hector's white bones in soft robes of purple

it was quite hard for me to get hold of (in part due to an error in the national library database...) so by chance the translation i wound up with was frank justus millers' from 1917. i don't mind reading that kind of antiquated language ("Dost thou prepare to slay and to defile thine altars with slaughter impious?") and it made the play feel quite shakespearian to me, but it's not my favourite for first time reads.

so possibly keep that in mind when i say this is my least favourite seneca so far...? there were mostly some characterization and structural things that just didn't hit for me at all. but we'll get into that. the match point goes to aeschylus on this one i'm afraid. the plays are strikingly similar, from the beginning with clytemnestra awaiting agamemnon's return, to cassandra envying philomela's nightingale transformation before she's about to get killed

okay. STARTING OUT SO STRONG with the ghost of thyestes on the stage, buzzing with anticipation to see the plan he set in motion about to hit its climax. the straightforward way he talks about raping his daughter to make it happen is genuinely upsetting. while he does say a few lines that seem to be directed at aegisthus, they don't interact at all, which was a letdown

so first point is i can't really get a handle on clytemnestra. she starts out in a sort of moral panic at being an unfaithful wife, she IS initially furious about agamemnon's actions and want to get back at him ("But why timidly talk of stealth, of exile, and of flight? Such things thy sister did; thee some greater crime becomes."), but by the time aegisthus joins her onstage she seems to fully have resolved to becoming meek and faithful from now on. she insists she still loves agamemnon deeply and wants to be with him and will happily tolerate him keeping a concubine in their home. and obviously there are different ways to play that scene but from text only i don't see much wavering to play with or signs of denial. it's aegisthus who keeps insisting agamemnon must pay (theatening suicide if clytemnestra goes back to her husband), and idk! feels weaker than it has to be. i try to read seneca divorced from the greek playwrights but turning her into some helpless wife who's been led astray by an immoral man who then blocks her attempt at making nice is not a very interesting way to handle clytemnestra to me. then she goes from THAT to blood drenched crazy woman chasing electra around wanting to kill her. ehhh.

what's interesting is how clytemnestra obviously knows everything that went down at troy regarding chryseis and briseis. also how many times she brings up achilles to praise him -- she seems just as angry about losing achilles as a son-in-law as she is at losing iphigenia...

i always hoot and holler at jabs at aegisthus though:

CLYTEMNSTRA: Deserting the king of kings, shall I wed with thee, a high-born woman with an outcast? AEGISTHUS: And wherefore less than Atreus' son do I seem to thee, who am Thyestes' son? CLYTEMNESTRA: If that is not enough, say grandson, too.

hahaaa got'im

the captive trojan women recall the fall of troy, and how when they thought the achaeans had left, it was the first time they'd seen hecuba happy since the death of hector. owwww ouch oww

same with cassandra remembering her "happy throng of brothers. Gone, all!" and her mother's transformation into a dog: "Around her ruined walls madly she barked, surviving Troy, son, husband – and herself!"

cassandra receiving her prophecy like it's painful, like it's an attack, reminds me a lot of the sibylla in the aeneid, it really gets to me when prophecy's not a mental thing, it's physical. the chorus describes cassandra "Now makes to unlock her struggling lips, now vainly tries to close them on her words, a mad priestess fighting against the god".

further aeneid parallels with cassandra seeing a spectre of hector who's mangled and bloody. also she sees her father, troilus, and deiphobus. REALLY intrigued by deiphobus' inclusion instead of paris', and the implication that helen disfigured him...?

there is some very small satisfaction in how acidly cassandra speaks to agamemnon without agamemnon apparently noticing. also she keeps likening his house to troy about to fall. he tells her, "Troy is not here." she answers, "Where a Helen is, I think is Troy." mmm

the chorus does a lengthy aside about the conception of heracles which is whatever but OF COURSE i jumped up straight away at "Aurora stirred at the accustomed hour of dawn, but, sinking back, laid her head and neck upon the breast of her aged husband." i CAN'T TAKE IT THEY ALWAYS GET TO ME AAA

while i was disappointed at how the murder of agamemnon is told in a messenger speech instead of happening onstage (seneca, you let medea kill her children in full view but you can't even do a "listen to the screams of agamemnon getting murdered in realtime" thing?), i REALLY enjoyed the play-by-play where aegisthus is the first to strike but hesitates so he only sticks the sword halfway in, and clytemnestra is like UGH FINE and jumps in to finish the job with the axe. and THEN when agamemnon is definitely dead (his head's lopped off!) aegisthus starts furiously stabbing the body. ohhhh aegisthus you are SUCH an intriguing little failure of a man i want to study you

okay the bit that was quite wild to me is that within MINUTES of the murder electra has taken young orestes (who clytemnestra has already described as "the image of his father", hoohoo) and run outside, and that's where they happen on strophius and young pylades who agree to take orestes and flee. it's all improvised and rushed, orestes is basically just handed over mid-emergency. i enjoyed a version where we see the start of orestes' exile but it does bring up the question why on earth electra doesn't join them when we see that clytemnestra is actively on a killing spree and intent on murdering her AS THEY SPEAK

sorry i just can't get over splatter movie killer clytemnestra chasing after electra out of the house. what's going ON

it's aegisthus who has to talk clytemnestra down from killing electra?? they agree that she should suffer more than just death

boy does the line "Thou hast a mannish soul, a heart puffed up; but, tamed by suffering, shalt thou learn to play a woman's part" from clytemnestra both call to mind the way clytemnestra is repeatedly accused of masculinity in aeschylus, but also gives me a lot of emotions about gender dynamics

actually that line hit so hard when i thought electra's punishment here was gonna be the humiliating marriage, but instead aegisthus orders her chained up in a dungeon somewhere far away???? a DUNGEON? i guess it doesn't preclude a marriage later on but i'm so confused. sir you spilled some antigone in my electra.