Why does Agamemnon sacrifice Iphigenia?
When the Greek fleet is becalmed at Aulis, thus preventing movement of the expeditionary force against Troy, Agamemnon is told that he must sacrifice Iphigenia to appease the goddess Artemis, who has caused the unfavourable weather. Agamemnon lures his daughter to Aulis by pretending that she will marry Achilles.
How does Agamemnon killed Iphigenia?
In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by accidentally killing one of Artemis’ sacred stags. She retaliates by preventing the Greek troops from reaching Troy unless Agamemnon kills his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, at Aulis as a human sacrifice.
How does Iphigenia at Aulis end?
She is led off to die, leaving her mother Clytemnestra distraught. At the end of the play, a messenger comes to tell Clytemnestra that Iphigenia’s body inexplicably disappeared just before the fatal blow from the knife.
Why does Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia quizlet?
A great warrior, he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia in order to obtain a favorable wind to carry the Greek fleet to Troy. During the ten-year conflict, his Queen has plotted his death in order to avenge the killing of their daughter. Even so, Aeschylus makes it clear that Agamemnon’s death must be avenged.
Where was Iphigenia sacrificed?
The Site of Iphigenia’s Sacrifice, within the Cursed Land of Oedipous in Boeotia, is a place of great significance in Greek mythology. According to legend, this was where King Agamemnon of Mycenae attempted to appease the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, after his fleet was immobilized by her on the way to attack Troy.
What excuse did Agamemnon give to Clytemnestra when he sent for their daughter Iphigenia?
Agamemnon told this lie because he suspected that if he told his wife the real reason why he wanted Iphigenia to come to Aulis, that Clytemnestra would not go along with the plan. But Clytemnestra suspected nothing; she prepared her daughter for marriage and sent her off to Aulis.
How does the chorus describe the sacrifice of Iphigenia?
In order to appease her and sail on to Troy, Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia; the Chorus describes in detail her pitiful cries for mercy as her father’s men cut her throat.
Who tells Clytemnestra that Iphigenia is really there to be sacrificed?
(Fun fact: back in the day, some cults of Artemis sacrificed young virgins all the time. Okay, maybe that fact isn’t so fun.) The big guy is not too happy about this, but he feels like he has to do it anyway. Agamemnon summons his wife Clytemnestra, telling her to bring Iphigenia to Aulis.
Why does Iphigenia change her resolve to be sacrificed?
At the port of Aulis (an ancient port in central Greece), the Greek fleet is all ready to sail off to the Trojan War. Iphigenia reluctantly consents to sacrifice herself – given she has no real choice, she decides she may as well agree to give up her life for the glory of Greece than become a passive victim.
Where is Iphigenia killed?
Iphigenia was sacrificed in the Boeotian harbor of Aulis, opposite the island of Euboea, or as others say, was saved at the last moment by Artemis, who substituted for her a deer or a bull at the altar, and transported her to Tauris where she later, having met his brother Orestes 2, was brought by him back home.
What reason does Clytemnestra give that Agamemnon was killed?
In Aeschylus’s play Agamemnon, part of his Oresteia trilogy, Clytemnestra is driven to murder Agamemnon partly to avenge the death of her daughter Iphigeneia, whom Agamemnon had sacrificed for the sake of success in the war, partly because of her adulterous love for Aegisthus and partly as an agent for the curse on …
How old is Iphigenia?
Written between 408, after Orestes, and 406 BC, the year of Euripides’ death, the play was first produced the following year in a trilogy with The Bacchae and Alcmaeon in Corinth by his son or nephew, Euripides the Younger, and won first place at the City Dionysia in Athens.
What was the result of the sacrifice of Iphigenia?
The sacrifice, or supposed sacrifice, of Iphigenia, would have deadly consequences for Agamemnon. Agamemnon would survive ten years of fighting at Troy, and yet on his return home to Mycenae he was murdered. In his absence fighting, Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra had taken herself a lover in the form of Aegisthus.
How did Calchas save the life of Iphigenia?
Eventually it was left to Calchas, the man who had said that the sacrifice was necessary, to kill Iphigenia, and so the seer wielded the sacrificial knife. Iphigenia Saved? In the simplest versions of the Iphigenia myth, Iphigenia’s life came to an end by Calchas’ knife, but few human sacrifices ended as they were supposed to in Greek mythology.
Where did Iphigenia go after the death of Agamemnon?
It was only after the death of Agamemnon that the story of Iphigenia re-emerged in Greek mythology, with Iphigenia appearing in the tale of her brother, Orestes. When Artemis had substituted the deer for Iphigenia, the goddess had transported the daughter of Agamemnon to the land of the Tauri, a land normally equated with modern Crimea.
Where was Iphigenia when the ships gathered at Aulis?
Iphigenia was in Mycenae at the time when the ships gathered at Aulis, and there was no way in which her mother, Clytemnestra, could be convinced to sacrifice her daughter; and so Agamemnon did not even try.