#iphigenia

[incorrecthomer]

Iphigenia, gardening: Hey, can you bring me a hoe? Clytemnestra: Yeah, sure. *A few minutes later* Clytemnestra: Here you go. Iphigenia: Clytemnestra: Agamemnon: Why am I here?

#greek mythology #incorrect greek mythology #greek heroes #incorrect greek heroes #incorrect greek quotes #incorrect quotes #iliad #incorrect iliad #mycenaean royals #iphigenia #clytemnestra #agamemnon #agamemnon x clytemnestra

[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.

#Electra was my other other best girl #I also stan Clytemnestra #love this murder family of women getting revenge in anguish for their loved ones they will never get back #tagamemnon #Greek Mythology #iphigenia #Trojan War #long post

[nikoisme]

a little iphigenia drawing

#i didn't plan for the colors to turn out this way. but i dig it ngl #iphigenia #greek mythology #tagamemnon #art #digital art

[coldwinterwhispers]

Iphigenia I by Anselm Feuerbach (1862)

#art #art history #art painting #oil on canvas #19th century art #old art #painting #oil painting #german painting #german art #german artist #anselm feuerbach #iphigenia #19th century painting #19th century #1860s #women in art #beautiful art #iphigenia in aulis

[wolfythewitch]

Iphigenia in Aulis

#art #digital painting #greek mythology #iphigenia #iphigenia in aulis #blood tw #illustration

[maryoliverdotcom]

finally made a quiz for the classics nerds! which member of the house of atreus are you?

#classics #house of atreus #clytemnestra #agamemnon #iphigenia #the oresteia #orestes #uquiz

[cinematicjourney]

Iphigenia (1977) | dir. Michael Cacoyannis

#iphigenia #michael cacoyannis #tatiana papamoschou #irene papas #panos mihalopoulos #films #movies #cinematography #screencaps

[illustratus]

The Erinyes (The Furies) — Iphigenia Among the Taurians by André Masson

#andré masson #art #erinyes #furies #eumenides #goddesses #euripedes #vengeance #iphigenia #greek mythology #iphigenia in tauris #iphigenia among the taurians #ancient greece #ancient greek #mythology #religion #europe #european #tragedy #underworld #hell

[moplopbool]

I long to draw a ‘never love an anchor’ animatic about the House of Atreus, but my art skills are too lacking for it to be a reality…😭

#greek mythology #the iliad #agamemnon #clytemnestra #menelaus #electra #orestes #pylades #helen of sparta #hermione #iphigenia #chrysothemis #house of atreus

[mythosphere]

Be careful not to smudge anything, Electra. Your sister is getting married today.

#do you think Electra helped Iphigenia put her makeup on #this is what happens when one reads Iphigenia in aulis on a whim #tagamemnon #classics #the iliad #the oresteia #iphigenia #greek mythology #Iphigenia in aulis #euripides #Euripides how could you do this to me #digital art #sketch

[incorrecthomer]

Agamemnon: Iphy, you are old enough now, I think it is time we have the talk. Teen Iphigenia: Dad, no! I already know where kids come from we really do not have to do this Agamemnon: Oh, no, I don't mean that kind of talk. I mean the “a lot of people in your family are actually criminals” talk. So, it all started with your great grandfather Tantalus, who-

#greek mythology #incorrect greek mythology #greek heroes #incorrect greek heroes #incorrect greek quotes #incorrect quotes #iliad #incorrect iliad #mycenaean royals #iphigenia #agamemnon

[bernard-the-rabbit]

uh oh women doomed by the narrative!!!!

#i went to see Clitemnestra #and italian play based on the book “house of names” by toibin colm #and man do i have the brain bugs #im also very very gay for isabella ragonese and seeing her slowly descending into this angry madness #man #ISABELLA I'M FREE AND SINGLE BTW #my trashy art #clytemnestra #Iphigenia #Elektra #electra #cw: blood

[marysmirages]

Iphigenia in Tauris (2022)

#iphigenia #eurypides #deer #arthemis #sacrifice #ancient greek mythology #minoan greece #mycenaean greece #bronze age #agamemnon #iphigenia in tauris #marysmirages #art #painting

[koruga]

I'm not like an Agamemnon stan or anything but I do kinda wish people stopped portraying his sacrifice of Iphigenia as being like, him being totally heartless and stuff. Because it's not -- that's the point, right? By forcing him to kill his own daughter, it's giving him a deeply personal stake in the war. It's 'you want to go across the sea to kill people who know nothing and have done nothing? fine. prove it.' It's about him having to commit to war in its entirety, the pain that most of the Achaean forces never will.

Obviously it's a bad thing. And yeah, Clytemnestra deserves to kill him for sacrificing their daughter. But if he didn't care about her, if it didn't tear him up inside to put his own daughter on the altar, why wouldn't he be asked to sacrifice anything else?

#the iliad #agamemnon #iphigenia #dc talks

[orpheuslament]

It's already been done

François Perrier's The Sacrifice of Iphigenia / Ptolemaea, Ethel Cain

#tagamemnon #ethel cain #iphigenia #iphigenia in aulis #art #françois perrier #ptolemaea #dante.jpg

[dykeganseythethird]

@mothercain as iphigeneia

#ethel cain #iphigenia #art #the oresteia #aeschylus #iphigeneia in tauris #greek myth #greek mythology #classics #hayden anhedönia #iphigeneia #clytemnestra #euripides