Hounds, horses and Elaphants in Heinrich von Kleist's drama Penthesilea

In Heinrich von Kleist’s masterwork Penthesilea (1806–1808), Amazons and Greek heroes rule the stage together with many different species of animals. They are used not only metaphorically to enucleate and underlinehuman qualities or vices, but also as agents in hunting scenes. As regards the ideological issues implied by the hunting motif in the anthropological and political discourse of Kleist’s epoch, we aim to analyse in depth the function of game hunting in the play, and to go beyond the traditional exegetical approaches to the text in relation to the presenceof animals.