Source Verification: Iphigenia
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
What is the tragedy of Iphigenia?
Her own father gives her up to win a war. At Aulis the Greek fleet cannot sail for Troy until Agamemnon offers his daughter to Artemis. In Euripides's Iphigenia at Aulis he lures her from home with a false promise of marriage to Achilles. Aeschylus's Agamemnon shows her gagged and lifted over the altar. Years later Clytemnestra kills her husband and names Iphigenia as her reason, which sets the family's chain of revenge moving.
Source: Aeschylus, Agamemnon 184-249
Who was Iphigenia's father in Greek mythology?
Her father was Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and commander of the Greek army against Troy. Her mother was Clytemnestra. In the prologue of Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris she gives the line herself: Tantalus, Pelops, Atreus, then Agamemnon. The same prologue says Calchas demanded her because her father had vowed Artemis the most beautiful thing born that year. The man who should protect her is the one who holds her over the altar.
Source: Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 1-41
Did Achilles love Iphigenia?
Not in the oldest sources, and he never married her. The wedding was a lie Agamemnon told to bring her to Aulis, in Euripides's Iphigenia at Aulis and Apollodorus's Epitome. In Euripides, Achilles first hears of it from Clytemnestra and says he never courted the girl. He defends her because his name was misused, he says, not to win a bride. Only after her brave speech does he say he longs to marry her. She refuses his help and goes to the altar.
Source: Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 1368-1432
Is Iphigenia in The Odyssey?
No. Homer's Odyssey tells of Agamemnon's murder more than once, through Nestor, Menelaus and the king's own ghost, but it never names Iphigenia or mentions Aulis. The Iliad does not tell her story either. When Agamemnon lists his daughters there, he names Chrysothemis, Laodice and Iphianassa. The earliest full telling of the sacrifice that survives is the chorus of Aeschylus's Agamemnon.
Source: Homer, Iliad 9.144-145
Did Iphigenia die at Aulis?
The sources split. Aeschylus's Agamemnon treats her as dead, and Clytemnestra pictures her greeting her father in the underworld. Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris says Artemis put a deer on the altar and carried her to the Taurians as her priestess. Apollodorus's Epitome agrees, and adds that some said Artemis made her immortal. Pausanias reports that Hesiod's Catalogue of Women turned her into Hecate, while the Megarians said she died in their city.
Source: Apollodorus, Epitome 3.22
Where Accounts Differ
- whether Iphigenia died at Aulis
- why Artemis demanded the sacrifice
- Clytemnestra's motive
- the ending of Iphigenia at Aulis
- Iphigenia and Iphianassa
- Whether Iphigenia died is disputed. Aeschylus's Agamemnon and Sophocles's Electra treat her as killed at Aulis. Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris, Apollodorus's Epitome and the ending of Iphigenia at Aulis replace her with a deer. Apollodorus adds that some made her immortal. Pausanias reports that Hesiod's Catalogue of Women made her Hecate, and that the Megarians said she died in Megara.
- Artemis's grievance differs. Aeschylus's Agamemnon gives her anger at the omen of the eagles and the pregnant hare. Sophocles's Electra gives a stag shot in her grove and a boast. Apollodorus's Epitome gives a boast over a deer and Atreus's withheld golden lamb. Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris gives Agamemnon's vow of the most beautiful thing born that year.
- Clytemnestra's motive is weighed differently. Aeschylus's Agamemnon and Sophocles's Electra give her the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Pindar's eleventh Pythian ode asks whether it was the sacrifice or an adulterous bed.
- The messenger's speech that ends Euripides's Iphigenia at Aulis, with the deer on the altar, is doubted as Euripides's own work. The translation served by Perseus prints it inside square brackets.
- The name is unsettled. Homer's Iliad lists Iphianassa among Agamemnon's living daughters, and Sophocles's Electra treats Iphianassa as a sister distinct from the dead girl. Lucretius uses Iphianassa as the name of the sacrificed daughter.
- Hesiod's Catalogue of Women, Herodotus and the Cypria are reported here only through Pausanias and Frazer's notes to Apollodorus. Lucretius is outside this site's source registry, so his poem is named in prose without a checked line reference.
Sources
- Homer, Iliad 9.144-145
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon 104-159
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon 184-249
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1412-1425
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1521-1529
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1555-1559
- Pindar, Pythian Ode 11.22-11.25
- Sophocles, Electra 154-163
- Sophocles, Electra 530-576
- Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 87-110
- Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 819-860
- Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 919-974
- Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 1368-1432
- Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 1532-1612
- Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 1-41
- Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 769-797
- Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 1157-1202
- Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 1435-1474
- Apollodorus, Epitome 3.21
- Apollodorus, Epitome 3.22
- Apollodorus, Epitome 6.26
- Apollodorus, Epitome 6.27
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.43.1
- Lucretius, On the Nature of Things 1.84-101 (the Latin names her Iphianassa at 1.85)
- J. G. Frazer, notes to Apollodorus, Epitome 3.22 (on the Cypria as summarized by Proclus)