IPHIGENIA

When the Athenians took off in ships to recover Helen from Paris of Troy, their sailing ships were stalled among a group of islands. They didn't have enough food on board for a long stay at sea, and some of the expedition leaders decide to go ashore and kill some deer. The head of the expedition, on examining the subsequent oracles, tells Agamemnon that the Athenian fleet will have no wind until he sacrifices his own daughter Iphigehnia to atone for the death of the sacred deer.