Electra by Euripides: study and translation

Author(s)

Karen Amaral Sacconi

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2012-07-04

Examining board members

Adriane da Silva Duarte; Flávio Ribeiro de Oliveira; Christian Werner

• Advisor: Adriane da Silva Duarte

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the tragedy Electra by Euripides taking a more specific look at the way the poet updates this episode in his dramatic version of the myth of Orestes. The thesis is divided in two parts. The first contains the study itself and the second offers an integral translation of the dramatic poem according to the standards of academic translations intended for study. The study encompasses three chapters that address the issue of updating from different perspectives. The first concerns the story of the myth from Homer to its appearance in dramatic poetry and presents a comparative study of the three tragic versions of the myth, namely Aeschylus Oresteia and the Electras of Sophocles and Euripides. From the second chapter on, the focus is on Euripides Electra. This chapter resorts to a detailed analysis of some of the characters and the chorus in order to study the innovations in the plot. Finally, the third chapter discusses the staging of the tragedy, once again from the point of view of the updating. Overall, the study intends to reflect on the models used by Euripides, as well as the adaptations that these models have gone through and, finally, the refusal of some paradigms. (AU)