The Vengeance of Nitocris
The Vengeance of Nitocris ("The Revenge of Nitokris") is the first published short story by the American writer Tennessee Williams (1911-1983). He wrote it at the age of sixteen and sold it to Weird Tales magazine for $ 35 , where it appeared in the August 1928 issue.
action
The story is a dramatic embellishment of an event that Herodotus describes in the second book of his Histories : a Pharaoh (not named) desecrates the temple of the god Osiris out of anger over the collapse of a bridge over the Nile and is then led by an angry mob, led by the priests of the temple, attacked and torn to pieces. His sister Nitokris succeeds him on the throne and seeks revenge. She has a new temple built and invites her brother's murderers to an opulent feast in a huge underground hall. At the height of the orgy, she leaves the festival, seals the entrance with a stone block and opens the locks to a secret channel, through which the floods of the Nile now pour into the ballroom and drown man and mouse. She then commits suicide .
expenditure
Secondary literature
- Francesca M. Hitchcock: Tennessee Williams's Vengeance of Nitocris: The Keynote to Future Works . In: Mississippi Quarterly 48: 4, 1995, pp. 595-608.
- Sandra Luna: A vingança de Nitocris: A “história” de Heródoto na trágica versão de Tennessee Williams . In: Graphos 11: 1, 2009, pp. 263-275.