A) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 49-85
Leda, the daughter of Thestius, had three maiden daughters, Phoebe and Clytemnestra, my wife, and Helen; this last it was who had the foremost of the favoured sons of Hellas for suitors; but terrible threats of spilling his rival's blood were uttered by each of them, if he should fail to win the girl. Now the matter filled Tyndareus, her father, with perplexity, whether to give her in marriage or not, how he might best succeed. This thought occurred to him: the suitors should swear to each other and join right hands and pour libations with burnt-sacrifice, binding themselves by this curse: whoever wins the child of Tyndareus for wife, they will assist that man, in case a rival takes her from his house and goes his way, robbing her husband of his marriage bed; and march against that man in armed array and raze his city to the ground, Hellene no less than barbarian. Now when they had once pledged their word (and old Tyndareus with no small cleverness had beguiled them by his shrewd device), he allowed his daughter to choose from among her suitors the one towards whom the sweet breezes of Aphrodite might carry her. Her choice fell on the one whom she ought never to have chosen, Menelaus. Then there came to Lacedaemon from the Phrygians the man who, Argive legend says, judged the goddesses' dispute; blooming in robes of gorgeous hue, ablaze with gold, in barbarian luxury; he carried Helen off in mutual desire to his steading on Ida, finding Menelaus gone from home. Goaded to frenzy, Menelaus flew through Hellas, invoking the ancient oath exacted by Tyndareus and declaring the duty of helping the injured husband. And so the Hellenes, brandishing their spears and putting on their arms, came here to the narrow straits of Aulis equipped with armaments of ships and shields, with many horses and chariots, and they chose me to captain them all for the sake [kharis] of Menelaus, since I was his brother.

B) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 87-96
But after the army was gathered and come together, we still remained at Aulis weatherbound. In our perplexity, we consulted Calchas, the seer [mantis], and he answered that my own child Iphigeneia we should sacrifice to Artemis, whose home is in this land, and we would sail and sack the Phrygians' capital if we sacrificed her, but if we did not, these things would not happen. When I heard this, I commanded Talthybius with loud proclamation to disband the whole army, as I could never bear to slay my daughter.

C) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 206-227
"It is a hard fate to refuse obedience, and hard, if I must slay my child, the glory of my home, and at the altar-side stain 210 a father's hand with streams of virgin's blood. Which of these courses is not filled with evil? How can I become a deserter to my fleet and fail my allies in arms? 215 For that they should with all too impassioned passion crave a sacrifice to lull the winds - even a virgin's blood - stands within their right. May all be for the best."

But when he had donned the yoke of Necessity, with veering of mind, 220 impious, unholy, unsanctified, from then he changed his intention and began to conceive that deed of uttermost audacity. For wretched delusion, counselor of ill, primal source of woe, makes man bold. So then he hardened his heart to sacrifice his daughter 225 so that he might further a war waged to avenge a woman, and as an offering for the voyaging of a fleet!

D) From the Cypria (Epic Cycle)
The expedition gathers at Aulis for the second time.
Agamemnon kills a deer on the hunt and boasts that he surpasses even Artemis.
The goddess gets mênis and holds them back from the voyage by sending them bad weather.
But Kalchas explains the mênis of the goddess and tells them to sacrifice Iphigeneia to Artemis.
They summon her as if for a marriage to Achilles and are about to sacrifice her.
But Artemis snatches her away and carries her to Tauris
and makes her immortal, meanwhile placing a deer on the altar instead of the girl.

E) Herodotus 4.103: Among these, the Taurians have the following customs: all ship-wrecked men, and any Greeks whom they capture in their sea-raids, they sacrifice to the Virgin goddess [= Artemis] as I will describe: after the first rites of sacrifice, they strike the victim on the head with a club; according to some, they then place the head on a pole and throw the body off the cliff on which their temple stands; others agree as to the head, but say that the body is buried, not thrown off the cliff. The Tauri themselves say that this deity to whom they sacrifice is Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia.

F) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 1367-1420
Mother, hear me while I speak, for I see that you are angry with your husband to no purpose; it is hard for us to be strong amid impossibilities. It is right [dikaios] for us to thank this xenos for his ready help; but you must also see to it that he is not reproached by the army, leaving us no better off and himself involved in trouble. Listen, mother; hear what thoughts have passed across my mind [noos]. I am resolved to die; and this I wish to do with honor [kleos], dismissing from me what is ignoble. Towards this now, mother,turn your thoughts, and with me weigh how well I speak The whole of mighty Hellas looks to me; on me the passage over the sea depends; on me the sack of Troy; on me depends no longer allowing the seizure of women from blessed [olbios] Hellas, if ever in the days to come Barbarians seek to seize her daughters, once they have atoned by death for the violation of Helen's marriage by Paris. All this deliverance will my death insure, and my fame [kleos] for setting Hellas free will be a blessed one. Besides, I have no right at all to cling too fondly to my life; for you did not bear me for myself alone, but as a public blessing to all Hellas. What! shall countless warriors, armed with shields, and countless sitting at the oar, when fatherland is wronged find courage to attack the foe [ekhthros] and die for Hellas, and my one life [psûkhê] prevent all this? What kind of justice [dikaios] is that? Could I find a word in answer? Now turn we to that other point. It is not right that this man should go to battle with all Argos or be slain for a woman's sake. Better a single man should see the light than ten thousand women. If Artemis is minded to take this body [sôma], am I, a weak mortal, to thwart the goddess? No, that is impossible. To Hellas I give my body [sôma]; I offer this sacrifice and make an utter end of Troy. This is my enduring monument [mnêmê]; marriage, motherhood, and reputation - all these is it to me. And it is right, mother, that Hellenes should rule barbarians, but not barbarians Hellenes, those being slaves, while these are free. …allow me, if I can, to save [sôzô] Hellas.

G) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 1433-1444
IPHIGENEIA Mother, why so silent, your eyes wet with tears?

CLYTAEMNESTRA I have reason, woe is me! to be sad at heart.

IPHIGENEIA Stop; don't make me a coward; in this one thing obey me.

CLYTAEMNESTRA Say what it is, my child, for at my hands you shall never suffer injury.

IPHIGENEIA Do not cut off the tresses of your hair for me, nor clothe your body [sôma] in black garments.

CLYTAEMNESTRA Why, my child, what is it you have said? Shall I, when I lose you -

IPHIGENEIA "Lose" me, you do not; I am saved [sôzô] and you renowned [with good kleos], as far as I can make you.

CLYTAEMNESTRA How so? Must I not mourn [verb from penthos] your death [psûkhê]?

IPHIGENEIA By no means, for I shall have no tomb heaped over me.

CLYTAEMNESTRA What, is not the act of dying held to imply burial?

IPHIGENEIA The altar of the goddess, Zeus's daughter, will be my tomb [mnêmê].

H) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 1467-1504
Be it yours, maidens, to sing a hymn in joyous strains
for my hard lot to the child of Zeus,
Artemis; and let the order for a solemn hush go forth to the Danaans.
Begin the sacrifice with the baskets, let the fire blaze
for the purifying meal of sprinkling, and my father
pace from left to right about the altar;
for I come to bestow on Hellas safety [sôtêriâ] crowned with victory.

Lead me hence,
me the destroyer of Ilium's town [polis] and the Phrygians;
give me wreaths to cast about me -
here are my tresses to crown -
bring lustral water too.
Dance around the precinct,
dance around the altar in honor of Artemis
Artemis the queen,
the blessed one; for, if it is right,
by the blood of my sacrifice
I will blot out the oracle.
O mother, lady revered! Tears for you
I shall not shed;
for at the holy rites I may not weep.

Sing with me, young women,
sing the praises of Artemis,
whose temple faces Chalcis,
where angry spearmen madly chafe,
because of my name,
here in the narrow havens of Aulis.

O Pelasgia, land of my birth,
and Mycenae, my home!

CHORUS Do you call on Perseus' citadel,
that town Cyclopean workmen built?

IPHIGENEIA To be a light to Hellas did you rear me,
and so I do not refuse death.

CHORUS You are right; Fame [kleos] will never desert you!

I) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 1404-1411
Daughter of Agamemnon, some god
was bent on blessing me, could I but have won you for my wife.
In you I reckon Hellas happy, and you in Hellas;
for this that you have said is good and worthy of your fatherland;
since you, abandoning a strife with heavenly powers, which are too strong for you,
have fairly weighed advantages and needs.
But now that I have looked into your noble nature,
desire has overcome me to win you for my bride.

J) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 425-439
For the army knows already - so quickly did
the rumor spread - of your daughter's arrival.
And all the folk are running together to the sight,
that they may see your child; for fortune's favourites [eudaimoniâ]
enjoy a worldwide fame and have all eyes fixed on them.
"Is it a wedding?" some ask, "or what is happening?
Or has king Agamemnon from fond yearning
summoned his daughter here?" From others you would have heard:
"They are presenting the maiden to Artemis,
queen of Aulis. Who can the bridegroom be, that is to lead her home?"
Come, then, begin the rites - that is the next step -
crown your heads; and you, lord Menelaus,
prepare the wedding-hymn; and throughout the tents
let flutes resound and let there be the noise of dancer's feet;
for this is a happy day that is come for the maiden.

K) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 454-468
Oh! What am I to tell my wife?
How shall I welcome her? With what face meet her?
For she too has undone me in this my hour of sorrow
by coming uninvited; yet it was but natural she should come
with her daughter to prepare the bride and perform the fondest duties,
where she will discover my villainy.
And for this poor maiden - why maiden?
Hades, I think , will soon make her his bride -
how I pity her! Thus I suppose will she plead to me:
"My father will you slay me? Be such the wedding
you yourself may find, and whosoever is dear [philos] to you!"
While Orestes, from his station near us, will cry
with words that are inarticulate, yet fraught with meaning. For he is still nêpios.
Alas! to what utter ruin Paris, the son of Priam, the cause of these troubles,
has brought me by his union with Helen!

L) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 685-694
(AGAMEMNON) Herein I crave your pardon,
daughter of Leda, if I showed excessive grief
at the thought of giving my daughter to Achilles;
for though we are sending her to taste of bliss, still it
a sorrow to parents, whenever a father who has toiled so hard
hands over his children to the homes of others.

CLYTAEMNESTRA I am not so void of sense; keep in mind, I shall go
through this as well - and so I do not blame you -
when I lead the maiden from the chamber to the sound of the marriage-hymn;
but custom [nomos] will combine with time to make the pain grow less.

M) Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 1036-1097
What wedding-hymn was that which raised its strains
to the sound of Libyan flutes,
to the music of the dancer's lyre,
and the note of the pipe of reeds?
It was on the day Pieria's fair-tressed choir
came over the slopes of Pelion
to the marriage-feast of Peleus,
beating the ground
with print of golden sandals at the banquet of the gods,
and hymning in dulcet strains the praise of Thetis and the son of Aeacus,
over the Centaurs' hill,
down through the woods of Pelion.

There was the Dardanian boy,
Phrygian Ganymede,
beloved pleasure of Zeus' bed,
drawing off the wine
he mixed in the depths of golden bowls;
while, along the gleaming sand,
the fifty daughters of Nereus
graced the marriage with their dancing [khoros],
circling in a whirling ring.

There came too the revel-rout of Centaurs, mounted on horses,
to the feast of the gods
and the mixing-bowl of Bacchus, leaning on fir-trees,
with wreaths of green foliage round their heads;
and loudly they shouted out. "Daughter of Nereus,
that you shall bear a son, a dazzling light to Thessaly,
Cheiron the prophet,
skilled in arts inspired by Phoebus,
foretold,
a son who shall come with an army of spearmen
to the far-famed land of Priam,
to set it in a blaze,
his body cased
in a suit of golden
armor forged by Hephaestus,
a gift from his goddess-mother,
Thetis, who bore him."
Then the gods shed a blessing
on the marriage of the high-born bride,
who was first of Nereus' daughters,
and on the wedding of Peleus.

But you [Iphigeneia], will the Argives crown,
wreathing the lovely tresses of your hair,
like a dappled mountain hind
brought from some rocky cave
or a heifer undefiled,
and staining with blood your human throat;
though you were never reared like these
amid the piping and whistling of herdsmen,
but at your mother's side,
to be decked one day by her as the bride of a son of Inachus.
Where now does the face of modesty [aidôs] or virtue [aretê]
have any power?
Seeing that unholiness holds sway,
and virtue [aretê] is neglected
by men and thrust behind them,
lawlessness [lack of nomos] over law [nomos] prevailing,
and mortals no longer making common cause [agôn]
to keep the jealousy of gods from reaching them.

 

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Check out Elise Garrison's catalogue of suicidal females in Greek and Roman Mythology, published by Diotima, a web site devoted to the study of women and gender in the ancient world.

Read more about sacrificial virgins:

Larson, Jennifer. The Greek Heroine Cults. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Loraux, Nicole. Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin. Anxiety Veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in Women. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993.