A memória dos objectos: A Electra de Eurípides em cena

Abstract

Greek tragedy, any Greek tragedy, was conceived by its playwriter as a spectacle, designed to be heard, but also to be seen - and not as a text we may read in the quietness of our working office. Therefore, we must not ignore the several stage properties implied in the texts, and we must read them always trying to establish how they worked visually, what was their effect on the audience: they were not only hearing of them but also seeing them. Do stage props always agree with the text or do they eventually say something more or something else? Euripides' Electra, dealing with a myth that also interested Aeschylus and Sophocles, provides a very good ground for discussing this question. A pot, a sword, a head that may have been severed from its body (or not), a carriage, a cloak - in this paper I try to discuss the way we look at these objects, and the way these objects look at us.