IPHIGENEIA is the heroine of several famous Greek legends. She is generally said to be the daughter of Agamemnon, and is also called Iphianassa, though the two are distinguished by Sophocles and by the writer of the Cypria. Agamemnon had offended Artemis, who therefore prevented the Greek fleet from sailing for Troy, and could be appeased only by the sacrifice of his daughter. According to some accounts the sacrifice was completed, according to others Artemis carried away the maiden to be her priestess in the Tauric Chersonese, and substituted for her a hind. In this new country it was her duty to sacrifice to the goddess all strangers; and as Orestes came in search of her she was about to sacrifice him, when a happy recognition took place. These legends show how closely the heroine is associated with the cultus of Artemis, and with the human sacrifices which accompanied it in older times before the Hellenic spirit had modified the barbarism of this borrowed religion. They bring into connexion the different places in which this goddess was worshipped; and, as Attica was one of her chief seats, Iphigeneia is sometimes called a daughter of Theseus. At Comana in Cappadocia, one of the chief homes of the goddess in her more barbaric form, there was a priestly family Orestiadae; and Iphigeneia and Orestes are named as the founders of Artemis worship in Sparta and Attica, as well as in many parts of Asia Minor and Italy (see Preller, Griech. ilythol., 3d ed., i. 250). At Hermione Artemis was worshipped with the epithet Iphigeneia, —this showing the heroine to be in the last resort a form of that goddess. Iphigeneia is a favourite subject in Greek literature and art. She is the heroine of two plays of Euripides; but none of the many other tragedies founded on her story have ...