This article deals with the paradigmatic shifts in the perception and the artistic treatment of antiquity caused by the writings of Freud and, especially, Nietzsche in his Geburt der Tragödie. It achieves this goal by comparing two literary works from each phase and analyzing the stylistic, narratological and ideological discrepancies between these works. The “pre-Nietzschean” is represented by Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris and the “post-Nietzschean” by Hofmannsthal’s Elektra. The article also criticizes some scholarly contributions on the subject of gender in Iphigenie. The conclusion of the article argues that Goethe’s approach to antiquity is marked by an unburdened imaginative creativity that had already become impossible to imitate when Hofmannsthal wrote his play. Therefore, Iphigenie auf Tauris makes a lasting impact, while Elektra was and remains a work of its time.