The Electra of Euripides: Translated into English Rhyming Verse
The Electra of Euripides: Translated into English Rhyming Verse
Translated by Gilbert Murray
The most psychologically acute of the Greek tragedies. Euripides strips the legend of its heroic distance, placing us inside the mind of a princess stripped of everything: her crown, her dignity, her very identity. Electra waits in rags for her exiled brother Orestes to return and avenge their father Agamemnon's murder at the hands of their mother Clytemnestra. When he finally arrives, disguised as a stranger, the recognition scene crackles with suppressed emotion. But this is not a tale of clean vengeance. Euripides, with his unflinching eye for human contradiction, shows us what happens after: the murder of Aegisthus, the murder of Clytemnestra, and the dawning horror of those who committed acts they believed were justice. This rhyming verse translation captures the original's musicality while preserving its raw emotional power. For readers who want Greek tragedy that feels alive, immediate, and unsettlingly modern.
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“ORESTES: Never shall I see you again.ELECTRA: Nor I see myself in your eyes.ORESTES: This, the last time I'll talk with you ever.ELECTRA: O my homeland, goodbye. Goodbye to you, women of home.ORESTES: Most loyal of sisters, do you leave now?ELECTRA: I leave with tears blurring all that I see.””
— Euripides
“Yes, blood for blood, his bitter loan came due. He paid with death.””
— Euripides
“Yet censure strikes hard at women, while men, the true agents of trouble, hear no reproach.””
— Euripides
“Of most dreadful suffering, I am the cause.””
— Euripides
“I wish you joy. To spend life's fleeting days mid joy that never meets an evil hour is to be blessed beyond compare.””
— Euripides
“You gave birth to your own death.””
— Euripides
“Hurry, come hold me, though I am dead. Shed tears on my body as on my grave.””
— Euripides
“What greater sorrow than being forced to leave behind my native earth?””
— Euripides
“Give me a man, for sons make courageous soldiers while pretty boys can only decorate the dance.””
— Euripides
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Euripides. The Electra of Euripides: Translated into English Rhyming Verse. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-electra-of-euripides-translated-into-english-rhyming-verse-3e6aa4c4-f756-44e4-bad7-d4afd828dc1e.Euripides (n.d.). The Electra of Euripides: Translated into English Rhyming Verse. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-electra-of-euripides-translated-into-english-rhyming-verse-3e6aa4c4-f756-44e4-bad7-d4afd828dc1eEuripides. The Electra of Euripides: Translated into English Rhyming Verse. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-electra-of-euripides-translated-into-english-rhyming-verse-3e6aa4c4-f756-44e4-bad7-d4afd828dc1e.
