Before the Trojan War, Agamemnon gathered the Greek armies at the port of Aulis. The goddess Diane sent unfavorable winds to prevent the Greeks from sailing. Her oracle set a condition for Agamemnon: to earn the right to sail forth and destroy an innocent country, he would have to sacrifice his own daughter. Agamemnon accepted these terms and killed his young daughter IphigĂ©nie on the altar. In his play Iphigenia in Tauris Euripides imagines that Diane plucked IphigĂ©nie from that altar and delivered her to a temple in distant Tauride, where IphigĂ©nie began to serve the enemy Scythians as Dianeâs high priestessâall the while IphigĂ©nieâs family believing her dead.
2013-03-01