At The Mycenean Court

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31155, 3 September 1966, Page 4

At The Mycenean Court

Electra. By Gladys Schmidt W. H. Allen. 280 pp.

In her excellent retelling of this classical story the authoress brings vividly to life the heroes and heroines of the ancient Greek legends. Taking Electra as her central figure, she shows the disintegration of relationships at the Mycenean court as Electra suddenly discovers the infidelity of her mother, Clytemnestra, with Aegisthus. It has long been common knowledge to others at the Court who have chosen to ignore it but, with the uncompromising pitilessness of the young for the weaknesses of their elders, Electra makes her mother aware of her knowledge by subtle looks and attitudes. Mourning the sudden disappearance of her brother Orestes, Electra waits restlessly for her father, Agamemnon, to return from the Trojan wars so that she can tell him of the situation which, to her chaste mind, is so appalling. She vows to the gods that she will tell him as soon as he returns and imagines herself sitting beside him in the firelight while he gently strokes her hair as he did when she was a child. Indeed, as much of the story is told through the thoughts and dreams of the characters as through their actions. When Agamemnon returns he is no longer the man Electra remembered, if in fact he ever was, and, in spite of her vbw, she cannot bring herself to tell him, knowing that this selfish, war-hardened man would kill Clytemnestra and her lover without compunction.

But Aegisthus and her mother, unaware of this new pity in her, cannot take the risk of Electra speaking to her father of their liaison. At a banquet Agamemnon, his mistress Cassandra, whom he had brought back from the wars, their twin children, and some of the servants were brutally murdered by Aegisthus and his men. After the massacre Electra flees and, half-maddened by shock and the conviction that she is responsible for the bloodshed because she broke her vow, she remains hidden in the poor part of the town lest she, too, is murdered.

Her brother, Orestes, returns and finds her, about to commit suicide on their father’s grave. Although Miss Schmidt, an experienced novelist and professor of English at Carnegie Technical Institute, does not keep exactly to the traditional legends, her characters move so realistically in the settings and situations she has created for them that there is no sense of discord.