A classical Greek Tragedy...
The Greek fleet, ready to sail for Troy is stalled by lack of wind and a seer advises that this is due to the will of the goddess Artemis, whom Agamemnon has slighted, and that in order to placate her, he must sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia. He must consider this seriously because his assembled troops may rebel if the campaign is not carried on, so he has sent a message to his wife, Clytemnestra, telling her to bring Iphigenia, on the pretext that the girl is to be married to the Greek warrior Achilles before he sets off to fight.
Agamemnon is having second thoughts about going through with the sacrifice and sends a second message to his wife, telling her to ignore the first. However, Clytemnestra never receives it, because it is intercepted by Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus, who is enraged that he should have changed his mind, seeing it as a personal slight (it is the retrieval of Menelaus’ wife, Helen, that is the main pretext for the war). He also realizes that it may lead to mutiny and the downfall of the Greek leaders if the troops were to discover the prophecy and realize that their general had put his family above the enterprise.
Innocent of the real reason for her summoning, the young Iphigenia is thrilled at the prospect of marrying one of the great heroes of the Greek army. But, when Achilles discovers the truth, he is furious at having been used as a prop in Agamemnon's plan, and he vows to defend Iphigenia, although more for the purposes of his own honour than to save the innocent girl.
Clytemnestra and Iphigenia try in vain to persuade Agamemnon to change his mind, but the general believes that he has no choice. As Achilles prepares to defend the young woman by force, though, Iphigenia herself has a sudden change of heart, deciding that the heroic thing to do would be to let herself be sacrificed after all. She is led off to die, leaving her mother Clytemnestra distraught.
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