Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Thoas.
The gallery
Orestes and Pylades before Thoas and Iphigenia
Unknown (Pompeian), c. 1st century AD
Pompeii fresco (VI.15.1): King Thoas presides as Orestes and Pylades stand before Iphigenia the priestess — Euripides' Taurian court in Roman domestic paint.
Orestes and Pylades before Iphigenia
Unknown, c. 18th century
Rijksmuseum plaque from an Iphigenia series: the recognition scene under Taurian law — Thoas' kingdom as the stage Euripides, Goethe and Gluck never left.
In music & on stage
In play
Iphigenia in Tauris
Euripides
Euripides' play — Thoas rules the Taurians and nearly sacrifices Orestes before Iphigenia steals the goddess and flees.
Iphigenie auf Tauris
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe's verse drama — Thoas humanized as a king who loves Iphigenia, still the Taurian obstacle to Greek return.
Thoas (king of the Taurians)
King of the Taurians who demanded strangers sacrificed to Artemis — Euripides' foil for Iphigenia's recognition plot.