The gate of the year

Mural painting from a villa in Pompeii (I century A.D.), now in the Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale), Naples, Italy. The scene represents Iphigenia brought to the sacrifice. According to the most popular version of the tale, the Greek ships sailing towards Troy had been blocked by lack of wind in Aulis. The cause was detected in Artemis’s wrath against Agamemnon, the commander of the fleet, who had killed a female deer sacred to the goddess, during a hunting party. Calchas, the soothsayer, determined that the only solution was the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia. At the time of immolation, Artemis herself substituted the maiden with a female deer on the sacrificial altar, bringing Iphigenia in the faraway land of the Taurians (actual Crimea), where she became a priestess presiding over the human sacrifices made in honour of the goddess. According to the reconstruction of the story, as it is exposed in the tragedies by Euripides, in the Taurian region came Orestes, Iphigenia’s brother, who was destined to be sacrificed. Saved by his sister, Orestes escaped with Iphigenia and came back to Greece, bringing with them the wooden idol of the goddess, which various traditions place in different sites sacred to Artemis. One of this sites was Brauron, where initiatory rituals were performed in honour of Artemis Brauronia, and where it was placed a tomb of Iphigenia, on which the clothes of women died in childbirth were consecrated. According to the interpretation of Ken Dowden, the myth of the sacrifice of the maiden reveals the motif of the “initiatory death” (Dowden 1989). In this sense, Iphigenia, the heroine sacrificed in the primordial times, and foundress of temples dedicated to Artemis, acts as prototype for the maidens who underwent the passage rite to adult life. According to a version of the Iphigenia myth, as reported in a scholium to Aristophanes (Brelich 1969, p. 262), the sacrifice of the girl took place not in Aulis, but at Brauron, and the substituted animal was not a female deer but a she-bear. This is a demonstration of the strict relationship between the Iphigenia myth and the female initiation rituals, like those performed at Brauron.

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphig%C3%A9nie]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Mural painting from a villa in Pompeii (I century A.D.), now in the Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale), Naples, Italy. The scene represents Iphigenia brought to the sacrifice. According to the most popular version of the tale, the Greek ships sailing towards Troy had been blocked by lack of wind in Aulis. The cause was detected in Artemis’s wrath against Agamemnon, the commander of the fleet, who had killed a female deer sacred to the goddess, during a hunting party. Calchas, the soothsayer, determined that the only solution was the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia. At the time of immolation, Artemis herself substituted the maiden with a female deer on the sacrificial altar, bringing Iphigenia in the faraway land of the Taurians (actual Crimea), where she became a priestess presiding over the human sacrifices made in honour of the goddess. According to the reconstruction of the story, as it is exposed in the tragedies by Euripides, in the Taurian region came Orestes, Iphigenia’s brother, who was destined to be sacrificed. Saved by his sister, Orestes escaped with Iphigenia and came back to Greece, bringing with them the wooden idol of the goddess, which various traditions place in different sites sacred to Artemis. One of this sites was Brauron, where initiatory rituals were performed in honour of Artemis Brauronia, and where it was placed a tomb of Iphigenia, on which the clothes of women died in childbirth were consecrated. According to the interpretation of Ken Dowden, the myth of the sacrifice of the maiden reveals the motif of the “initiatory death” (Dowden 1989). In this sense, Iphigenia, the heroine sacrificed in the primordial times, and foundress of temples dedicated to Artemis, acts as prototype for the maidens who underwent the passage rite to adult life. According to a version of the Iphigenia myth, as reported in a scholium to Aristophanes (Brelich 1969, p. 262), the sacrifice of the girl took place not in Aulis, but at Brauron, and the substituted animal was not a female deer but a she-bear. This is a demonstration of the strict relationship between the Iphigenia myth and the female initiation rituals, like those performed at Brauron. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphig%C3%A9nie]