#✧˚ · . * iphigenia.

[the-star-rigel]

pjo/hoo/toa + the cycle

The Lightning Thief / Growing Sideways, Noah Kahan / Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, Ilya Repin + Saturn Devouring His Son, Goya + Saturn, Rubens / The Blood of Olympus / The Family Jewels, MARINA / The Last Olympian / The Sea of Monsters / The Family Jewels / Orestes Pursued by the Furies, Bouguereau / The Hidden Oracle / Apollo and Marsyas, Manfredi / In The Blood, John Mayer / The Sea of Monsters / The Combat of Ares and Athena, Jacques Louis David / The Family Jewels / Mark of Athena / The Combat of Ares and Athena / The Lightning Thief / Family Line, Conan Gray / Cronos and Rhea, Schinkel / The Lightning Thief / The Blood of Olympus / In The Blood / The Last Olympian / Chronos and His Child, Romanelli / Desireé Dellagiacomo / The Lightning Thief / Family Line / The Fallen Angel, Alexandre Cabanel + The Last Day of Pompeii, Bryullov / The Blood of Olympus / The Outcast, Botticelli / Glass, Irony and God, Anna Carson / House of Hades / Family Line / The Last Olympian / The Lament for Icarus, Herbert Draper + Sacrifice of Iphigenia, Roman School + Minerva and Arachne, Houasse + Venus Induces Helen to Fall in Love with Paris, Kauffmann / The Last Olympian / Hadestown / The Lightning Thief / apple, Charli xcx / The Last Olympian / I Would Leave Me If I Could, Halsey / The Sea of Monsters / ? / LET YOUR DAD DIE ENERGY DRINK, Lavery and Corrigan / The Last Olympian / Eat Your Young, Hozier / The Last Olympian / Orpheus and the Bacchantes, Lazzarini / The Blood of Olympus / Susan Smith, wych elm / Orpheus and the Bacchantes / The Burning Maze / ? / The Tyrant’s Tomb / Perseus Freeing Andromeda, Veronese / Abduction of Psyche, Bouguereau + Bacchus and Ariadne, Van Loo / The Tower of Nero / The Tower of Nero / The Tower of Nero

[specialagentartemis]

in middle school during my Intense Greek Mythology Phase, Artemis was, as you can likely guess, my best girl. Iphigenia was my OTHER best girl. Yes at the same time.

The story of Iphigenia always gets to me when it's not presented as a story of Artemis being capricious and having arbitrary rules about where you can and can't hunt, but instead, making a point about war.

Artemis was, among other things--patron of hunting, wild places, the moon, singlehood--the protector of young girls. That's a really important aspect she was worshipped as: she protected girls and young women. But she was the one who demanded Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter in order for his fleet to be able to sail on for Troy.

There's no contradiction, though, when it's framed as, Artemis making Agamemnon face what he’s doing to the women and children of Troy. His children are not in danger. His son will not be thrown off the ramparts, his daughters will not be taken captive as sex slaves and dragged off to foreign lands, his wife will not have to watch her husband and brothers and children killed. Yet this is what he’s sailing off to Troy to inevitably do. That’s what happens in war. He’s going to go kill other people’s daughters; can he stand to do that to his own? As long as the answer is no—he can kill other people’s children, but not his own—he can’t sail off to war.

Which casts Artemis is a fascinating light, compared to the other gods of the Trojan War. The Trojan War is really a squabble of pride and insults within the Olympian family; Eris decided to cause problems on purpose, leaving Aphrodite smug and Hera and Athena snubbed, and all of this was kinda Zeus’s fault in the first place for not being able to keep it in his pants. And out of this fight mortal men were their game pieces and mortal cities their prizes in restoring their pride. And if hundreds of people die and hundred more lives are ruined, well, that’s what happens when gods fight. Mortals pay the price for gods’ whims and the gods move on in time and the mortals don’t and that’s how it is.

And women especially—Zeus wanted Leda, so he took her. Paris wanted Helen, so he took her. There’s a reason “the Trojan women” even since ancient times were the emblems of victims of a war they never wanted, never asked for, and never had a say in choosing, but was brought down on their heads anyway.

Artemis, in the way of gods, is still acting through human proxies. But it seems notable to me to cast her as the one god to look at the destruction the war is about to wreak on people, and challenge Agamemnon: are you ready to kill innocents? Kill children? Destroy families, leave grieving wives and mothers? Are you? Prove it.

It reminds me of that idea about nuclear codes, the concept of implanting the key in the heart of one of the Oval Office staffers who holds the briefcase, so the president would have to stab a man with a knife to get the key to launch the nukes. “That’s horrible!,” it’s said the response was. “If he had to do that, he might never press the button!” And it’s interesting to see Artemis offering Agamemnon the same choice. You want to burn Troy? Kill your own daughter first. Show me you understand what it means that you’re about to do.

[mushyooms]

feasting in Sparta

[kyleesarthell]

Iphigenia...

[eustacedekolta]

a lil diddy inspired by @two-bees-poetry . i have never written a contrapuntal before this very moment. so sorry

[fandomsandfeminism]

What do you think Penelope thought of Clytemnestra?

They were cousins. Both engaged as a consolation prize to men who had courted Helen, men who had sworn an oath to go to war to protect Helen's marriage. Both semi-divine princesses of Sparta, married off to foreign kings.

Odysseus, who very nearly killed their son in order to avoid the war, but couldn't. (He nearly avoided his oath by feigning madness, but had to abandon the ruse because it endangered baby Telemachus) In sparing Telemachus, condemned himself to war.

Agamenmon, who made the choice to sacrifice his daughter in order to ensure the war could begin and their oath kept. In killing Iphigenia, he placated Artemis and allowed the fleet to set sail for Troy.

Penelope was left with the memory of a husband who loved their son more than peace, and she stayed faithful.

Clytemnestra was left with the memory of a husband who chose war over their daughter, and she took a lover and planned her vengeance.

Do you think Penelople condemned her cousin, or empathized? Do you think she would have done the same thing, if their fates had been reversed? Do you think she sometimes wondered what would have happened if their husbands had chosen differently, or why such a thing was a choice given to husbands at all?

[octavianacidicbreastmilk]

Iphigenia (1977) dir. Michael Cacoyannis

[katerinaaqu]

THIS is what happens when you allow the Greeks show their passion for their own history and mythology! Iphigenia (1977) based on the play "Iphigenia en Aulis", an Oscar-nominated film by Michel Cacoyannis and exclusively Greek casting

And here the phenomenal Irene Papas that we enjoy to "L'Odyssea (1968)" as Penelope and to "The Odyssey (1997)" as Anticlea now giving her all and in her own voice and language as Clytemnestra and her equally phenomenal co-protagonist Kostas Kazakos as Agamemnon have this heart-wrenching performance 😭😭

The seer PAIN and GUILT in his voice is killing me! "How can I answer such an inhuman question in a humane way?" My heart! 😭 and the way SHE stands her ground against his sadness that comes off as anger! "Your silence is enough" gosh! 😭 the seer pain of a mother and a father here! No Agamemnon laughing manichaly into the night of how how he gets his precious money from the war spoils but a father about to do the most inhumane thing to appease the gods for his hubris and a mother now realizing beyond any shade of doubt and being broken by it!

Dunno guys what kind of movies you expect in the cinema for greek mythology but THIS is the type I expect!

[hlblng]

"Never again, never again shall I look on the light of the sun" - Euripides' Hekabe (transl. Anne Carson)

When the Greeks sail to Troy to retrieve Helen, wife of Menelaos, and lay waste to the city of Troy, the greek army is prevented from sailing on in Aulis. Artemis has been angered and demands a blood sacrifice in exchange for the winds that will carry the ships to the shores of Ilium.

So Agamemnon, chief commander of the army of Hellas, sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia at the altar of the goddess. Her death in exchange for eternal glory.

After the sacking of Troy, the remnants of the victorious greek army make ready to sail for home. But Achilles' vengeful ghost halts the winds, demanding proper sacrifice at his grave. Achilles demands blood in exchange for the winds that will carry the ships to the shores of Hellas.

So Odysseus and Agamemnon choose Polyxena, the youngest daughter of Priam and Hekabe, a princess of Troy. Her death in exchange for a homecoming worthy of the victors of Troy.

Though these two events are 10 years apart in the context of the story of the Trojan war, these two girls have always been connected with each other in my head. I imagine them at a similar age, looking similar even. I imagine Agamemnon thinking of Iphigenia as he watches Polyxena bleed out in front of him. Two sides of the same coin.

[thelesbianthespianposts]

Pre-Iliad Dashboard simulator

⬜️ iphy-the-princess-deactivated12990415

Eeeee!!! Guess who’s getting married to swift-footed Achilles??!!!

34 notes

💪 bestofgreeks

hurts being the only competent Greek warrior but someone’s gotta do it

#aristos achaeon #suck it agamemnon #im so hot #trojan war

3207 notes

🪢 ilovemywife

I’m so strong for putting up with the other kings of Greece. #Except my bestie o-my-gods-just-let-me-die-omedes the only real one #if I have to hear agamemnon refuse to acknowledge the gods’ help one more time #he has so much hubris #could never be me

22 notes

🖕o-my-gods-just-let-me-die-omedes

why do people find Odysseus charming? He’s literally just lying about everything??

🖕o-my-gods-just-let-me-die-omedes

I get it

#i would legit die for him #hes the best of all of us ok?? 245 notes

👁️ pleaseimaprophetiswear

PLEASE SOMEONE LISTEN TO ME

🗡️ agamemnon

yes?

👁️ pleaseimaprophetiswear

SOMEBODY ELSE

2 notes

👑 prettiest-girl-ever-derogatory

Day 57 in Troy: living my best life, my new “husband” was away today thank the Gods. I heard there’s going to be a war over me. Love the sentiment but it’s a little much y’know?

#my husband is so nice but he’s so dramatic #hes pooled together all the armies in Greece to come together #no hector hate in the reblogs ok? #hes actually pretty ok #we make fun of paris together

12.980 notes

🏹 paris-not-the-city

Ok poll to prove I’m not crazy

No nuance option bc I wasn’t given one

#not my fault #its clearly aphrodite #olympian gods #i didn’t know kidnapping the queen of sparta would have consequences

34.672 notes

✨ queen-clytemnestra

im going to kill my husband. with an axe

109.376 notes

[tangoboheme]

The Mycenaean Royal Family

[specialagentartemis]

Thinking about Agamemnon sacrificing his teenage daughter in order to go to war. Thinking about Odysseus trying to avoid going to war but when the choice was to kill his infant son or to go to war he chose the war. Thinking about how upon the death of Achilles, Odysseus recruited Achilles's teenage son Neoptolemus to join the war. About Odysseus or sometimes it's Neoptolemus throwing Hector's infant son off the battlements to his death. About Achilles's ghost demanding the sacrifice of Hecuba's daughter Polyxena before the Greeks can sail home from Troy and when Hecuba begged Odysseus to spare Polyxena he said no, I want to go home, we're going to kill her. Thinking about how the only one of the Greek generals opposing Polyxena's sacrifice was Agamemnon. How Odysseus never wanted to be here but he will inflict the pain he wanted to avoid on others out of his duty to the other Greek soldiers. How Agamemnon, leader of the Greek soldiers, is so, so tired of sacrificing children to this war. How it happens anyway.

[theodysseyofhomer]

it's interesting how often odysseus' role is to get his hands dirty by shepherding along the next plot point. i'm thinking about iphigenia and polyxena, because i'm obsessed with polyxena right now, but it's like agamemnon and achilles are in opposite positions re: the parallel sacrifices and odysseus is just. getting the girls from point a to point b by whatever means necessary. what's most expedient to keep the plot moving? that's what he'll do

[kyleesarthell]

Orestes lost both his sister and mother that day...

[caseyjking]

Iphigenia Comes Home I, Casey J. King

[two-bees-poetry]

a house tour from electra