Iphigenia

In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (/ɪfɪdʒɪˈnaɪ.ə/; Ancient Greek:

Ἰφιγένεια, Iphigeneia) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and
Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae. Agamemnon
offends the goddess Artemis, who retaliates by commanding him to
kill Iphigenia as a sacrifice so his ships can sail to Troy. In some
versions, Iphigenia is sacrificed at Aulis, but in others, Artemis
rescues her.[1] In the version where she is saved, she goes to the
Taurians and meets her brotherOrestes.[1]

Contents
Name
Iphianassa
Mythology
Among the Taurians
Among the Etruscans
Adaptations of the story
In popular culture
See also
Notes
François Perrier's The Sacrifice of Iphigenia(17th
Modern sources
century), depicting Agamemnon's sacrifice of his
External links daughter Iphigenia

Name
"Iphigenia" means "strong-born," "born to strength," or "she who causes the birth of strong fspring."
of [2]

Iphianassa
Iphianassa (Ἰφιάνασσα) is the name of one of Agamemnon's three daughters in Homer's Iliad (ix.145, 287)[3] The name Iphianassa
may be simply an older variant of the name Iphigenia. "Not all poets took Iphigenia and Iphianassa to be two names for the same
heroine," Kerenyi remarks,[4] "though it is certain that to begin with they served indifferently to address the same divine being, who
had not belonged from all time to the family of Agamemnon."

Mythology
In Greek mythology, Iphigenia appears as the Greek fleet gathers in Aulis to prepare for war against Troy. At Aulis, the leader of the
Greeks, Agamemnon, accidentally kills a deer in a grove sacred to the goddess Artemis.[5] She punishes him by interfering with the
winds so that his fleet cannot sail to Troy. The seer Calchas reveals that, to appease Artemis, Agamemnon must sacrifice his eldest
ly agrees.[5][6]
daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon at first refuses but, pressured by the other commanders, eventual

Iphigenia and her mother Clytemnestra are brought to Aulis under the pretext of a marriage to Achilles, but soon discover the
marriage is a ruse. In some versions of the story, Iphigenia remains unaware of her imminent sacrifice until the last moment,
believing that she is led to the altar to be married.
In some versions, Iphigenia is not actually sacrificed. According to Hyginus'
Fabulae, Iphigenia was not sacrificed.[6] Some sources claim that Iphigenia was
taken by Artemis to Tauris in Crimea at the moment of the sacrifice, and that the
goddess left a deer[7] or a goat (the god Pan transformed) in her place. The Hesiodic
Catalogue of Women called her Iphimede (Ἰφιμέδη)[8] and told that Artemis
transformed her into the goddess Hecate.[9] Antoninus Liberalis said that Iphigenia
was transported to the island of Leuke, where she was wedded to immortalized
Achilles under the name Orsilochia.

In Aeschylus's Agamemnon, the

first play in the Oresteia, the
sacrifice of Iphigenia is given as
one of the reasons that
Clytemnestra and her lover
Aegisthus plan to murder
Agamemnon.

In Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, it Iphigenia as a priestess ofArtemis in

is Menelaus who convinces Tauris sets out to greet prisoners,
Agamemnon to heed the seer amongst which are her brother
Calchas's advice. After Orestes and his friend Pylades; a
Roman fresco from Pompeii, 1st
Agamemnon sends a message to
century AD
Clytemnestra informing her of
Iphigenia's supposed marriage, he
immediately regrets his decision and tries to send another letter telling them not to
Iphigenie (1862) by Anselm come. Menelaus intercepts the letter and he and Agamemnon argue. Menelaus
Feuerbach insists that it is Agamemnon's duty to do all he can to aid the Greeks. Clytemnestra
arrives at Aulis with Iphigenia and the infant Orestes. Agamemnon tries to convince
Clytemnestra to go back to Argos, but Clytemnestra insists on staying for the
wedding. When she sees Achilles, Clytemnestra mentions the marriage; Achilles, however, appears to be unaware of it, and she and
Iphigenia gradually learn the truth. Achilles, angry that Agamemnon has used him in his plot, vows to help prevent the murder of
Iphigenia. Iphigenia and Clytemnestra plead with Agamemnon to spare his daughter's life. Achilles informs them that the Greek
army, eager for war, has learned of the seer's advice and now demand that Iphigenia be sacrificed. If Agamemnon refuses, it is likely
they will turn on him and kill him and his family. Iphigenia, knowing she is doomed, decides to be sacrificed willingly, reasoning that
as a mere mortal, she cannot go against the will of a goddess. She also believes that her death will be heroic, as it is for the good of all
Greeks. Iphigenia exits, and the sacrifice takes place offstage. Later, Clytemnestra is told of her daughter's purported death—and how
at the last moment, the gods spared Iphigenia and whisked her away
, replacing her with a deer.

Euripides’ other play about Iphigenia, Iphigenia in Tauris, takes place after the sacrifice, and after Orestes has killed Clytemnestra
and Aegisthus. Apollo orders Orestes—to escape persecution by the Erinyes for killing his mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover—to
go to Tauris.[10] While in Tauris, Orestes is to carry off the xoanon (carved wooden cult image) of Artemis, which had fallen from
heaven, and bring it to Athens. When Orestes arrives at Tauris with Pylades, son of Strophius and intimate friend of Orestes, the pair
are immediately captured by the Tauri, who have a custom of sacrificing all Greek strangers to Artemis. Iphigenia is the priestess of
Artemis, and it is her duty to perform the sacrifice. Iphigenia and Orestes don’t recognize each other (Iphigenia thinks her brother is
dead—a key point). Iphigenia finds out from Orestes, who is still concealing his identity
, that Orestes is alive.

Iphigenia then offers to release Orestes if he will carry home a letter from her to Greece. Orestes refuses to go, but bids Pylades to
take the letter while Orestes will stay to be slain. After a conflict of mutual affection, Pylades at last yields, but the letter makes
brother and sister recognize each other, and all three escape together, carrying with them the image of Artemis. After they return to
Greece—having been saved from dangers by Athena along the way – Athena orders Orestes to take the Xoanon to the town of Halae,
where he is to build a temple for Artemis Tauropolos. At the annual festival held there in honor of Artemis, a single drop of blood
must be drawn from the throat of a man to commemorate Orestes's near-sacrifice. Athena sends Iphigenia to the sanctuary of Artemis
in Brauron where she is to be the priestess until she dies. According to the Spartans, however, they carried the image of Artemis to
Laconia, where the goddess was worshipped asArtemis Orthia.

These close identifications of Iphigenia with Artemis encourage some scholars to believe that she was originally a hunting goddess
[11]
whose cult was subsumed by the Olympian Artemis.

Among the Taurians

The people of Tauris/Taurica facing the Euxine Sea[12] worshipped the maiden goddess Artemis. Some very early Greek sources in
the Epic Cycle affirmed that Artemis rescued Iphigenia from the human sacrifice her father was about to perform, for instance in the
lost epic Cypria, which survives in a summary by Proclus:[13] "Artemis ... snatched her away and transported her to the Tauroi,
making her immortal, and put a stag in place of the girl [Iphigenia] upon the altar." The goddess swept the young princess off to
Tauris where she became a priestess at the Temple of Artemis.

The earliest known accounts of the purported death of Iphigenia are included in Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis and Iphigenia in Tauris,
both Athenian tragedies of the fifth century BC set in the Heroic Age. In the dramatist's version, the Taurians worshipped both
Artemis and Iphigenia in the Temple of Artemis at Tauris. Other variants include her being rescued at her sacrifice by Artemis and
transformed into the goddess Hecate.[14] Another example includes Iphigenia's brother, Orestes, discovering her identity and helping
him steal an image of Artemis.[15] Possible reasons for key discrepancies in the telling of the myth by playwrights such as Euripides
are to make the story more palatable for audiences and to allow sequels using the same characters.

Many traditions arose from the sacrifice of Iphigenia. One prominent version is credited to the Spartans. Rather than sacrificing
virgins, they would whip a male victim in front of a sacred image of Artemis. However, most tributes to Artemis inspired by the
gins in honour of Artemis.[16]
sacrifice were more traditional. Taurians especially performed sacrifices of bulls and vir

Among the Etruscans

The myth was retold in classical Greece and Italy, but it became most popular in Etruria, especially in Perusia.[17] In the second and
[18] The most common scene: "Iphigenia,
first centuries BC the Etruscans adorned their cremation-urns with scenes from the sacrifice.
a little girl, is held over the altar by Odysseus while Agamemnon performs the aparchai. Clytemnestra stands beside Agamemnon
and Achilles beside Odysseus and each one begs for the life of Iphigenia." This version is closest to the myth as the Romans told
it.[19]

Adaptations of the story

Iphigenia at Aulis, play by Euripides.

Iphigénie en Aulide, play by Jean Racine.

Iphigénie en Aulide, opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck.
Iphigenia, film by Michael Cacoyannis.
The Songs of the Kings, novel by Barry Unsworth.
Iphigenia, play by Mircea Eliade.
Iphigenia at Aulis, play by Ellen McLaughlin (part of Iphigenia and Other Daughters)
Ifigeneia, a rewrite of the play byFinn Iunker
Iphigenia at Aulis, the first part of The Greeks trilogy, adapted and directed byJohn Barton for the Royal
Shakespeare Companyin 1980.
Iphigenia 2.0, modern adaptation of the play byCharles L. Mee[20]
Iph. . ., adapted by Colin Teevan.
Iphigenia in Tauris, play by Euripides.

Iphigénie en Tauride, opera by Henri Desmarets and André Campra.

Ifigenia in Tauride, opera by Tommaso Traetta.
 Iphigenie auf Tauris, play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Iphigénie en Tauride, opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck.
Iphigénie en Tauride, opera by Niccolò Piccinni
Iphigenia at Tauris, play by Ellen McLaughlin (part of Iphigenia and Other Daughters)
Metamorphoses, narrative poem by Ovid (books 12[21] and 13[22] )
Daughters of Atreus, play by Robert Turney
Iphigenia in Brooklyn, a solo cantata by Peter Schickele under the guise of P. D. Q. Bach.
Iphigénie, ballet by Charles le Picq.
Iphigenia, play by Samuel Coster.
Iphigenia in Orem, part of Bash: Latter-Day Plays, a collection of three plays byNeil LaBute.
A Memory of Wind, story by Rachel Swirsky.
Agamemnon's Daughter, novel by Ismail Kadare.
Iphigenia at Aulis,[23] a poem by Walter Savage Landor
A Fair Wind For Troy, novel by Doris Gates
Iphigenia, a 1977 Greek film directed byMichael Cacoyannis
Iphigenia in Crimea, BBC Radio 3 play byTony Harrison
Iphigenia in Splott, play by Gary Owen
House of Names, novel by Colm Toibin
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, a 2017 film directed byYorgos Lanthimos

In popular culture
The Atlantic speculates that Shireen Baratheon, a young girl from the TV series Game of Thrones who was sacrificed to a God by her
father, was based on Iphigenia.[24] Slate similarly writes: "Every beat of the Greek myth is the same as Stannis's story: The troops are
stuck and starving and the general, Agamemnon, must sacrifice his own daughter to turn the fates to their favor. The mother begging
for mercy, the disapproving second-in-command who can do nothing to stop it, the daughter who says she will do whatever it takes to
help—it's all a clear echo."[25]

In Sacrifice, the second volume of Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze comic book series, the substitution of a deer for Iphigenia is a
pious lie invented by Odysseus to comfort the grieving Clytemnestra. However, it does not work and Clytemnestra angrily curses the
whole Achaean army, wishing they all die in the war.[26]

Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country contains a similar idea, with a play named Iphigenia at Ilium running through the
novel as a leitmotif. Within the novel, the ghost of Iphigenia tells Achilles that all the poets lied. Iphigenia says that she did not die
willingly, nor was a hind sent to take her place. Iphigenia also realizes that these myths no longer have any power over her. Achilles
then attempts to claim her as his wife, but she reminds him that "women are no good to you dead".

[27]
There is also speculation that Iphigenia was actually the daughter of Helen and Theseus.

In Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles, Iphigenia comes to Aulis under the belief that she is to marry Achilles. Instead, she is
unwillingly sacrificed to appease Artemis.

The full (rarely used) name of the fictional private investigator V. I. Warshawski, created by Sara Paretsky, is Victoria Iphigenia
Warshawski. In the 1985 novel Killing Orders, third in the series, the protagonist identifies herself with the character of Greek myth,
and recognizes the similarity of a traumatic event of her childhood with the act of Iphigenia's sacrifice.

In Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the myth of Iphigenia is given a modern re-telling.

See also
Depictions of the Death of Iphigenia
Jephthah – a similar Biblical story
Notes
1. Evans (1970), p. 141
2. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott,A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. "Iphigenia" (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-b
in/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2351428) and Rush Rehm, The Play of Space
(2002, 188). Karl Kerenyi, aware of Iphigenia's obscure pre-history as an autonomous goddess rather than a mere
marriageable girl in the house of Agamemnon, renders her name "she who governs births mightily" (Kerenyi
1959:331).
3. The three are Chrysothemis, Laodice (the double of Electra) and Iphianassa. In Iliad ix, the embassy to Achilles is
empowered to offer him one of Agamemnon'sthree daughters, implying that Iphianassa/Iphigenia is still living, as
Friedrich Solmsen 1981:353 points out.
4. Kerenyi 1959:331, notingSophocles, Elektra 157. Kerenyi clearly distinguishes between parallel accounts of
Iphigenia. "It is possible in theCypria Agamemnon was given four daughters, Iphigenia being distinguished from
Iphianassa," Friedrich Solmsen remarks, (Solmsen 1981:353 note 1) also noting the scholium on Elektra 157.
5. Siegel, Herbert (1981)."Agamemnon in Euripides' "Iphigenia at Aulis"" (https://philpapers.org/rec/SIEAIE-2).
Hermes. 109: 257–65. JSTOR 4476212 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4476212).
6. "Mortal women of the Trojan War: Iphigenia" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140715141853/http://web.stanford.edu/
~plomio/iphigenia.html). Stanford University. Archived from the original (http://web.stanford.edu/~plomio/iphigenia.ht
ml) on July 15, 2014.
7. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Epitome of the Library 3.21.
8. This fragmentary passage (fr. 23(a)17–26), found among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, has been restored to its proper
place in the Ehoeae, the Hesiodic Catalogue, in modern times; the awkward insertion ofeidolon — the image of
Iphimede — and lines where Artemis saves her are considered a later interpolation byFriedrich Solmsen, "The
Sacrifice of Agamemnon's Daughter in Hesiod's' Ehoeae"The American Journal of Philology102.4 (Winter 1981),
pp. 353–58.
9. this doesn't appear in any of the surviving passages of the Hesiodic catalogue but is attested for it by Pausanias,
1.43.1.
10. Tauris is now the Crimea.
11. J. Donald Hughes, "Goddess of Conservation."Forest and Conservation History34.4 (1990): 191–97.
12. Taurica (Greek: Ταυρίς, Ταυρίδα, Latin: Taurica) also known as the Tauric Chersonese and Chersonesus T
aurica,
was the name of Crimea in Antiquity.
13. Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 19
14. Hesiod, The Catalogues, TRANS. by H. G. Evelyn-White, fragment 71
15. Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris
16. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, London: Penguin, 1955; Baltimore: Penguin pp. 73–75: "Iphigenia Among the
Taurians"
17. George Dennis (1848).The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. 2. London: John Murray., 463
18. Pilo, Chiara; Giuman, Marco (2015). "Greek Myth on Etruscan Urns from Perusia: the sacrifice of Iphigenia".
Etruscan Studies. 18.2: 97–125.
19. Helen Evangeline Devlin (1914).The Development and Treatment of the Iphigenia Myth in Greek and Roman
Literature. University of Wisconsin., page 24
20. Mee, Charles L. "Iphigenia 2.0" (http://www.charlesmee.com/html/iphigenia.html). Retrieved December 9, 2012.
21. "Metamorphoses" (http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph12.htm#486225986)
. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
22. "Metamorphoses" (http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph13.htm#anchor_Toc64105840).
Retrieved June 25, 2015.
23. "554. Iphigeneia. Walter Savage Landor. 1909–14. English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald. The Harvard
Classics" (http://www.bartleby.com/41/554.html).
24. Kornhaber, Spencer. "The Most Disturbing Thing About the Shireen Scene on 'Game of Thrones ' " (https://www.theat
lantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/06/game-of-thrones-shireen-human-sacrifice-history/395573/).
25. Marcotte, Amanda (9 June 2015)."Don't Be So Shocked by the Deaths on Game of Thrones: The Show Is a
Classical Tragedy" (http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/06/09/game_of_thrones_is_a_classical_tragedy_don
_t_be_so_shocked_my_the_deaths.html)– via Slate.
26. Shanower, Eric (2004). Age of Bronze: Sacrifice. Berkeley, California: Image Comics. ISBN 1-58240-399-6.
27. Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 27 (online text (http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisFavour.html)) Iphigenia
is called a daughter ofTheseus and Helen, raised by Clytemnestra.

Modern sources
Bonnard, A. (1945) Iphigénie à Aulis, Tragique et Poésie, Museum Helveticum, Basel, v.2, pp. 87–107
Croisille, J-M (1963) Le sacrifice d'Iphigénie dans l'art romain et la littérature latine
, Latomus, Brussels, v. 22
pp. 209–25
Decharme, P. "Iphigenia" In: C. d'Auremberg and E. Saglio,Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romainesv.3
(1ère partie), pp. 570–72 (1877–1919)
Evans, Bergen (1970).Dictionary of Mythology. New York: Dell Publishing. ISBN 0-440-20848-3.
Graves, Robert (1955) The Greek Myths, Penguin, London, pp. 73–75
Jouan, F. (1966) "Le Rassemblement d'Auliset le Sacrifice d'Iphigénie", In: ______,Euripide et les Légendes des
Chants Cypriens, Les Belles Lettres, Pris, pp. 73–75
Kahil, L. (1991) "Le sacrifice d'Iphigénie" In:Mélanges de l'École française de Rome, Antiquité, Rome, v. 103
pp. 183–96
Kerenyi, Karl (1959) The Heroes of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London and New Y ork, pp. 331–36 et passim
Kjelleberg, L. (1916) "Iphigenia" In: A.F. Pauly and G. Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen
Altertumswissenschaft, J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, v. 9, pp. 2588–622
Lloyd-Jones, H. (1983) "Artemis and Iphigenia",Journal of Hellenic Studies103, pp. 87–102
Peck, Harry (1898) "Iphigenia" inHarper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Harper and Brothers, New York
Séchen, L. (1931) "Le Sacrifice d'Iphigénie",Revue des Études Grecques, Paris, pp. 368–426
West, M.L. (1985) The Hesiodic Catlogue of Women, The Clarendon Press, Oxford

External links
Contemporary interpretation of Gluckby Australian Barrie Kosky at the Komische Oper Berlin, May 1, 2007
"Iphigenia" on Theoi.com

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