Meditation 4

After reading all of the Electras I was surprised at how different each story was while still being a consistent whole. Things were very different throughout them but they maintained the myth. I think that is how myths get started, everyone hears a different version of everything and then in turn they tell a different version. I myself tend to exaggerate certain things. Any myth that is told is a little different every time it is told, because it is an oral tradition. Words change, people change, but the general meaning remains the same. If you look at any urban legend there are tenfold different ways the story can be told, and has been told, but the moral of the story is all the same; don’t pick up strangers on the highway, don’t be out late at night, the list goes on. The story of Electra is the same way, every author has a different style, a different language, but in the end Electra helps Orestes to avenge their father’s death and kill their mother, a heinous blood crime. The gods told Orestes to commit this crime, so that Clytemnestra would have to pay for the wrong that she did. Also throughout Electra and the Electra myth it is obvious the women’s place in society as well as how they were thought of. Women were dangerous people, not to be trusted, but at the same time they were almost the equals of the slaves. I find that very upsetting, however Electra, like her mother, proved to be a strong person with a strong will, fighting to do what she believed to be right.