Man, Greek plays are dirtier then most manga!
Truth, indeed. I mean, take a look at Apuleius' Metamorphoses. Where else would every women in the story want to have sex with the freaking donkey?
Heh, well, that's not exactly Greek, judging by the name, but yeah, Greek plays can be a little dirty - not the tradgedies, but the comedies*. I actually didn't finish reading Lysistrata for that reason - the amount of innuendo is insane! I struggled my way through the Latin novel The Satyricon by Petronius, though. Now there's a strange work, written by the guy that was Nero's own party-planner... before the emperor had him commit suicide, that is. It shows the real decadancy of the Romans, to say the least. It's rather a... differerent work. A novel, and feels more 'modern', as it were, than most other ancient things. It's bound to be strange when you have two washed up who-knows-what losers journeying around with a young boy who is their 'companion', and eventually meet up with a horny old poet (and a bad poet at that)... yeah. I had to read it for a Latin literature class. Sufficed to say, I was happy that we read the epic The Civil War by Lucan thereafter.
*There's a thing, though. The tragedies are not so bad as many would think. Very few deaths ever occur on stage (the only one I can think of is that of Ajax), most of it told through report, or done behind a closed door that is opened to reveal the dead. As for Oedipus, well, was it really his fault? I think Freud was foollish to call his theory an Oedipus Complex, because it was the fault of the gods, not the king, and what he did he did unknowingly - he never had any desire for his mother, not knowing it to be she+. When he learns it, he is so disgusted with himself he gouges his eyes out, blaming himself for everything. In time, however, he comes to blame the gods, and hold himself guiltless, and it seems the divinities agree: he is turned into a god when he dies - sure proof of his vindication. The point is, this is something that is treated as a sin upon which the events then build, and not a focus per say (in fact, the point that he killed his father Laius is given about as much importance.) In the end, though, the tragedies are rather clean in language and content, which is surprising when given the subjects they approach. What they do, retain, however, is a good examination of human suffering. Rarely does a tragedy turn out well (some do, however, begin tragic and end happy - Alcestis, for example, where though the wife of Alcestis dies at the beginning, it ends with Herakles wrestling Death and getting her back for his friend.) The Sophoclean hero, for example, is a very powerful figure that falls often through his own stubborness. Kreon in Antigone does as he thinks best for the country, and continues on the course regardless of all the omens telling him that he is doing wrong, and those good intentions destroy him. Ajax's mighty strength and prowess betray him over to his own anger at the other heroes, and he shames himself, for which he kills himself - a last strong act. I suppose they are almost MacBeth sorts.
+Likewise, the Electra complex is a very flimsy term, also, as Elektra is never shown to have any sort of desire for her father Agamemnon. All she ever does is harbour malice towards her mother for her having killed Agamemnon - siding with the father rather than mother, which might be a touch atypical. But to claim that she had a desire for him seems to be about as ridiculous and unfounded as saying that Achilles and Patroklos were lovers. The only instance of this I can think anywhere close is in Hippolytos, where Aphrodite causes the queen to fall in love with her step-son.
