race.

Burial customs, the afterlife and the pollution of death in ancient Greece by Francois Pieter and Louise Cilliers - A research paper covering exactly what it says it does. I haven’t read much of this even though I really should and the parts I have read are so, so interesting.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece by Carlos Gómez - General history.

Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay by Anne Carson - All about love as the ancient Greeks conceptualized it. I beg you all to read this. This is the one I’ve posted a bunch of my notes on to twitter. “A book about romantic love, Eros the Bittersweet is Anne Carson's exploration of the concept of "eros" in both classical philosophy and literature. Beginning with, "It was Sappho who first called eros 'bittersweet.' No one who has been in love disputes her," Carson examines her subject from numerous points of view, creating a lyrical meditation in the tradition of William Carlos Williams's Spring and All and William H. Gass's On Being Blue.”

The Gardens of Adonis: Spices in Greek Mythology by Marcel Detienne (tr. Janet Lloyd) - I haven’t read much of this, but I know I need to. “Rich with implications for the history of sexuality, gender issues, and patterns of Hellenic literary imagining, Marcel Detienne's landmark book recasts long-standing ideas about the fertility myth of Adonis.”

Granddaughter of the Sun: A Study of Euripides' Medea by C.A.E. Luschnig - I’ve also been posting screenshots from this as I read it because it makes me super unhinged. All about Her… “By looking at aspects of Medea that are largely overlooked in the criticism, this book aims at an open and multiple reading. It shows that stories presented in the drama of 5th century Athens are not unrelated to human beings who actually exist.”

Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion - “This collection challenges the tendency among scholars of ancient Greece to see magical and religious ritual as mutually exclusive and to ignore ‘magical’ practices in Greek religion.”

Portraits of Grief: Death, Mourning and the Expression of Sorrow on White-Ground Lêkythoi by Molly Evangeline Allen - Someone’s research on funerary vases. I haven’t read much of it, but I came across it while trying to find other info and it looked interesting.

Poetry

Ovid: The Erotic Poems (tr. Peter Green) - Ovid is a Roman poet, but I think his work might be of interest. “This collection of Ovid's poems deals with the whole spectrum of sexual desire, ranging from deeply emotional declarations of eternal devotion to flippant arguments for promiscuity.”

Ovid’s Poetry of Exile (tr. David R. Slavitt) - More of Ovid’s work.

Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works (tr. Diane J. Rayor) - Please… Please… any translations of Sappho you can get… read them…

Miscellaneous

Desire, Discord and Death: Approaches to Near Eastern Myth by Neal H. Walls - Obviously not Greek, but I feel like anyone interested in ancient mythology about queerness, love, death, and sex would find this really interesting. “The three essays presented in this volume reveal the symbolic complexity and poetic visions of ancient Near Eastern mythology. The author explores the interrelated themes of erotic desire, divine conflict, and death's realm in selected ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian mythological narratives using contemporary methods of literary analysis. Topics include the construction of desire in the Gilgamesh epic, a psychoanalytic approach to 'The Contendings of Horus and Seth', and gender and the exercise of power in the stormy romance of Nergal and Ereshkigal.”

Erotism: Death and Sensuality by Georges Bataille (tr. Mary Dalwood) - I haven’t read much of this and I know based on Bataille’s fiction (my man was really on some shit)… this is sure to be really unhinged. But it’s all about life, death, religion, and sex. “Bataille challenges any single discourse on the erotic. The scope of his inquiry ranges from Emily Bronte to Sade,from St. Therese to Claude Levi-Strauss and Dr. Kinsey.  The subjects he covers include prostitution, mythical ecstasy, cruelty, and organized war. Investigating desire prior to and extending beyond the realm of sexuality, he argues that eroticism is ‘a psychological quest not alien to death.’” I feel like… there probably needs to be trigger warnings for this one, but who knows what lol. This is actually the main book I’ve been using to help me learn French too, which is… a choice on my part for real, but that’s getting really off topic.

[dapurinthos]

don't you love the colour of klytaimestra's tomb?

[butchkaramazov]

2023 JSTOR Wrapped: top ten JSTOR articles of 2023

(via @finelythreadedsky)

Greenwood, L.H.G. “The Shape of Greek Tragedy.” Greece & Rome, Vol. 6, No. 16 (Oct., 1936), pp. 31-40.

Donald, Mills H. “ODYSSEUS AND POLYPHEMUS: TWO HOMERIC SIMILES RECONSIDERED.” The Classical Outlook, Vol. 58, No. 4 (MAY-JUNE 1981), pp. 97-99.

Ebbott, Mary. “Tell Me How It Hurts: An Intersection of Poetry and Pain in the “lliad”.” New England Review, Vol. 37, No. 2 (2016), pp. 31-46.

Kitts, Margo. “SACRIFICIAL VIOLENCE IN THE ILIAD.” Journal of Ritual Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2002), pp. 19-39.

Kitts, Margo. “KILLING, HEALING, AND THE HIDDEN MOTIF OF OATH-SACRIFICE IN ILIAD 21.” Journal of Ritual Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1999), pp. 42-57.

Blondell, Ruby. ““Bitch That I Am:” Self-Blame and Self-Assertion in the Iliad.” Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-2014), Vol. 140, No. 1 (Spring 2010), pp. 1-32.

Hame, Kerri J. “Female Control of Funeral Rites in Greek Tragedy: Klytaimestra, Medea, and Antigone.” Classical Philology, Vol. 103, No. 1 (January 2008), pp. 1-15.

Norcia, Megan A. “The Imperial Food Chain: Eating as an Interface of Power in Women Writers' Geography Primers.” Victorian Literature and Culture, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005), pp. 253-268.

King, C. Richard. “The (Mis)uses of Cannibalism in Contemporary Cultural Critique.” Diacritics, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 106-123.

Tucker, Aviezer. “Sins of our Fathers: A Short History of Religious Child Sacrifice.” Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, Vol. 51, No. 1 (1999), pp. 30-47.

[eternal--returned]

KLYTAIMESTRA: Apollo Apollo god of the ways god of my ruin oh yes you destroy me oh yes it is absolute this time

Aeschylus (translated by Anne Carson) ֍ Agamemnon, An Orestia (2009)

[littlesparklight]

A Burial of Love and Flowers

Apollo sits on the stairs leading out to the garden, quietly contemplating the flowers at his feet. They nod their heads in the sweet breeze, turned towards the sun, and while they're still yet alive loving the light and loved by it in turn, their lives are so remarkably short. Some flowers are perennial to the delight of all who lay eyes on them. Apollo tips his head sideways until he can rest his cheek on top of Hyacinthus' curly head. Delight and fortune, particularly so when one hadn't expected the dying flower to come back again.

So many more flowers are yearling things, grown and bloomed during a spring and summer, seeding new plants and flowers with their death.

He shifts a foot over, lifting it up to overshadow a blooming little plant. Hesitates there, breathing in the sweet-scented air. Somewhere below, to the south, a feast is being had. Being rudely interrupted.

Apollo crushes the flower beneath his foot, rubbing it down into the grass and tearing both leaves and petals as a scream - silent, unvoiced to the air and the uncaring murderer, but he can hear her - rings through the aether, reverberates through his head. Lightly, he bends further so he can kiss Hyacinthus' cheek.

"What is it?" So relaxed before, Hyacinthus is frowning now. Twists around despite Apollo's weight on him reaching up to touch his cheek, with a glancing look between the crushed flower sticking out beyond the end of Apollo's sandal and up at his face. Pushes his fingertips in, against the hidden stiffness of the seemingly relaxed little smile just barely tugging at the corner of Apollo's mouth.

He gives up. Lets the smile bloom, edged.

"She'll pay for that," he promises, and his darling Hyacinthus is of course confused. "Klytaimestra and Aegisthus have killed Agamemnon, but as foolish as Aegisthus is being, that was the price to pay for what Klytaimestra believes happened with Iphigenia, and for the complete razing of Troy."

Apollo ghosts a touch down the outer halo of Hyacinthus' curls. Knows he's frowning now.

"Kassandra, though--- No. She'll pay for that."

He repeats the promise, can already see the solution as Elektra hurries through the corridors with Orestes' nurse in tow until they find the ten year old boy. They have to pull him away from his friends and the game they're playing, and he doesn't understand, but quietens when Elektra urges him to. Nurse and child are sent to hide until they can creep out of Mycenae later tonight. The maddened mother roams the corridors, finding not what she's seeking.

"I'll be back later," he adds, but lets Hyacinthus pull him into a longer kiss, sweet enough his mouth softens a little before he leaves.

Finds Hermes goofing off with Pan in a field in Arkadia. It's a pleasant scene that would normally bring a smile to his face, one which has tempted him into joining with a lyre quite a few times. Today, his heart grows black and cold, though Pan is immortal and divine; he has lost sons too recently to be charmed, and now Kassandra, too.

"Hermes." Apollo knows his voice is too sharp, but he doesn't feel like apologising.

Hermes looks up, a greeting, and invitation, surely on the tip of his tongue, his head already tipping to indicate the spot beside him, but Apollo isn't going to be soothed yet, for all that his greatest fury and hurt has some short time to abate. Hermes sighs, shaking his head.

"Later, kid." Flashing his son a grin and playfully snagging the wispy trails of beard growing down Pan's chin, Hermes tugs on it and then stands up, coming over. "You know I can't do more than get her to the shore. She's going to have to wait."

Apollo scoffs, shaking his head. Yes, no one in Mycenae is going to bury Agamemnon's personal war prize, one so favoured as she'd been, no matter if he'd intended to keep her to himself or hand her over to his wife. That does mean she can't enter the Underworld as properly, until much later. That is simply not acceptable.

"She's not," he says, a hand light on Hermes' shoulder. "Walk with me."

Brows high above his twilight-blue eyes, Hermes peers up at him for a moment or two, but doesn't ask. Merely shrugs, and they do walk. Across fields and valleys, past vineyards and up mountain foothills, over several mountains. By the time they reach the ravine outside Mycenae where Kassandra's body has been dumped, sunset has long fled and the sky is turning from bruised purples into smooth, uncaring dark blue, pulling night along behind it. The stars are beautiful as they decorate the heavens above, the moon a silver tear. No one will cry or wail for Kassandra, loved as she'd been. They're all dead, the ones who could have, but she has also done enough wailing and crying through the last couple years to mourn her own death as much as her family's and the whole of Troy's.

She lies across the scattered stone like a discarded doll. All the finery she might have been worn, imposed by a man who thought he could cover up the blood he'd spilled with gold, have been stripped off her, but she is still dressed. Someone has also closed her eyes and mouth.

Apollo kneels down beside her, his broken doll, this torn and crushed flower which will certainly not bloom again. Brushes a hand along her throat, down her chest. The lethal wounds close up, the gore still streaking her fair skin flakes away. It might still stain her dress, but it's mostly obvious where the golden trim has been fouled; the purple absorbs the blood, dark on dark. Lightly, he touches her cheek, so similar and yet different to how Hyacinthus touched his cheek earlier.

"Kassandra. Little sparrow, my whispering snake. Come out now. It's all right." Apollo doesn't raise his voice, barely speaks above a murmur.

Hermes could fetch her, of course. But there's no need for that. The silence of the gathering night sinks thick about them while Apollo rearranges Kassandra's arms so they're laying down her torso instead of awkwardly splayed about her. She almost looks as if she might be asleep, like this. Alas, it's not Hypnos that has visited her, but his brother.

"That's a little optimistic, don't you think? Even if she doesn't hate you. Maybe I should go fe---"

"Just wait," Apollo says, not bothering to look up until he can feel the shift in the air. He looks up without standing up then, looks up at Kassandra as she comes down the ravine, half navigating the stones as if she might need the care and half straight floating through them.

Her eyes are huge and dark, her hair appears silver in the moonlight, spilling about her in thick, lazy ringlet curls, framing her in. She stares at him, grimaces, hands flexing into fists. Then she shudders as he holds a hand out, and though she doesn't come fleeing like a little girl into her mother's spread arms, woken scared from a nightmare and the room dark and still around her until the door is opened and with the familiar shape comes both light and love, Kassandra still comes. Clutches onto his hand with both of hers, and though they're as small compared to his as always, now he can see the outline of his fingers, the creases on his palm, through her grip.

"Why did I have to see all that?" It's half an accusation, half a plea, Kassandra now clutching his hand to her chest. "Was that the true punishment, oh Apaliunas? Not being disbelived, but having to see, to know---"

"Kassandra." Apollo might have sharpened his voice a little, but he'd always thought Kassandra knew what the gift of prophecy meant. Truly understood, and that's why she'd asked for it even if she hadn't, in the end, been able to give what she'd promised for it. Little sparrow, flying too high, too far, before she knew what her limits were. She too eager, and he not thinking to only give her the gift afterwards. He'd still have been angry to be refused, but some limits could only be discovered in the doing. If he hadn't given it before Kassandra had given her own gift, there would have been no divine gift bestowed, no gift given that he also could then not take back. "You wanted knowledge. You wanted forewarning. That was why you asked for such a gift, wasn't it?"

She presses her lips thin, closes her eyes. Nods, after a long moment.

"I only gave you what you wished for." He breathes, unnecessarily, but all he can smell is the night, is drying grass and the dead body next to them. Kassandra doesn't smell of her soft flesh, of sweat and seasalt breeze or the perfumed unguents she once used. The dead do not smell of life. Softening, he reaches out without, again, standing up, remaining on his knees beside and before Kassandra. Cradles her cheek as only a god can still do to and for a shade, and the smile comes out of him slow and tired. "Hoped, perhaps, it would soften the eventual blow. That is why you were seeing anything at all without looking for it."

The gift once given could not be taken back, and while he could have made her work for it, Kassandra's reasons to want the gift, Kassandra's nature, would have had her gone looking, and then she would have seen, no matter what he might have liked. She'd wanted the gift, and human nature had kept Kassandra not just seeing, but trying to speak of it. Trying to warn when no warning could be given, the words that spoke of truth never to be believed.

"I believe you," Kassandra whispers, turning her head to kiss his palm. He can't feel it as more than a chill breath, like a localized, brief burst of nightly breeze. "But if the only punishment was to not be believed - why do I have to look at my own dead body? Why am I here? I'd rather stay up in the palace, make her regret---"

Kassandra heaves, then flutters in place as noting more than a tiny, winged figure. Hermes quickly slides in behind her, his wings growing, fencing her in. It keeps her in place until she has calmed, has taken as solid a shape as she can, once again.

"Apaliunas, if you still harbour love, let me go where I can, when I can't go where I should."

"No, little sparrow." Apollo smiles faintly, taking his hand back and picking up Kassandra's corpse, cold in a different way to her shade, soft and stiff at the same time. "Hermes will take you down and stay with you until you can cross the river. I'll put you where you belong. A daughter of Troy should not be left to rot in Mycenae."

She is staring again, trembling and wide-eyed as she understands what he is planning to do. Hermes, too, is staring, though more baffled than shocked. Apollo heeds neither of them, turning away. Pauses there, glancing over his shoulder.

"Your mother rests in Awarna, though I doubt it will be long before she follows the rest of you." The smile tightens until it hurts, and Apollo nearly lurching away from the ghostly touch of Kassandra's hand to his elbow. The city, his sons, the royal family almost entirely. He's had to give up much. "I could at least give her a comfortable last span of time, not left to die ignobly."

Apollo strides off, as if he could walk away from the knowledge that he hasn't been able to offer the same to Kassandra, and neither to Troilus, or Troy. Priam dead at the altar, so many killed cruelly when the Achaeans had torn through the drunken and sleeping city.

Looking down at the pale body in his arms as he crosses the Aegean sea in a flying leap, landing lightly next to Hektor's tumulus, at least this is one more thing he can do. Give Kassandra a burial, as she deserves. She'll have no jewellery, but while Troy might have been burned and Xanthos' plain trampled, there still grew flowers close enough.

Brief as they are, they can decorate Kassandra as the dark earth takes her, decorate her on her walk down to Charon's dock and her entry into Elysium.

[measureformeasure]

i woudl like to know because i am curious.

[berattelse]

It's as if the whole family were there, knee-deep in blood, and Elektra is killing her mother with her father's words. Why would Sophokles do this? To emphasize Elektra's awful command of language as a weapon? To remind us of Klytaimestra's crime and close the cycle of vengeance in this house? To reopen Agamemnon's wounds and suggest that vengeance here will never end? To trump Aiskhylos? To pay homage to Aiskhylos? Perhaps all these at once. Sophokles is a complex poet working in a complex tradition. His audience enjoys all kinds of play with masks. All kinds of uses of urns. They do not come to the theater for comfort.

Carson, Anne. Introduction to "Elektra" by Sophokles. An Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos, Elektra by Sophokles, Orestes by Euripides, trans. by Anne Carson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.

[hiidenneiti]

colm tóibínin house of names (2017) luettu:

uudelleenkerronta klassisesta antiikin tragediasta: keskeisinä hahmoina klytaimestra (clytemnestra), agamemnon, orestes sekä elektra.

ei oo todellakaan tarpeellista tuntea alkuperäinen myytti; itselläkin oli vain hämärä mielikuva siitä mitä siinä tapahtuu, voi olla jopa antoisampaa sukeltaa kirjan tarinaan ilman ennakko-odotuksia!

kirja kostuu osista, joissa seurataan perhetragediaa, koston ja himon kierrettä eri henkilöiden näkökulmista. on vaikea olla samaistumatta kaikkiin hahmoihin.

yllätyin siitä miten paljon pidin orestekseen keskittyvistä osista: olin jotenkin etukäteen olettanut että hän on teoksessa se tylsin henkilö. mutta orestes toikin tarinaan jännän wanhan ajan seikkailukertomusmeiningin,  jossa hemmoteltu hienostopoika joutuu aikuistumaan selviytymisen ehdoilla.

rakastin erityisesti kuvausta siitä miten jatkuvat järjettömät sodat vaikuttivat ympäröivään miljööseen ja tavallisten ihmisten arkeen. maaseudun autioituminen ja näivettyminen konflikteissa on yksi surullisimmista ilmiöistä mitä historiaa tutkiessa törmää, ja tässä paikkojen kuvailu kouraisi oikein syvältä.

jos teoksen jotenkin tiivistäisi, niin se olisi miten väkivalta jättää jäljet sukupolvien päähän -  alkaen agamemnonin päätöksestä uhrata tyttärensä. 5/5

[dearest-lady-disdain]

they killed cassandra first. ok, who? klytaimestra and aighitos? nope, they actually slaughtered agamemnon beforehand

[trvgcdiv]

I'm so busy at work but I'll just say a silly little hc

Klytaimestra would be super into strategy games if she didn't turn her nose up at them as nerd shit (I'm leaning towards her possibly thinking they're beneath her, but it might change depending on certain things)

I feel like she'd also be super into Warhammer 40K if she'd be willing to give it a shot too

[devilsskettle]

i’m not saying anything about how justified the events of the oresteia are, i’m just saying that i might get a little axe-happy too if my husband regularly talked about me like that (& also regularly kidnaps young women as prizes of war??? that’s pretty fucked up dude)

[kretuart]

Zerrin İren Boynudelik’e ait resim incelemelerinin bulunduğu “Bu Resim Ne Anlatıyor ? ” Kitabında okuduğum Yunan mitolojisindeki Zeus’un Aşklarından: Leda ve Kuğu’ dan (Zeus) sizlerede ufacık bahsetmek isterim. Yukarıda eklemiş olduğum görsel Leonardo da Vinci’ ye ait olan Leda adlı 112x86cm boyutunda panel üzerine yağlıboya eserdir.

Zeus’un başını sık sık derde sokan özelliklerinden biriside ölümlü ve ölümsüz, tüm güzel kadınlara olan zaafıdır. Bu sebeple başı karısı Hera’yla derttedir. Bu derdi göz ardı etmek için Zeus çapkınlıklarına kılık değiştirerek devam eder. Bu çapkınlıklarından birinde derede yıkanırken gördüğü Leda’ya (Aitolia Kralı’nın kızı) aşık olur ve kuğu kılığına girerek Leda’yla yakınlaşır. Bu bembeyaz kuğuyu gören genç kadın da ona sevgiyle sarılır. Bu ikilinin ilişkisinden Polydeukes ve Helen doğar. Aynı gece kocasıylada beraber olan Leda ölümlü olan ikiz Kastor ve Klytaimestra’yı doğurur. Polydeukes ve Kastor beraber büyürler.Resimde de aynı ikili beraberler, bu şekilde dostluğu simgelerler.