ABSTRACT
When Agamemnon, for the attack against Troy, had collected his army and fleet at Aulis in Boeotia, he was unable to set sail because of a contrary wind, which, as the prophet Calchas declared, had been sent by Artemis because Agamemnon had offended her or neglected a duty to her. The exact cause was variously described. Alternative versions indicated that Agamemnon had boasted of being a better huntsman than Artemis herself; that he had at an earlier time vowed to sacrifice to her the most beautiful thing born in the year of Iphigenia’s birth, and since it was the child herself, he had broken his vow; or that Artemis was punishing him for a sin committed by his father Atreus, who had broken a vow to sacrifice the first lamb in his flock. Aeschylus, however, suggests that the reason for Artemis’ hostility lay in an omen sent by Zeus to guarantee Agamemnon’s future success at Troy, for two eagles, representing the Atridae, tore to pieces a pregnant hare in full view of the Greek army: whereupon Artemis, since she was protectress of all wild animals, became so angry at the suffering of the innocent creature that she prevented the sailing of the fleet. In any case, Artemis now demanded the life of Iphigenia. To obtain his daughter’s presence-since she was at Mycenae-Agamemnon had to deceive his wife Clytemnestra, and so he sent a message that the girl was to be brought to him in order to be married to Achilles. When the sacrifice was over, Clytemnestra never forgave Agamemnon for the deed. (The Iliad, however, knows nothing of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, for there Agamemnon, long after his arrival at Troy, offers all three of his daughters in marriage to Achilles.)
There are two versions of what happened when Iphigenia was led to the altar. According to the tradition of Aeschylus (adopted by Lucretius), she was killed there by the priests in her father’s presence. Euripides, however, following the Cypria, asserts that Artemis substituted a hind at the last moment, and carried the maiden off to the land of the Taurians in the Crimea to be her priestess at a temple where human sacrifice was performed. In this temple stood an ancient image of Artemis to which all strangers who came to the land were immolated; it was the duty of Iphigenia to prepare such victims for sacrifice.
