Iphigenia’s Family Tree

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Family

• Agamemnon(parent),Clytemnestra(parent),Chrysothemis(sibling),Electra (Argive)(sibling),Orestes(sibling)— Marriage

  Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's children included Orestes, Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis. The family was destroyed when Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon upon his return from Troy, and Orestes later killed her in revenge.

Slain by

• Agamemnon

  At Aulis, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia on the altar of Artemis to obtain favorable winds for the Greek fleet sailing to Troy.

  ⚠ Euripides' Iphigenia among the Taurians and the Cypria (Proclus summary) report that Artemis substituted a deer at the last moment and carried Iphigenia away to Tauris. Aeschylus's Agamemnon treats the sacrifice as completed.

Associated with

• Achilles

  Agamemnon lured Iphigenia to Aulis with a false promise of marriage to Achilles. Achilles, unaware of the deception, was outraged and offered to defend Iphigenia against the army.

• Artemis

  Artemis spirited Iphigenia away from the sacrificial altar at Aulis, substituting a deer in her place, and installed her as priestess of her temple among the Taurians.

• Calchas

  The seer Calchas declared that Artemis demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis to release the winds. His prophecy forced Agamemnon to choose between his daughter and the expedition to Troy.

• Clytemnestra

  Clytemnestra's burning rage was born at Aulis, where Agamemnon lured Iphigenia with a false promise of marriage to Achilles and sacrificed her to Artemis so the fleet could sail for Troy.

• Electra (Argive)

  Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis was Clytemnestra's stated justification for murdering him. Electra rejected this reasoning, insisting her father's killing demanded vengeance regardless of Iphigenia's fate.

• Menelaus

  Agamemnon lured Iphigenia to Aulis with a false offer of marriage to Achilles. Menelaus, whose wife Helen's abduction caused the war, pressured his brother to go through with the sacrifice.

• Orestes

  In Euripides's Iphigenia in Tauris, Orestes traveled to the land of the Taurians and discovered his sister Iphigenia alive as priestess of Artemis. The siblings escaped together with Artemis's sacred image.

• Pylades

  In Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris, Pylades and Orestes were captured and nearly sacrificed by Iphigenia, who served as Artemis's priestess. Each friend offered to die so the other might live.

• Trojan War

  The sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis was the price exacted to launch the Greek fleet in the Trojan War. Her death became the conflict's first casualty and its enduring moral stain.