Elektra

A dynamic and necessary new translation of Sophocle's chilling tragedy of hatred, revenge, and murder

Orestes, the son of King Agamemnon, returns to his homeland to take revenge on his mother, Klytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, for killing his father in cold blood. Elektra has long awaited her brother's return, bitter and contemptuous of their mother's moral justification for slaughtering Agamemnon, who had sacrificed the life of another daughter, Iphigenia, so the Greek army could sail to Troy. Elektra helps Orestes and his friend Pylades execute an ingenious plan, continuing a bloody cycle that destroys the lives of their enemies and will forever haunt their own.

Robert Baggs new translation, modern in idiom while faithful to the original, conveys the complex range of emotion experienced by grieving family members who expect vengeance to set them free. This is Sophocles for a new generation.