The Greek armies, heading for Troy, are stranded at Aulis by the angry goddess Artemis. In order to propitiate the goddess and open the way to Troy, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia.

Aeschylus: The Unspoken Curse

Although the sacrifice of Iphigenia occurs prior to the action of Agamemnon, the pathos of the girl’s death resounds throughout the play. Like the feast of Thyestes, which incurred the family’s curse, Iphigenia’s sacrifice embodies a moment of familial violence that breeds further woes. As the Chorus recounts:

For her supplications, her cries of Father, and her virgin life, the commanders in their eagerness for war cared nothing. Her father, after a prayer, bade his ministers lay hold of her as, enwrapped in her robes, she lay fallen forward, and with stout heart to raise her, as if she were a young goat, high above the altar; and with a gag upon her lovely mouth to hold back the shouted curse against her house - by the bit’s strong and stifling might. (228-38)

Just as his father Atreus converted his nephews to meat during the feast of Thyestes, Agamemnon dehumanizes and instrumentalizes his child; like a young goat, her value lies in her ability to mediate her father’s relationship with the divine. Agamemnon is wise enough to gag the victim to prevent another curse. Yet his attempts to prevent misfortune are futile; Iphigenia’s sacrifice unleashes the wrath of her mother, Clytemnestra, who kills her husband and is in turn killed by her children.

Sophocles: Speaking For the Dead

In Sophocles’ Electra, the ambiguity of the sacrifice episode exemplifies the power of the living to reimagine the past. In the first half of the play, Iphigenia’s mother, Clytemnestra, and her sister, Electra, argue bitterly over the conditions of the girl’s death. Clytemnestra condemns the sacrifice, claiming that Agamemnon carried it out in order to please his brother. So, too, she adds, would the dead girl speak, if she could find a voice (548). Electra too claims to speak on behalf of my dead father and my sister alike (555), arguing that Agamemnon acted rationally, conscientiously, and under great pressure (574). In fact, neither Agamemnon nor Iphigenia are alive to speak for themselves; thus, it is the living who speak in their names, while the truth of the sacrifice episode remains obscure.

Euripides: Helpless and Triumphant

Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis provides a startling spin on the old story: here, Iphigenia ultimately volunteers to be sacrificed. Her decision demonstrates the quick and drastic psychological shifts typical of Euripides’ characters. Having previously beseeched her father for life (1211-52), the girl changes her mind under the pressure of an approaching mob demanding her sacrifice; anxiety about the same mob had earlier convinced her father to support her death (511-2). In a last ditch effort to transform her doom into glory, Iphigenia declares: I am resolved to die; and this I want to do with honor, dismissing from me what is mean (1375-6). The helpless girl goes to the altar proclaiming her own glory: Lead me away, the destroyer of Ilium's town and the Phrygians; give me wreaths to cast about me; bring them here; here are my tresses to crown; bring lustral water too (1475-9).