Editing Agamemnon (section)

=== Sailing for Troy ===
[[File:Charles_de_La_Fosse_-_Le_sacrifice_d'Iphigénie_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|thumb|''The Sacrifice of Iphigenia'' by [[Charles de La Fosse]]]]

Agamemnon gathers the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. In order to recruit [[Odysseus]], who is feigning madness so as to not have to go to war, Agamemnon sends [[Palamedes (mythology)|Palamedes]], who threatens to kill Odysseus' infant son [[Telemachus]]. Odysseus is forced to stop acting mad in order to save his son and joined the assembled Greek forces.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APOLLODORUS, THE LIBRARY EPITOME |url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html#3 |access-date=18 May 2021 |website=theoi.com |publisher=Theoi Classical Texts Library |archive-date=18 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518195824/https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html#3 |url-status=live}}</ref> Preparing to depart from [[Aulis (ancient Greece)|Aulis]], a port in [[Boeotia]], Agamemnon's army incurs the wrath of the goddess [[Artemis]], although the myths give various reasons for this. In [[Aeschylus]]' play ''[[Agamemnon (play)|Agamemnon]]'', Artemis is angry for she predicts that so many young men will die at Troy, whereas in [[Sophocles]]' ''[[Electra (Sophocles)|Electra]]'', Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasts that he is her equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including a [[Plague (disease)|plague]] and a lack of wind, prevent the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet [[Calchas]] announces that the wrath of the goddess can only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter [[Iphigenia]].

Classical dramatizations differ on how willing either father or daughter are to this fate; some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to [[Achilles]], but Agamemnon does eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeases Artemis and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the [[human sacrifice]] have been presented in Greek mythology. Other sources, such as ''[[Iphigenia at Aulis]]'', say that Agamemnon is prepared to kill his daughter but that Artemis accepts a deer in her place and whisks her away to Tauris in the [[Crimean Peninsula]]. However, this version is widely considered to be the work of an interpolator, and not Euripides himself.<ref>Richard Rutherford, in John Davie (tr.), Euripides: The Bacchae and Other Plays, London, [[Penguin Books]], 2005, pp. 174, 326–327.</ref> [[Hesiod]] says she became the goddess [[Hecate]].

During the war, but before the events of the ''Iliad'', Odysseus contrives a plan to get revenge on [[Palamedes (mythology)|Palamedes]] for threatening his son's life. By forging a letter from [[Priam]], king of the Trojans, and caching some gold in Palamedes' tent, Odysseus has Palamedes accused of treason and Agamemnon orders him to be stoned to death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ovid, Metamorphoses XII-XV |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26073/26073-h/Met_XII-XV.html#bookXIII |access-date=18 May 2021 |website=gutenberg.org |archive-date=3 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303124439/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26073/26073-h/Met_XII-XV.html#bookXIII |url-status=live}}</ref>