Iphĭgēnĭa

, a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. When the Greeks, going to the Trojan war, were detained by contrary winds at Aulis, they were informed by one of the soothsayers, that to appease the gods, they must sacrifice Iphigenia, Agamemnon’s daughter, to Diana. See: Agamemnon . The father, who had provoked the godde by killing her favourite stag, heard this with the greatest horror and indignation, and rather than to shed the blood of his daughter, he commanded one of his heralds, as chief of the Grecian forces, to order all the a embly to depart each to his respective home. Uly es and the other generals interfered, and Agamemnon consented to immolate his daughter for the common cause of Greece. As Iphigenia was tenderly loved by her mother, the Greeks sent for her on pretence of giving her in marriage to Achilles. Clytemnestra gladly permitted her departure, and Iphigenia came to Aulis: here she saw the bloody preparations for the sacrifice; she implored the forgivene and protection of her father, but tears and entreaties were unavailing. Calchas took the knife in his hand, and as he was going to strike the fatal blow, Iphigenia suddenly disappeared, and a goat of uncommon size and beauty was found in her place for the sacrifice. This supernatural change animated the Greeks, the wind suddenly became favourable, and the combined fleet set sail from Aulis. Iphigenia’s innocence had raised the compa ion of the godde on whose altar she was going to be sacrificed, and she carried her to Tauric a, where she entrusted her with the care of her temple. In this sacred office Iphigenia was obliged, by the command of Diana, to sacrifice all the strangers who came into that country. Many had already been offered as victims on the bloody altar, when Orestes and Pylades came to Tauric a. Their mutual and unparalleled friendship [ See: Pylades and Orestes ] disclosed to Iphigenia that one of the strangers whom she was going to sacrifice was her brother; and, upon this, she conspired with the two friends to fly from the barbarous country, and carry away the statue of the godde . They succe fully effected their enterprise, and murdered Thoas, who enforced the human sacrifices. According to some authors, the Iphigenia who was sacrificed at Aulis was not a daughter of Agamemnon, but a daughter of Helen by ♦ These us. Homer does not speak of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, though very minute in the description of the Grecian forces, adventures, . The statue of Diana, which Iphigenia brought away, was afterwards placed in the grove of Aricia in Italy. Pausanias , bk. 2 , ch. 22 ; bk. 3 , ch. 16 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 12 , li. 31 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 2 , ch. 116 .— Aeschylus. — Euripi des. ♦ ‘Thesus’ replaced with ‘These us’