Iphigenia

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Iphigenia is recalled by Dante in the fifth canto of Paradise, where his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida cites her as a classical example parallel to the biblical one of Jephthah, united by having committed a worse evil so as not to violate an imprudent vow. According to the notes to the canto, Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, had promised the gods whatever was most beautiful to him in order to obtain favorable winds for the departure toward Troy, and sacrificed his young daughter Iphigenia—an episode narrated by Ovid and Virgil and condemned by Cicero in words similar to those used by Scripture for the Israelite judge. The verse "where Iphigenia mourned her lovely face" alludes to the maiden's weeping over her own beauty, the cause of her death. The notes clarify, however, that the weeping of Iphigenia is attested in no ancient text, whereas that of Jephthah's daughter is recorded in the Book of Judges.