Iphigenia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The daughter of King Agamemnon who was sacrificed to win favorable winds for the Greek fleet ; a tragic heroine of Greek myth whose fate was retold by several playwrights
2. Agamemnon's daughter offered up at Aulis so the Greek ships could sail for Troy ; a doomed figure in Greek legend who appears in works by Aeschylus and Euripides
3. A princess of Mycenae whose sacrifice to the gods was demanded before the Trojan expedition ; a legendary character central to ancient Greek tragedy and its later retellings

Etymology: Iphigenia was the eldest daughter of Agamemnon, the Greek king who led the expedition against Troy, and her name is the Greek form of "Īphigéneia." The name is built from two Greek elements: "ïphi-", a form of an adjective meaning "strong" or "mighty," and "-genēs," meaning "born," so the name roughly means "strong-born" or "born of strength." The name belongs to the myth in which Agamemnon, becalmed at Aulis, is told that the winds will rise only if he sacrifices Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. In the best-known versions she is saved at the last moment, sometimes by a deer left in her place, and carried off to become a priestess. Because the name is tied so closely to that story, it has long been used in English as a byword for a child sacrificed for a larger cause.