Aulis

Aulis was an ancient harbor town in Boeotia, on the western shore of the Euripus strait, facing the island of Euboea. In Greek myth it is the place where the Greek fleet gathered before the Trojan War and was held back by contrary winds. There, according to the tragedians and Apollodorus, Agamemnon was told he must offer his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis before the ships could sail.

What Was Aulis?

A Town in Boeotia

Aulis lay in Boeotia, across the Euripus from Euboea. Pausanias, who visited it, says the Euripus separates Euboea from Boeotia at this point, and that the place was said to be named after a daughter of Ogygus (Pausanias 9.19.6). Strabo calls it a rocky spot and a village of the Tanagraeans, with a harbor large enough for only fifty boats; for that reason he supposes that the Greek fleet actually lay in the nearby large harbor called Bathys Limen, the “Deep Harbor” (Strabo 9.2.8). In Pausanias’ day it had few inhabitants, mostly potters, and its land was farmed by the people of Tanagra (Pausanias 9.19.8).

Aulis and the Greek Fleet

Homer knows Aulis in two places. In the Catalogue of Ships, the Boeotian contingent includes the men “who dwelt in Hyria and rocky Aulis” (Iliad 2.496). The Catalogue itself (Iliad 2.484–759) is the oldest list of the leaders and ships that sailed against Troy; Apollodorus gives a prose list of the same expedition (Epitome 3.11–14). Among the leaders were Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Achilles, Ajax, Diomedes and Nestor.

A Place of Waiting

Aulis is remembered less for fighting than for delay. The army is ready and the ships are gathered, but the Greeks cannot leave. In the tragedians’ telling, blood must be shed at home before any is shed at Troy.

Aulis and the Trojan War

The Cause of the Expedition

The expedition began after Paris carried Helen off from Sparta. When Helen’s many suitors had gathered, her father Tyndareus made them swear to defend the chosen husband against anyone who wronged him (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.9). When Menelaus appealed to his brother Agamemnon, Agamemnon sent heralds to the kings and reminded them of these oaths (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.6).

Agamemnon as Commander

Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and brother of Menelaus, led the expedition. In Apollodorus the Greeks first assembled at Aulis, sailed by mistake to Mysia, and returned; eight years passed before they came together at Aulis a second time, with no one to show them the way to Troy until Telephus guided them (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.17–20). The troubles over the winds belong to this second gathering (Epitome 3.21).

The Windless Harbor

Euripides’ Agamemnon says that the army sat at Aulis unable to sail (Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 88). Aeschylus describes the same scene: winds blowing from the Strymon brought idleness, bad anchorage and hunger, and wore down ships and cables while the army waited (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 184–204).

Artemis and the Sacrifice of Iphigenia

The Omen of the Serpent

Before the winds failed, the Greeks sacrificed at Aulis beside a spring under a plane tree. A serpent came out from beneath the altar, climbed the tree and devoured the eight young sparrows in a nest, and the mother bird as the ninth, and was then turned to stone. Calchas read this as a sign from Zeus that Troy would fall in the tenth year (Iliad 2.299–330; Apollodorus, Epitome 3.15). Pausanias saw what was left of the plane tree in the temple of Artemis (Pausanias 9.19.6–7).

The Anger of Artemis

The sources do not agree on why the goddess was angry. In Apollodorus Artemis is angry because Agamemnon, shooting a deer, said that Artemis herself could not have done it better, and because Atreus had never sacrificed to her the golden lamb (Epitome 3.21). In Sophocles, Agamemnon killed a stag in the goddess’ grove and boasted of it, and Artemis held the Greeks back until he gave his own daughter in return for the animal (Sophocles, Electra 563–576). In Aeschylus the cause is different: Artemis hates the eagles, the omen of the kings, for devouring a pregnant hare, and the prophet Calchas fears her displeasure for the fleet (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 104–159).

Calchas’ Prophecy

Calchas declared that the fleet could not sail unless the fairest of Agamemnon’s daughters was offered to Artemis (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.21). In Euripides, Agamemnon first ordered the army dismissed, saying he could never kill his daughter, and was talked into it by his brother (Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 94–98). In Aeschylus he weighs the choice aloud: it is a heavy fate to disobey, but heavy too to slaughter his own child, and he cannot desert the fleet and fail the alliance (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 205–217).

The False Wedding to Achilles

To bring Iphigenia to Aulis, Agamemnon pretended that she was to marry Achilles. In Apollodorus he sends Odysseus and Talthybius to Clytemnestra to ask for the girl on this pretext (Epitome 3.22). In Euripides he writes a letter to Clytemnestra himself (Iphigenia at Aulis 98–100). Hyginus gives the task to Odysseus and Diomedes (Fabulae 98).

Iphigenia at Aulis

Clytemnestra’s Horror

In Euripides’ play Clytemnestra arrives with her daughter expecting a wedding, learns the truth, and pleads with Agamemnon. In Aeschylus the sacrifice is also the grievance Clytemnestra gives for killing him after Troy: he sacrificed his child, her dearest pain in labor, as if she were one of his flock (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1415–1418).

Achilles’ Role

Achilles is drawn in because his name was used in the false marriage. In Euripides he knew nothing of it, is angered when he learns, and offers to protect Iphigenia; the army itself turns against him. Iphigenia, in this version, finally consents to die for Greece.

Iphigenia’s Fate

Ancient sources give different endings. In Aeschylus, the girl is held over the altar like a kid, with her mouth gagged (Agamemnon 228–247); the chorus breaks off before the blow (“what followed I did not see and do not tell,” 248), but Clytemnestra later says plainly that he sacrificed his child (1415–1418). In Sophocles, Agamemnon did sacrifice her, though under great pressure and not for Menelaus’ sake (Electra 573–576). In another version, Artemis carries Iphigenia away to the Taurians and makes her her priestess, leaving a deer at the altar; some say Artemis made her immortal (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.22). Euripides ends his play with this rescue, where a deer lies dying on the altar, and Calchas announces that the goddess has accepted it (Iphigenia at Aulis 1578–1597). Pausanias reports that the Aulis temple told the same story of the substituted deer (Pausanias 9.19.6). Hesiod, in the Catalogue of Women, said that Iphigenia did not die but became Hecate by Artemis’ will (Pausanias 1.43.1).

Aulis and the Sailing to Troy

The Winds Return

After the sacrifice, or the rescue, a favorable wind rises and the fleet leaves Aulis. In Euripides, Calchas announces that the goddess has granted a fair voyage (Iphigenia at Aulis 1596–1597). Pausanias adds that when the favoring breeze came, each man sacrificed to Artemis whatever victim he had to hand, male or female (Pausanias 9.19.7).

The War Begins in Guilt

In Aeschylus, the sacrifice is the first act of a chain of killing that ends in Agamemnon’s own death. The chorus tells how he took on the yoke of necessity and dared to become the sacrificer of his daughter, to begin the war for a woman and to speed the fleet (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 218–227).

From Aulis to Troy

From Aulis the fleet put in at Tenedos (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.23). The story then moves on to Troy, the ten-year siege and the Wooden Horse.

Aulis and the Odyssey

Aulis Is Not a Main Setting of the Odyssey

Aulis is not mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, which follows Odysseus’ journey home and the crisis in Ithaca. It belongs only to the background of the poem as the point where the expedition began.

Odysseus and the Greek Expedition

Odysseus was among the leaders who sailed from Aulis. According to Apollodorus he tried to avoid the war by pretending to be mad, but Palamedes exposed the trick (Epitome 3.7). His absence from Ithaca, in the Odyssey, is what leaves Penelope waiting and Telemachus without his father.

Agamemnon as a Warning in the Odyssey

The Odyssey does tell the end of Agamemnon: Aegisthus and Clytemnestra kill him on his return, and his ghost warns Odysseus in the underworld (Odyssey 3, 4 and 11). The Odyssey names Aegisthus’ seduction of Clytemnestra as the cause and does not mention Iphigenia; the link to Aulis comes from the tragedians.

Homecoming After War

Aulis stands at the beginning of the war, the Odyssey after it. Many of the men who sailed from Aulis never came home, and Agamemnon was one of them.

Aulis’ Role and Symbolism

The Cost of War

In the tragic tradition Aulis is where the price of the expedition is first paid. Aeschylus sets the daughter’s death against a war fought for a woman, and calls the sacrifice the first offering for the ships (Agamemnon 224–227).

Family Against Command

Agamemnon’s position at Aulis is that of a father who is also commander. Aeschylus gives him the choice between two heavy fates (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 206–213).

A Place of Bad Beginnings

The voyage begins with deception, a divine demand and the death or near-death of a girl. Aeschylus makes the memory of Aulis part of Clytemnestra’s justification for the murder of Agamemnon.

Aulis in Ancient Literature

Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis

Euripides wrote the fullest surviving drama set at Aulis. It follows Agamemnon’s indecision, the false letter, Clytemnestra’s grief, Achilles’ anger and Iphigenia’s decision to die. His Iphigenia among the Taurians continues the story in Tauris.

Aeschylus’ Agamemnon

Aeschylus tells of the sacrifice in the first choral ode of Agamemnon (lines 104–257) and returns to it when Clytemnestra explains why she killed her husband (1415–1418).

Homeric Tradition

The Iliad mentions Aulis only for the omen of the serpent and the sparrows (2.303) and for the Boeotian contingent (2.496). It does not tell of the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Agamemnon’s daughters named in the Iliad are Chrysothemis, Laodice and Iphianassa, whom he offers to Achilles in marriage (Iliad 9.144–145).

Misconceptions and Lesser-Known Facts

Aulis Was Not Troy

Aulis was a harbor in Boeotia, not in Asia Minor. Troy was the destination and Aulis the starting point.

Iphigenia’s Fate Varies

Not every ancient version says that Iphigenia died at Aulis. In Apollodorus and Euripides Artemis saves her and takes her to the Taurians (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.22), and in Hesiod she becomes Hecate (Pausanias 1.43.1).

Achilles Was Not Really Betrothed to Iphigenia

In the tragic version Achilles’ name is only a pretext to bring the girl to the camp; he did not arrange the marriage (Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 98–100).

Aulis Was a Real Sanctuary

Aulis was known in later times for its temple of Artemis, with two white marble statues, one carrying torches and the other like an archer, and for the spring and the stump of the plane tree. Pausanias also saw the bronze threshold said to be from Agamemnon’s tent on a nearby hill (Pausanias 9.19.6–7). Agesilaus, king of Sparta, went to Aulis to sacrifice to Artemis as Agamemnon had done, before his expedition to Asia; armed Thebans drove him from the altar, and the Spartans later counted this insult chief among their grievances when they made war on Thebes (Pausanias 3.9.3–4, 3.9.10).

Arcadians at Aulis

Pausanias records a local story from the Arcadian town of Teuthis. When the Greeks were shut in at Aulis by a gale, their leader Teuthis quarreled with Agamemnon and set out to lead his men home. Athena, in the likeness of Melas son of Ops, tried to turn him back, but he struck her in the thigh with his spear and left. At home the goddess appeared to him with the wound in her thigh; he wasted away, and his people alone of the Arcadians suffered famine until, on the advice of Dodona, they set up an image of Athena with a wounded thigh (Pausanias 8.28.4–6).

The Story Matters After the Trojan War

The events at Aulis do not end when the fleet sails. In Aeschylus, Clytemnestra twice names the sacrifice of “much-lamented Iphigenia” as the deed for which Agamemnon paid with his life (Agamemnon 1415–1418, 1525–1529).

Aulis Links the Trojan War and the House of Atreus

Through Iphigenia, the start of the war is tied to the family of Agamemnon. After his murder, his son Orestes returned and killed Aegisthus (Odyssey 3.306–310); in Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers after his reunion with his sister Electra, he kills his mother Clytemnestra as well.

Unraveling Aulis: The Harbor Where the War Began

Aulis is the first major stage of the Greek expedition against Troy. The heroes gathered there under oath to recover Helen, and there, in most versions, the army was stopped by Artemis and Agamemnon was told to give up his daughter. Through Iphigenia, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, the place became a link between the Trojan War and the later fate of the House of Atreus, which the Oresteia follows to its end.

Aulis Sources

Homer, Iliad 2.299–330 (omen at Aulis), 2.484–759 (Catalogue of Ships, Aulis at 2.496) and 9.144–145; Odyssey 3, 4 and 11 (the death of Agamemnon; Orestes’ revenge at 3.306–310). Aeschylus, Agamemnon 104–159, 184–257, 1415–1418 and 1525–1529; Libation Bearers. Sophocles, Electra 563–576. Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 88–100 and 1578–1597. Apollodorus, Library 3.10.9 and Epitome 3.6–7, 3.11–23. Hyginus, Fabulae 98. Strabo 9.2.8. Pausanias 1.43.1, 3.9.3–4, 3.9.10, 8.28.4–6 and 9.19.6–8.

See Also: Trojan War, Helen, Agamemnon, Artemis, Iphigenia, Tauris, Clytemnestra, Achilles