Iphigenie in Tauris

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Category: Literature

Published on Thursday, 15 March 2018 16:23

If you like classical literature I can recommend you an interesting drama. It has the name “Iphigenie in Tauris” and is written by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The final version of this book was presented 1786.

 Its content is very complex and strong combined with the histories of the Ancient Greek. So let me start to explain you a bit more about the backdrop of the story. Once the demigod Tantalus tried to cheat the gods of the Mount Olympus. So they banned him into the Tartaros and cursed his family to never ending hate and murders. One of the great-grandsons of Tantalus was Agamemnon. He wanted to lead the Greek armed forces at the Trojan War but the goddess Diana did not send wind for his fleet. She wanted Agamemnon to offer up his oldest daughter Iphigenie. But at the moment Iphigenie should be killed, Diana took her away and moved her to Tauris. There she should be her priest. When Agamemnon came home from the war, his wife killed him, because she thought that Iphigenie would be dead. But also now this bloody story is not finished. Orest the son of Agamemnon killed his mother together with the help of his other sister Elektra. Afterwards Orest was followed by the furies, because of the curse of Tantalus.

And here the drama from Goethe started. Iphigenie lived since a long time in Tauris. She was respected by the local people, and she was grateful that Thoas the king of this county liked her. But also she was homesick and wanted to live together with her family again. And another shadow was in her heart. She knew that Thoas wanted to marry her, but she would hate it to live under the law of a man for the rest of her life. But Thoas did not accept her decision and forced her to do human sacrifices again. Exactly at this time Orest and his friend Pylades arrived at Tauris. They got the mission from Apollon to bring the missed sister home. So they wanted to steal the statue of Diana, because she was the twister of Apollon.
As prisoners, they came to Iphigenie who should sacrifice them. The two men spoke with Iphigenie about the ending of the Trojan War and Iphigenie found her brother. But Orest did not want to live any more, because he was destroyed by the curse. Finally, he saw in a version how the curse of his family disappears, and he wanted to escape with Iphigenie. But Iphigenie did not want to deceive the king Thoas and talked with him about her plans. First Thoas is very angry that someone will steal his property with armed force. But Iphigenie appealed at his humanity and in the end Thoas agreed. Now they also understand the oracle from Apollon, who said that the curse will disappear, as soon as they bring the sister home.

I can really recommend you this drama if you should be a fan of the literary epoch of the Weimarer Classic. The figure of Iphigenie is the best example for the conception of man at this time because she is reasonable, honest and dutiful. She attended her life to higher ideals and is searching for the inner harmonies between duty and personal interests.