The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
Artemis prevents the Greek fleet from sailing at Aulis after Agamemnon offends her, forcing him to confront the demand that his daughter Iphigenia be sacrificed before the expedition can continue.
The Story
The Greek coalition gathered at Aulis to sail for Troy.
But the fleet could not leave.
The winds failed or turned against them.
The seer Calchas revealed that Artemis was angry with Agamemnon.
Why did Artemis punish Agamemnon?
Greek tradition does not preserve one completely uniform explanation.
One influential account says that Agamemnon killed a deer sacred to Artemis and then boasted about his skill as a hunter. Other traditions explain the goddess' anger differently.
What remains consistent is the result: Artemis prevented the Greek expedition from sailing from Aulis.
Calchas declared that the goddess would not allow the fleet to depart unless Agamemnon offered his daughter Iphigenia.
Whatever the precise cause of Artemis' anger, the solution demanded from Agamemnon was terrible.
Agamemnon was told that his daughter Iphigenia must be sacrificed.
Iphigenia was brought to Aulis under a deception.
In a famous version, Clytemnestra was told that her daughter was to marry Achilles.
Instead, the girl arrived to discover that she had been brought for sacrifice.
Agamemnon faced an impossible conflict.
As father, he was expected to protect his child.
As commander, he was responsible for an enormous army waiting to sail.
In some traditions Iphigenia is killed.
In others Artemis intervenes at the final moment and replaces her with a deer, carrying the girl away to serve the goddess elsewhere.
The winds returned.
The fleet sailed.
But the consequences did not disappear.
For Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's willingness to sacrifice their daughter became one of the central reasons for the hatred that awaited him when he eventually returned from Troy.
The war had not yet begun, and the House of Atreus had already suffered another devastating wound.
Key Figures
Why It Matters
The sacrifice of Iphigenia connects Artemis' anger at Aulis, the beginning of the Trojan expedition and the curse of the House of Atreus. It also creates one of Greek tragedy's most difficult conflicts between family duty, military leadership and divine demand, while helping explain Clytemnestra's later hatred of Agamemnon.
Traditions & Variations
Ancient sources disagree fundamentally over Iphigenia's fate. In some she dies at Aulis; in others Artemis rescues her and substitutes an animal. Her later appearance in Tauris depends on the rescue tradition.