#electra

[roachcicle]

HAPPY FATHERS DAY❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️

[starweaverblog]

Oh Electra they'll never make me hate you. Not that i truly hate any character from the house or Atreus. What many people do often is jumping into defence mode for Clytemnestra whereas her actions speak of a layered personality that her actions influenced negatively her children.

Yes she lost a daughter, but Electra and Orestes also lost a sister. Grief became pain, anger twisting the knife of tragedy to this family. Clytemnestra became a mother isolated from her children, closed to her own revenge that caused her own kids to despise her, especially Electra, forced to marry a servant, becoming one by her own mother's hands. The kind of betrayal coming from your parents is a pain deep residing in the soul.

The family's story is one complex one as many of the families in Greek myths. What many however ignore often are how a mother's actions changed her family for the worse instead of being caring and kind.

[kurzler]

psst. "feminist" retelling writers. yes, i'm talking to you. i have a gift for you: here are some interesting women from greek mythology that you can write about that are NOT medusa, persephone or clytemnestra! there ARE other women, shocking i know!

-medea: she literally killed her brother and her children, i thought "female rage" girlies would be all over her

-danae: her life is so crazy, imagine being imprisoned by you father, getting impregnated by a god, being locked in a box and left to die at sea and then basically becoming a hostage to a king while your son is sent to kill a monster. and she's one of the only ones who, to my knowledge, actually gets a happy ending!

-atalanta: basically the only female hero in greek mythology!! and she was an argonaut!! c'mon now there is so much potential here, why does nobody care for atalanta

-the amazons: penthesilea! hippolyta! literally any of them! you're telling me there is a whole society of female warriors and so called feminist writers aren't jumping at the opportunity??

-hecuba: such a tragic and interesting figure, being the queen of troy, she lost her whole family in the war, i wish more people explored her relationship with her children (especially paris) and apollo

-andromache: i'm shocked andromache isn't more popular with the "tragic female characters" people, she literally lost everything basically because of men

-cassandra: i know cassandra is fairly popular, but i love her so much and i want more people to explore her relationship with her family, every dynamic has the possibility to be SO interesting

-electra: this whole family is a MESS and yet i see people mainly focusing on clytemnestra (with iphigenia), but not exploring the relationship between electra and clytemnestra is such a missed opportunity

-helen: i just want the focus of her story to be shifted from paris to the other people in her life, like her daughter hermione! how did they rebuild their relationship after troy? or her sister clytemnestra! what happened to her bond after the murder of agamemnon? or her brothers, castor and pollux! there is so much untapped potential

-demeter: there is a story about a mother's grief for her daughter, her journey looking for her, her anger, and yet every retelling of the homeric hymn to DEMETER focuses HADES to make him a dark romance mafia boss?? come on

and more!

conclusion: i'm tired of seeing the same stories being retold over and over again when there are so many characters to explore

[ejthepuca]

Is Tumblr a fan of this trend by any chance? Because I spent way too long on this

[kexytimes]

rip Electra, you would've loved screaming "you're not my real dad!" at your mom's boyfriend

[mournfulroses]

Sophocles, from "Electra: A Tragedy," translated by Anne Carson

[idrawfunkythings]

Sometimes I think about Electra growing up in her sister’s shadow but somehow it’s even worse because her sister is dead.

Iphigenia was the gentle and selfless martyr who their father murdered, and Electra is betraying her by having such longing for him. Her mother spits venom whenever his name is mentioned. He is banned in their conversations. She lost both of them when the winds blew, and they’re still haunting her house.

She can never live up to the daughter that Clytemnestra lost, so why should she try? Her mother resents her no matter what, clinging to the faded memories of her oldest daughter like a lifeline even if it means casting out her remaining VERY ALIVE son and daughters.

And if Iphigenia was the kind and loving and innocent child, Electra must be the angry one. She must rebel enough for the both of them because otherwise she has no identity other than Iphigenia’s sister. Electra needs to be someone other than a woman carved by tragedy. She needs to control her place in the narrative, even if that place is hateful and rage filled.

And Electra doesn’t hate Iphigenia, because that’s her older sister who played with her and taught her how to dance and would steal food from the kitchens if she was hungry, but she absolutely loathes the idea of her and what her name has become.

And poor Iphigenia returns from two decades away from her home to find her parents dead and her baby sister destroyed. And Electra cannot differentiate between the Iphigenia she knew and the Iphigenia who her mother weaponised.

Atreus curse strikes again.

[hazugv1lag]

So uhh trains amirite

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