Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, courtier, and natural philosopher, one of the greatest figures in Western literature. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature side by side with Schiller In literature Goethe gained early fame with The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), but his most famous work is the poetic drama in two parts, FAUST. Like the famous character of this poem, Goethe was interested in alchemy. He also made important discoveries in connection with plant and animal life, and evolved a non-Newtonian and unorthodox theory of the character of light and color, which has influenced such abstract painters as Kandinsky and Mondrian. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours, his influential ideas on plant and animal morphology and homology were extended and developed by 19th century naturalists including Charles Darwin. He also served at length as the Privy Councilor of the duchy of Saxe-Weimar.

Iphigenia in Tauris (German: Iphigenie auf Tauris) is a reworking by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe of the ancient Greek tragedy Iphigeneia in Tauris by Euripides.Goethe wrote his first version of the play in six weeks, and it was first performed on April 6, 1779 in prose form. He rewrote it in 1781, again in prose, and finally in 1786 in verse form.

Scene from the première of the final version in 1802 of Iphigenia in Tauris, with Goethe as Orestes in the centre.