Fresco of Iphigenia at Aulis from the house of a tragic poet in Pompeii

Iphigenia in Aulis. A fresco showing the lovely Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, being carried to the altar of Artemis. Agamemnon had offended Artemis by killing her golden hind, and she sent a calm upon the Greek fleet fitted out for Troy. In order to set sail at last, on the advice of the seer Calchas, Agamemnon resolved to part with his beloved daughter, luring her from home by a ruse: Odysseus had said that the beautiful Iphigenia was to be given in marriage to Achilles. Happily, Artemis took pity in the end on the unfortunate girl, betrayed by her own family, and bore her away on a cloud to Tauris. In the picture Agamemnon veils his head in grief, Calchas gazes proudly upon the proceedings, and Artemis flies across the sky with the hind that will take Iphigenia's place on the altar. This is one of the best-known illustrations of the myth; the fresco stood on the wall of the house of a Pompeian tragic poet.