Agamemnon's Daughter: A Novella & Stories

Product Information

With Achilles’ withdrawal, the Greeks lost their best fighter and consequently suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Trojans. In the end, though, Agamemnon and Achilles reconciled their differences. Achilles returned to the fighting, and the Greeks eventually won the war. Electra, film by Shyamaprasad, starring Nayanthara, Skanda Ashok, Manisha Koirala and Prakash Raj, based on Euripides Iphigenia and her mother Clytemnestra are brought to Aulis, under the pretext that Achilles will marry the girl. They discover the truth. In some versions of the story, Iphigenia remains unaware of her imminent sacrifice until the last moment. She believes until the moment of her death that she is being led to the altar to be married.

Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. [10] This Iphigenia is particularly confusing: in some traditions, Iphigenia was a substitute for Iphianassa; [20] in others, Iphigenia and Iphianassa were two different daughters of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; [21] in still others, Iphigenia’s name was either Iphimede [22] or Iphigone. [23] To make matters even more confusing, there was one tradition in which Iphigenia was actually the daughter of Clytemnestra’s sister Helen and had merely been adopted by Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. [24] Croisille, J-M (1963) Le sacrifice d'Iphigénie dans l'art romain et la littérature latine, Latomus, Brussels, v. 22 pp.209–25 Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1817, on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, Orléans In Greek mythology, Iphigenia ( / ɪ f ɪ dʒ ɪ ˈ n aɪ . ə/; Ancient Greek: Ἰφιγένεια, Iphigéneia, [iːpʰiɡéneː.a]) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae.

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Charles de la Fosse, 1680, on display at the Palace of Versailles, Versailles In Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles, Iphigenia comes to Aulis under the belief that she is to marry Achilles. Instead, she is unwillingly sacrificed to appease Artemis. Graves, Robert (2017). The Greek Myths - The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. pp.418 & 682. ISBN 9780241983386.

In some versions, such as Hyginus' Fabulae, Iphigenia is not sacrificed. [7] Some sources claim that Iphigenia was taken by Artemis to Tauris (in Crimea) at the moment of the sacrifice, the goddess having left a deer in her stead, [8] or else a goat (actually the god Pan) in her place. Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of "kingly authority". As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness; an over-exalted opinion of his position that led him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks. [10] Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2). Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Gold death mask known as the "Mask of Agamemnon" (ca. 1550–1500 BCE), discovered in Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 National Archaeological Museum of Athens / Xuan Che CC BY 2.0 How did Agamemnon die?

Possible answer:

Eventually, the clever Greek king Odysseus came up with a plan to get past Troy’s impregnable walls and win the war: the Trojan Horse, a hollow wooden horse in which a handful of Greek heroes hid while the rest of the army pretended to retreat. After the Trojans took the horse into their city, the heroes inside stole out under cover of night and opened the gates to the rest of the army. In this way, the Greeks finally conquered Troy after ten years of fighting. [46] Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.

In Downton Abbey, Lord Robert Crawley compares Lavinia Swire to Iphigenia in her being used by Cora Crawley to marry Matthew Crawley as a means to avoid complications for Lady Mary Crawley. Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country contains a similar theme, with a play named Iphigenia at Ilium running through the novel as a leitmotif. Kahil, L. (1991) "Le sacrifice d'Iphigénie" in: Mélanges de l'École française de Rome, Antiquité, Rome, v. 103 pp.183–96 The earliest temple of Artemis at Brauron (6th century BCE) Carole Raddato CC BY-SA 2.0 The Sacrifice of Iphigenia this doesn't appear in any of the surviving passages of the Hesiodic catalogue but is attested for it by Pausanias, 1.43.1.Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. Online version at ToposText. The Sacrifice of Iphigenia by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1757). Villa Valmarana, Bolzano Vicentino, Italy. Nelson, Thomas J. (2022). "Iphigenia in the Iliad and the Architecture of Homeric Allusion". TAPA. 152: 55–101. doi: 10.1353/apa.2022.0007. S2CID 248236106. Fortunately for Menelaus, all of Helen’s suitors (and there were many of them) had been forced to swear an oath that they would protect Helen’s marriage and defend the interests of her chosen husband. Because of this oath (the so-called “Oath of Tyndareus”), Menelaus and Agamemnon were able to force the greatest kings and heroes of Greece to join them in sailing to Troy to demand Helen’s return—whether by diplomacy or by force. Agamemnon, the most powerful of the Greek kings, was made commander-in-chief. [34] Telephus The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous tragedies, ancient and modern, the most famous being the Oresteia of Aeschylus. In the legends of the Peloponnesus, Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of Zeus Agamemnon. His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae.

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Gaetano Gandolfi, 1789, on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York In the Homeric epics (the Iliad and the Odyssey), Agamemnon is named as the king of Mycenae, a well-fortified city in the Peloponnese that was important in the earliest periods of Greek history. Mycenae was famous for its commanding fortress built of enormous stone slabs. Many traditions arose from the sacrifice of Iphigenia. One prominent version is credited to the Spartans. Rather than sacrificing virgins, they would whip a male victim in front of a sacred image of Artemis. However, most tributes to Artemis inspired by the sacrifice were more traditional. Taurians especially performed sacrifices of bulls and virgins in honour of Artemis. [18] Among the Etruscans [ edit ] The Quarrel Between Agamemnon and Achilles, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, 1695, on display at the Museé de l’Oise, Beauvais Whatever eventually happened to his kingdom, the mythical Agamemnon was extremely powerful. According to the Iliad, Agamemnon mustered the largest individual army of any of the Greeks who sailed against Troy, with one hundred ships. [5] He was also the commander-in-chief of the entire expedition. Military and Royal AttributesSophokles, who also wrote an Iphigeneia (lost), has Elektra defend her father’s decision by portraying him as accidentally killing the deer and having no choice in the killing of his daughter ( Elektra, 563-576). a b Homer (2003). The Odyssey. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics. pp.48–49, 140. ISBN 9781593080099.