Mycenae in fin-de-siècle Vienna: Nietzsche, Freud, Hofmannsthal and the eternal return of the myth

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the correlation of thought between three leading names in the second half of the nineteenth century - Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Hugo von Hofmannsthal - that have addressed the crisis of male identity against the return of matriarchy. Considering the Vienna fin-de-siècle as a backdrop, female is presented here through Electra, a mythical heroine. In Hofmannsthal's homonymous play, she represents not only strengthening as the woman's own destruction.