Iphigeneia
112 Iphigenia is an asteroid. |
The sacrifice of Iphigenia by the Illioupersis Painter |
Iphigeneia (
, also
Iphigenia and sometimes
Iphianassa) was a daughter of
Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra in
Greek mythology. Iphigeneia is sometimes called a daughter of
Theseus and
Helen raised by Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
Artemis punished Agamemnon after he killed a (sacred) deer in a (sacred) grove and boasted he was a better hunter. On his way to
Troy to participate in the
Trojan War, Agamemnon's ships were suddenly motionless as Artemis stopped the wind in
Aulis. A soothsayer named
Calchas revealed an
oracle that the only way to appease Artemis was to sacrifice Iphigeneia to Artemis. According to some versions he did so, but most sources claim that Iphigenia was taken by Artemis to
Tauris in
Crimea to prepare others for sacrifice, and that the goddess left a deer or a goat (the god
Pan transformed) in her place.
Hesiod called her Iphimedeia () in the Catalogue of Women and told she became the goddess
Hecate.
Antoninus Liberalis said that Iphigeneia was transported to the island of Leuke, where she was wedded to
Achilles under the name of Orsilochia.
According to
Euripides, Iphigeneia factors into the story of her brother,
Orestes. In order to escape the persecutions of the
Erinyes for killing his mother Clytemnestra and her lover, he is ordered by
Apollo to go to Tauris (now the Crimea), carry off the statue of Artemis which had fallen from heaven, and bring it to Athens. He repairs to Tauris with
Pylades, son of
Strophius and intimate friend of Orestes, and the pair are at once imprisoned by the
Tauri, among whom the custom is to sacrifice all strangers to Artemis. The priestess of Artemis, whose duty it is to perform the sacrifice, is his sister Iphigeneia. She offers to release Orestes if he will carry home a letter from her to Greece; he refuses to go, but bids Pylades take the letter while he himself will stay and be slain. After a conflict of mutual affection, Pylades at last yields, but the letter brings about a recognition between brother and sister, and all three escape together, carrying with them the image of Artemis. After their return to Greece, Orestes takes possession of his father's kingdom of
Mycenae and
Argos and Iphigeneia leaves the image in the temple of Artemis in
Brauron,
Attica, where she remains as priestess of Artemis Brauronia. According to the Spartans, the image of Artemis was transported by them to
Laconia, where the goddess was worshipped as
Artemis Orthia.
Iphigeneia is known by Greek myths sources since 7-6th century BC and is so closely identified with
Artemis that some scholars believe she was originally a rival hunting goddess whose cult was subsumed by Artemis.
Iphianassa (), one of
Agamemnon's three daughters in
Homer's
Iliad (Book 9, lines 145 and 287) is sometimes confused with Iphigeneia. Homer makes no direct mention to Iphigeneia's sacrifice and the name Iphianassa may be simply an older variant of the name Iphigeneia. Most scholars nevertheless agree that Iphianassa and Iphigeneia, despite the likeness of their names, probably were quite different characters.
 |
Cymon and Iphigeneia by Frederic Leighton |
The episode of Iphigeneia and Cymon that inspired such painters as
Benjamin West (1773),
John Everett Millais (1848) and
Frederic Leighton (1884) is not really a Greek myth, but a
novella taken from
Boccaccio's Decameron, developed later by the poet and dramatist
John Dryden.
The tale intended to demonstrate the power of love. As Iphigeneia sleeps in a grove by the sea, a noble but coarse and unlettered Cypriot youth, Cymon, seeing Iphigeneia's beauty, falls in love with her and, by the power of love, becomes an educated and polished courtier.
In
Eric Shanower's
Age of Bronze vol. 2, "Sacrifice", (ISBN 1582403996), the substitution of a deer for Iphigeneia was a pious lie invented by
Odysseus to comfort the grieving Clytemnestra. It did not work: she angrily cursed the whole Achaean army, wishing they would all die in the war, the violent men who had been clamoring for the blood of her daughter.
BONNARD, A.
Iphigénie à Aulis. Tragique et Poesie. Museum Helveticum, Basel, v. 2, p. 87-107, 1945.
CROISILLE, J.-M.
Le sacrifice d'Iphigénie dans l'art romain et la littérature latine. Latomus, Brussels, v. 22, p. 209-225, 1963.
DECHARME, P. Iphigenia. In: DAREMBERG, C. & SAGLIO, E.
Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, v. 3 (1ère partie), p. 570-572, 1877-1919.
JOUAN, F. Le Rassemblement d'Aulis et le Sacrifice d´Iphigénie. In: _______,
Euripide et les Légendes des Chants Cypriens. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, p. 259-298, 1966.
KAHIL, L. Le sacrifice d'Iphigénie. In: 'Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome'. Antiquité, Rome, v. 103, p. 183-196, 1991.
KJELLBERG, L. Iphigeneia. In: PAULY, A.F. & WISSOWA, G.
Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, v. 9, p. 2588-2622, 1916.
LLOYD-JONES, H.
Artemis and Iphigeneia. Journal of Hellenic Studies, London, v. 103, p. 87-102, 1983.
PECK, H.T. Iphigeneia. In:
Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1898.
SÉCHAN, L. Le Sacrifice d'Iphigénie
. Révue des Études Grecques, Paris, p. 368-426, 1931.
SHANOWER, E. Age of Bronze: Sacrifice
, 2005.
WEST, M.L. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985.
*
Iphigeneia 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.
*
Iphigeneia in Tauris, play by
Euripides.:*
Iphigenia in Tauris, play by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. :*
Iphigénie en Tauride, opera by
Christoph Willibald Gluck.
*
Iphigenia in Brooklyn, a solo
cantata by
P. D. Q. Bach.
*
Iphigénie, ballet by
Charles le Picq.
*
Iphigenia, play by
Samuel Coster.
*
Iphigénie de Jean Racine : Analysis, Plot overview (in French)
