I’m not here to talk specs & professional hooplah. I do a lot of that already on my professional website (its lovely and concise and I put a lot of work and effort into it so you should definitely check it out if you have the chance). You can read all about my books on the Windy & Wallflower website its got specs and summaries, and images and all of that lovely stuff.
But to avoid a bit of repetition, I’m here to talk a little bit about my take on this version of the myth. It feels a little bit weird to say this but if you aren’t familiar with the myth that’s thousands of years old, I will be talking about it in depth if there are things you want to keep a surprise on your first read through.
The Original Story & My Take Away
Iphigenia’s story is technically a very small part of the epic war on Troy. It’s not really brought up in the Iliad but I was admittedly a bit inspired by the way it was played out in Song Of Achilles so if there are a few similarities between those two versions you can certainly understand why.
The myth has MANY different iterations both in antiquity and in the various retellings (novels, famous plays and operas thereafter). But they all pretty much hold onto some super key points:
- Agamemnon (Iphigenia’s father) kills (one of) Artemis’ prized stag(s).
- Artemis is absolutely pissed & convinces (throws her weight around) with the wind gods
- She convinces one of them to prevent the Greeks from having the right wind to sail them out to Troy
- The only thing that will appease her is the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s eldest daughter
- Iphigenia is sacrificed.
Although this myth is not the most recognisable or, I suppose, if we want to get real modern about it uhh, mainstream of the mythos I could have probably started this series off with. This base to the story really struck out to me. I thought it was fascinating. A story of a small minor character still getting this much love and attention by poets and artists of varying mediums. Each take on it is interesting too, no one person can seem to agree on what outcome or lead into the story they prefer. Some versions really like Iphigenia coming into this sacrifice knowing full well what she is getting herself into. Others tend to keep her a bit more doe-eyed about it, betrayed by a fake marriage to Achilles. What I was personally fascinated by is this tension between Artemis and Iphigenia, a goddess and protector of young women and a mortal who fits as her follower only to be betrayed by this.
I think the most interesting versions give Iphigenia more credit as a fully formed person who isn’t a fool and could easily figure out what she was meant for, leading into her sacrifice. When I originally wrote this story I was more invested in the versions that kept her alive. There’s a lot of heavy patriarchal baggage going on in Greek Mythology that’s hard to parse through and get around. I have a bit more of a nuanced opinion of the ending of this story now. I think I would probably write it a little bit differently if I were to write it again (who knows, this might be a part of this project, alternating endings and messing with people’s perceptions, wouldn’t that be something)?
My Version
My version of the myth is angled in Iphigenia’s point of view. Iphigenia finds out that she is to be sacrificed to Artemis in order to achieve safe passage for the Greeks to Troy. That they are going to fake her marriage to Achilles. She saves face. As the eldest daughter to the king of the Greeks, she’s resigned to her fate though she lets Artemis know in prayer, night after night how betrayed she feels in light of this news.
In my version Artemis saves her and takes Iphigenia away to her garden, sparing her the horrors of Troy. The two from here on have a tense relationship, dancing around feelings of one another. Iphigenia is caught in a world where she does and doesn’t exist. Outside of cultural standards and society and among her own freedom and willpower…
But alone.
I get a lot of mixed response when it comes to this story (and any myth-related story I write) and I think that comes (in part) from the fact that I don’t like to explain things. I like to show things, I like to imply things. I like to give readers a chance to impart themselves or their own thoughts into a story. Especially with stories like this where the characters are not exactly New and not entirely Mine.
The story at it’s core is about Artemis and Iphigenia, to me. Iphigenia’s story would not exist without Artemis and Artemis could not exist without Iphigenia.
And that’s all there really is to it.
(Got you, you think I’m gonna explain all my funky little motivations for my decisions in this story?? ThiNK AGAIN–No seriously, all I could ever ask for is that you think about it~).