Iphigenia

In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (/ɪfɪˈdʒɪ.niə/; Ancient Greek: Ἰφιγένεια, romanized: Iphigéneia, pronounced [iːpʰiɡéneː.a]) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae.

In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by hunting and killing one of Artemis's sacred stags. She retaliates by preventing the allied troops from reaching Troy unless Agamemnon kills his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, at Aulis as a human sacrifice. In some versions, Iphigenia dies at Aulis, and in others, Artemis rescues her. In the version where she is saved, she goes to the Taurians and meets her brother Orestes.

"Iphigenia" means "strong-born," "born to strength," or "she who causes the birth of strong offspring."

Iphianassa (Ἰφιάνασσα) is the name of one of Agamemnon's three daughters in Homer's Iliad (ix.145, 287) 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, "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."

With the potential exception of the Iliad mentioned above, in Greek mythology Iphigenia appears as the Greek fleet gathers in Aulis to prepare for war against Troy. Here, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, hunts and then kills a deer in a grove sacred to the goddess Artemis. Artemis punishes Agamemnon by acting upon the winds, so that Agamemnon's fleet cannot sail to Troy. Calchas the seer tells Agamemnon that to appease Artemis, he must sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia. At first he refuses but, pressured by the other commanders, agrees.

Iphigenia and her mother Clytemnestra are brought to Aulis, under the pretence that Achilles will marry her. In some versions of the story, they realise the truth, while in others, Iphigenia remains unaware of her imminent sacrifice until the last moment, believing until the moment of her death that she is being led to the altar to be married.

In some versions, such as Hyginus's Fabulae, Iphigenia is not sacrificed. Some sources claim that Iphigenia was taken by Artemis to Tauris (in Crimea) at the moment of the sacrifice, the goddess having left a deer in her stead, or else a goat (actually the god Pan) in her place.

Euripides's description of her sacrifice is as follows: