Goethe’s
Iphigenie auf Tauris, a pinnacle of German classical drama, was composed in rhythmic prose between 14 February and 28 March 1779, when Goethe was twenty-nine years old and while he struggled as a government executive with such social problems as starving stocking weavers in Apolda and laboured under the onerous task of levying soldiers to meet a Prussian requisition in the War of the Bavarian Succession. A blank verse version was published in an edition of Goethe’s collected writings by Göschen at Leipzig eight years later. Members and friends of the court performed the original version on 6 April 1779, with Goethe himself in the role of Orest and Corona Schröter as Iphigenie. In 1802 Schiller prepared a version for the theatre that has not survived, and he directed…
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Citation: Dye, Ellis. "Iphigenie auf Tauris". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 April 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4400, accessed 23 November 2024.]
