Artemis at Brauron: Iphigenia and the Attic Cult

Catalogue ID: 05-local-and-lesser/103-artemis-brauron-iphigenia-cult-pausanias

Cycle: Local and lesser — Attic cult aetiology / Artemis Brauronia

Version line: Euripidean / Pausanian — Iphigenia brings the Tauric image to Brauron (or Halai)

Sources: Euripides, *Iphigenia in Tauris* 1446–1474; Pausanias 1.23.7, 1.33.1; cf. scholia and Attic decree traditions on the arkteia

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/05-local-and-lesser/103-artemis-brauron-iphigenia-cult-pausanias.md

Characters

Artemis Brauronia — goddess of the sanctuary
Attic girls — perform the bear-service
Epeius — issues the Attic cult instructions
Priam’s daughter — heroine-priestess / cult founder in the aetiology
Thyestes — brings the image (Euripides)

Places

Halai Araphenides — related Tauropolos cult in Euripides
Olympia — Brauronia also had a city precinct
Tauric land — origin of the image
Troezen — main sanctuary

Themes

Narrative

Attic tradition tied Artemis Brauronia to Iphigenia. In Euripides’ closing aetiology, Athena bids Orestes take the Tauric wooden image to Attica and names Iphigenia key-holder (kleidouchos) at Brauron, where she will die and be honored; garments of women who die in childbirth are dedicated to her. Pausanias describes Brauron’s sanctuary of Artemis and notes the Iphigenia connection. The arkteia—“being a bear” for Artemis—brought Attic girls in saffron robes to serve the goddess, linked in aetiology to a killed sacred bear and the goddess’s demand for ritual service in place of harsher penalty. Catalogue Brauron as Attic cult aetiology distinct from Aulis and from the Tauric plot’s adventure core.