Iphigenia

Iphigenia

According to Greek mythologyClassical mythology'Mythology' comes from the Greek word 'muthos', meaning the spoken word, or story. A myth is a story about gods or deities. Mythology is all the stories combined. In theory, all cultures have their own mythology. Usually, however, the word mythology refers to the stories of classical antiquity. In these the main protagonists are the gods of Greece and Rome. Iphigenia was the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra and the sister of Elektra and Orestes. The story relates how Agamemnon, king of Mycenae (in Greece), was about to leave Aulis to lay seige to the city of Troy. Yet each time he tried to embark, the wind died down. A soothsayer told him that the goddess Artemis was angry with him and that he would have to make a sacrifice to regain her favour: his own daughter Iphigenia. After much doubt and pressure from his army, the king finally agreed and Iphigenia was brought to Aulis under false pretences.