Verses of contemporary theatres have recently been used for interpreting the iconography of Versailles. However, the most important issue for this method has never been treated: what theatrical genre among various kinds of spectacles is proper for analysing the iconography of Versailles? This paper's purpose is to give a key to this issue, i.e. to find a genre that belonged to the iconographical world of Versailles, by analysing an attitude to DEUS EX MACHINA in the preface of the tragedy Iphig enie by Jean Racine among five theatres represented at the Devertissements de Versailles in 1674.
