Iphigenia in Aulis (Drama, 1943)

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Iphigenie in Aulis is a verse drama in five acts by the German Nobel Prize winner for literature Gerhart Hauptmann , which was written between 1940 and 1943 and on November 15, 1943, the author's 81st birthday, in the Vienna Burgtheater under Lothar Müthel with Ewald Balser as Agamemnon, Käthe Dorsch as Klytämnestra, Käthe Braun as Iphigenie and Helmuth Krauss as Kalchas was premiered. The first version of this tragedy, part 1 of the Atriden tetralogy , was followed by eight revisions.

Gerhart Hauptmann on a painting by Lovis Corinth from 1900

content

1

The Greek fleet in the beginning of the month Thargelion (May) Boeotian Aulis to the next trip to Troy collected. A lull prevents the departure. The seer Kalchas asks the Oracle of Delphi about the cause of the mishap. Answer: Agamemnon , King of Mycenae , “the highest lord of the Greek people” and leader of this campaign, has insulted Artemis in his hunting rage; wanted to be the better hunter and has killed a pregnant holy hind in her holy hunting grounds . The punishment: Westwind will only rise after Agamemnon has sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia , "the beauty miracle in all of Hellas ". The offended goddess wants human flesh in exchange for the death of her hind. Agamemnon trembles with Hecate . The goddess has sent a black festival ship to pay homage to Artemis. Since the festival ship emits a scent of carrion and is circled by vultures, Agamemnon only remains obedient. With a ruse the father lures the daughter and her mother Klytämnestra to the army camp in Aulis. Allegedly the lovesick Achilles desires the beautiful virgin Iphigenia as a wife. In private, the father explains to his younger brother Menelaus , the king of Sparta , the real reason for his invitation to his daughter and wife: “The pure virgin is wed in appearance before her throat is cut.” Agamemnon means the sacrifice Iphigenia is being tried by a group in the Greek army in Aulis, headed by Odysseus . The Ithacian wanted to power in Mycenae.

Agamemnon, suddenly with a different mind, sends the two women back as soon as they arrive. He wants to explain himself in an inn on the Kithairon . Iphigenia, a student of Eros who would like to become Achilles' wife, is reluctant to obey. Kalchas sees through Agamemnon and explains to the king that he must sacrifice his daughter. "For to oppose a god means death to every mortal."

Clytemnestra, who hesitantly obeys, does not understand her husband and ponders. When she arrived in Aulis, he asked, as a “greeting”, as it were: “Who are you?” Clytemnestra thinks, deeply shocked, that Agamemnon has been sent to the Aulis camp by the Moira .

2

Gasthaus am Kithairon: As a former nurse of Iphigenia, the taurian Peitho, whose mother served the wicked Hecate, only wants her good. Peitho, the second seer in the play, still sees dimly , but Kere whispered to her that it could be possible that Iphigenia would bleed to death on the butcher's knife. Iphigenia would like to live with Achilles. However, according to the Parze's saying, he did not want to be a farmer in Phthia for a long life , but strive for sudden death in Troy .

When Agamemnon, who is protected by Ares , appears in the inn, he confesses to his wife: "... I am ... a fainting toy of terrible gods ..." and advises her: "The best thing is, you assume that I am unconscious." He promptly loses consciousness - not the only time in the piece. Agamemnon fears the look of the Keren; thinks their gaze ostracizes him and his daughter. No matter, Clytemnestra does not want to give up her daughter; hopes for the support of the maternal Kronidin Hera .

Agamemnon orders his confidante Critolaus - the latter has already lulled Iphigenia to sleep in her golden cradle - to bring the princess to safety behind the iron gates of Mykenes.

3

Place in front of the royal castle of Mycenae: Aigisthus , who had advertised both Clytemnestra and Iphigenia in vain, offers the desperate Clytemnestra every conceivable help. If necessary, he even wants to push Agamemnon down into the realm of the dead.

Agamemnon, half unconscious again, wants to sacrifice Iphigenia again. Clytemnestra cannot bring him to his senses. So she hopes for Odysseus, who may still be able to make peace after all.

The 75-year-old farmer Thestor, the father of Kalchas, abandons the plaice, marches under mysterious compulsion to Mycenae, curses the son as a potential child murderer, reproaches Agamemnon because, in his opinion, Artemis does not want the death of young Iphigenia. The king rebukes the pawn.

Before Iphigenia, Clytemnestra called her father Agamemnon "a mad dog who persistently pursues its game and never tires until it kills it." Peitho leads them away.

4th

Assembly place at Euripos : The Greek army is hungry and thirsty, rebels against its princes and against the "sacrificial butcher" Kalchas. Stones fly. Kalchas wants to arbitrate; calls for the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Agamemnon hid and is believed to be in Argos . The herald Talthybios announces the arrival of Agamemnon. Iphigenia at his side wants to die on the altar for Hellas.

The warriors are touched. Kalchas is even shaken. Achilles catches the virgin who has passed out. Agamemnon encourages the warriors to fight Troy.

5

Three semi-divine beings, priestesses of Hecate, want to pick up Iphigenia. One of them, the Kore , expresses her request as follows: “But we only have the task of bringing in the Tauris goddess a new priestess with all the highest honors.” Iphigenia is escorted by the three to the black festival ship Hekates. Suddenly Kalchas claims not to have wanted the imminent sacrifice of Iphigenia. Menelaus is convinced that the Eumenides will remain tough, but Kalchas hopes that Iphigenia will not die.

The lull is over. The west wind rises. Menelaus, trembling, comments: "... a father murdered his own daughter." Error: Agamemnon slaughtered the next Hindu.

The Greeks hoist the sails. Let's go to Troy.

Quote

  • Agamemnon at Iphigenia: "A tomb, it seems to me, is the whole world."

reception

  • 1952, Mayer writes, “ Iphigenie in Aulis is a great creation by the eighty-year-old poet. There can be no doubt that a poem of resistance against the policy of conquest and barbarism of German fascism was and should arise here in the middle of the Second World War . "Sprengel contradicts this in 1984:" Hauptmann never - not even in any hidden draft note - had a time-critical intention known from the Atrid tetralogy . "
  • 1954, Fiedler writes, the fable Euripides follows , but Gerhart Hauptmann added the nurse Peitho and Aigisthos. The latter acts, so to speak, as a link to the two following parts of the tetralogy. In contrast to his great predecessor, Hauptmann paints Agamemnon's soul drama. The king's perception is increasingly clouded and reaches its peak with the sacrifice of the Hind. After all, Agamemnon is a powerless tool in the hands of the gods.
  • 2012, Sprengel writes, at the Viennese premiere mentioned above, Gerhart Hauptmann sat in the box of the Viennese Gauleiter Baldur von Schirach .

literature

Book editions

First edition:
  • Iphigenia in Aulis. Tragedy. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 1921
Output used:
  • Iphigenia in Aulis. Tragedy. P. 285–393 in Gerhart Hauptmann: Selected dramas in four volumes. Vol. 4,543 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1952

Secondary literature

  • The atrid tetralogy . P. 76–82 in: Gerhart Hauptmann: Selected dramas in four volumes. Vol. 1. With an introduction to the dramatic work of Gerhart Hauptmann by Hans Mayer . 692 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1952
  • Iphigenia in Aulis . Pp. 100-108 in Ralph Fiedler (* 1926 in Berlin-Röntgen ): The late dramas of Gerhart Hauptmann. Attempt at an interpretation. 152 pages. Bergstadtverlag Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn , Munich 1954
  • The questionability of the anti-fascist reading . P. 262–263 in Peter Sprengel : Gerhart Hauptmann. Epoch - work - effect. 298 pages. CH Beck, Munich 1984 (Beck's elementary books), ISBN 3-406-30238-6
  • Iphigenia in Aulis (1943) . P. 240–242 in: Friedhelm Marx : Gerhart Hauptmann . Reclam, Stuttgart 1998 (RUB 17608, Literature Studies series). 403 pages, ISBN 3-15-017608-5
  • Daria Santini: Gerhart Hauptmann between modernity and tradition. New perspectives on the Atriden tetralogy. Translated from the Italian by Benjamin Büttrich. 172 pages. Verlag Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1998 (Diss. University of Pisa 1995, publications of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gesellschaft, vol. 8). ISBN 3-503-03792-6
  • Peter Sprengel : Gerhart Hauptmann. Bourgeoisie and big dream. A biography. 848 pages. CH Beck, Munich 2012 (1st edition), ISBN 978-3-406-64045-2

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Santini distinguishes between nine phases, running from September 16, 1940 to July 1942 (Santini, pp. 151–153).
  2. ↑ The author claims the "normal" viewer: The characters in the play often call Iphigenia Iphianassa. Gerhart Hauptmann occasionally calls Apollo Loxias , Troja Ilion and Hades the black Zeus .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sprengel anno 2012, p. 688, 6. Zvo
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 297, 15. Zvu
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 305, 13. Zvu
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 300, 4. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 330, 1. Zvu
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 332, middle
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 360, 4. Zvo
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 387, 6th Zvu
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 392, 13. Zvu
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 341, 2nd Zvu
  11. ↑ Mayer, p. 80, 18. Zvo
  12. ↑ Sprengel anno 1984, p. 262, 2nd Zvu
  13. ↑ Sprengel anno 2012, p. 694, 7th Zvu
  14. ^ Iphigenie in Aulis Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 1943