Iphĭdĕmīa, a Thessalian woman, ravished by the Naxians, &c.
Iphĭgēnĭa, a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. When the Greeks, going to the Trojan war, were detained by contrary winds at Aulis, they were informed by one of the soothsayers, that to appease the gods, they must sacrifice Iphigenia, Agamemnon’s daughter, to Diana. See: [Agamemnon]. The father, who had provoked the goddess by killing her favourite stag, heard this with the greatest horror and indignation, and rather than to shed the blood of his daughter, he commanded one of his heralds, as chief of the Grecian forces, to order all the assembly to depart each to his respective home. Ulysses and the other generals interfered, and Agamemnon consented to immolate his daughter for the common cause of Greece. As Iphigenia was tenderly loved by her mother, the Greeks sent for her on pretence of giving her in marriage to Achilles. Clytemnestra gladly permitted her departure, and Iphigenia came to Aulis: here she saw the bloody preparations for the sacrifice; she implored the forgiveness and protection of her father, but tears and entreaties were unavailing. Calchas took the knife in his hand, and as he was going to strike the fatal blow, Iphigenia suddenly disappeared, and a goat of uncommon size and beauty was found in her place for the sacrifice. This supernatural change animated the Greeks, the wind suddenly became favourable, and the combined fleet set sail from Aulis. Iphigenia’s innocence had raised the compassion of the goddess on whose altar she was going to be sacrificed, and she carried her to Taurica, where she entrusted her with the care of her temple. In this sacred office Iphigenia was obliged, by the command of Diana, to sacrifice all the strangers who came into that country. Many had already been offered as victims on the bloody altar, when Orestes and Pylades came to Taurica. Their mutual and unparalleled friendship [See: [Pylades] and [Orestes]] disclosed to Iphigenia that one of the strangers whom she was going to sacrifice was her brother; and, upon this, she conspired with the two friends to fly from the barbarous country, and carry away the statue of the goddess. They successfully effected their enterprise, and murdered Thoas, who enforced the human sacrifices. According to some authors, the Iphigenia who was sacrificed at Aulis was not a daughter of Agamemnon, but a daughter of Helen by [♦]Theseus. Homer does not speak of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, though very minute in the description of the Grecian forces, adventures, &c. The statue of Diana, which Iphigenia brought away, was afterwards placed in the grove of Aricia in Italy. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 22; bk. 3, ch. 16.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 31.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, ch. 116.—Aeschylus.—Euripides.
[♦] ‘Thesus’ replaced with ‘Theseus’
Iphĭmĕdīa, a daughter of Tropias, who married the giant Alœus. She fled from her husband, and had two sons, Otus and Ephialtes, by Neptune, her father’s father. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11, li. 124.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 22.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.
Iphimedon, a son of Eurystheus, killed in a war against the Athenians and Heraclidæ. Apollodorus.
Iphĭmĕdūsa, one of the daughters of Danaus, who married Euchenor. See: [Danaides].
Iphinoe, one of the principal women of Lemnos, who conspired to destroy all the males of the island after their return from a Thracian expedition. Flaccus, bk. 2, li. 163.——One of the daughters of Prœtus. She died of a disease while under the care of Melampus. See: [Prœtides].
Iphinous, one of the centaurs. Ovid.
Iphis, son of Alector, succeeded his father on the throne of Argos. He advised Polynices, who wished to engage Amphiaraus in the Theban war, to bribe his wife Eriphyle, by giving her the golden collar of Harmonia. This succeeded, and Eriphyle betrayed her husband. Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Flaccus, bks. 1, 3, & 7.——A beautiful youth of Salamis, of ignoble birth. He became enamoured of Anaxarete, and the coldness and contempt he met with rendered him so desperate that he hung himself. Anaxarete saw him carried to his grave without emotion, and was instantly changed into a stone. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 703.——A daughter of Thespius. Apollodorus.——A mistress of Patroclus, given him by Achilles. Homer, Iliad, bk. 9.——A daughter of Ligdus and Telethusa, of Crete. When Telethusa was pregnant, Ligdus ordered her to destroy her child, if it proved a daughter, because his poverty could not afford to maintain a useless charge. The severe orders of her husband alarmed Telethusa, and she would have obeyed, had not Isis commanded her in a dream to spare the life of her child. Telethusa brought forth a daughter, which was given to a nurse, and passed for a boy under the name of Iphis. Ligdus continued ignorant of the deceit, and when Iphis was come to the years of puberty, her father resolved to give her in marriage to Ianthe, the beautiful daughter of Telestes. A day to celebrate the nuptials was appointed, but Telethusa and her daughter were equally anxious to put off the marriage; and, when all was unavailing, they implored the assistance of Isis, by whose advice the life of Iphis had been preserved. The goddess was moved; she changed the sex of Iphis, and, on the morrow, the nuptials were consummated with the greatest rejoicings. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 666, &c.
Iphition, an ally of the Trojans, son of Otryntheus and Nais, killed by Achilles. Homer, Iliad, bk. 20, li. 382.