Hyginus Fabulae, 120 and 261
120 Iphigenia among the Taurians.
When the Furies were driving Orestes, he fled to Delphi to ascertain what mode of expiation there might be. The oracular response was that he should go to the land of the Taurians to King Thoas, the father of Hypsipyle and then carry away Diana's cult statue from her temple there to Argos; then, his persecution would cease. When he heard this, he and Strophius' son Pylades his bosom friend boarded a ship and sailed straightway to the territory of the Taurians whose practice was to sacrifice at Diana's temple any stranger who should enter their land. When Orestes and Pylades were taking cover in a cave in anticipation of an opportunity [sc. to steal away with the statue], they were captured by some shepherds and brought before King Thoas. Thoas gave the order that they be bound, according to custom, and led to the temple of Diana to be sacrificed. There Iphigenia, Orestes' sister, was the presiding priestess. After she ascertained through evidence and interrogation who they actually were and why they had come there, she put off the temple officials and herself started to abduct the statue of Diana. However, when the king intervened and asked her what she was doing, she prevaricated and said that these criminals had sullied the statue; because, she claimed, impious criminals had been brought into the temple, the statue needed to be carried to the sea for cleansing, and she bade him to prevent the citizens from setting foot outside the city. The king obeyed the priestess' order. Iphigenia seized the opportunity, carried off the statue, and boarded the ship with her brother Orestes and Pylades; then, on a favorable wind, they reached the island of Zminthes and Chryses the priest of Apollo
261. Agamemnon, who in ignorance killed Diana's deer
When the Danaans had come from all over Greece to Aulis, Agamemnon in ignorance killed Diana's deer. The goddess was angered by this and stopped the winds' blowing. For this reason they could not sail and they began to suffer from famine. The oracles spoke: Agamemnon must appease Diana with blood. Therefore, when Iphigenia was kidnapped by Ulysses for a feigned marriage but for the actual purpose of being sacrificed on the altar, she was carried off by the goddess' pity, and deer was put in her place as a proxy. Taken to the land of the Taurians, she was handed over to King Thoas and made the priestess [whose duty it was] to placate of Diana Dictynna with human blood. She recognized your brother Orestes. He had consulted the oracle [at Delphi] for the sake of dispelling the Furies' rage. With his friend Pylades he had sought out the Colchians; he had teamed with the Colchians to kill Thoas and steal the statue, which he hid in a bundle of logs and carried it off to Aricia. (It is from this event that the sculpture is called the "fascellis", not so much from the torch by which it was painted, on account of which the goddess there is also called the light-bearing one.) When later the cruelty of the cult upset the Romans, even though slaves were sacrificed there, Diana was transported to the Spartans where the practice of the sacrifice was maintained in the lashing of young men who were called the Bomonicae since they engaged in a contest over the altars, vying to see who could endure the most lashes. But the bones of Orestes were transported from Aricia to Rome and interred before the temple of Saturn, which temple is next to the temple of Concord just before the slope up to the Capitoline Hill.
—— trans by RTM
Hyginus, myth., Fabulae 120, 261
120. iphigenia taurica.
Orestem furiae cum exagitarent, Delphos sciscitatum est profectus quis tandem modus esset aerumnarum. responsum est ut in terram Taurinam ad regem Thoantem patrem Hypsipyles iret indeque de templo Dianae signum Argos afferret; tunc finem fore malorum. (2) sorte audita cum Pylade Strophii filio sodale suo nauem conscendit celeriterque ad Tauricos fines deuenerunt, quorum fuit institutum ut qui intra fines eorum hospes uenisset templo Dianae immolaretur. (3) ubi Orestes et Pylades cum in spelunca se tutarentur et occasionem captarent, a pastoribus deprehensi ad regem Thoantem sunt deducti. quos Thoas suo more uinctos in templum Dianae ut immolarentur duci iussit, ubi Iphigenia Orestis soror fuit sacerdos; eosque ex signis atque argumentis qui essent, quid uenissent postquam resciit, abiectis ministeriis ipsa coepit signum Dianae auellere. (4) quo rex cum interuenisset et rogitaret cur id faceret, illa ementita est dicitque eos sceleratos signum contaminasse; quod impii et scelerati homines in templum essent adducti, signum expiandum ad mare ferri oportere, et iubere eum interdicere ciuibus ne quis eorum extra urbem exiret. (5) rex sacerdoti dicto audiens fuit; occasionem Iphigenia nacta signo sublato cum fratre Oreste et Pylade in nauem ascendit uentoque secundo ad insulam Zminthen ad Chrysen sacerdotem Apollinis delati sunt.
261. agamemnon qvi ignarvs dianae cervam occidit.
Cum de Graecia ad Aulidem Danai uenissent, Agamemnon Dianae ceruam occidit ignarus: unde dea irata, flatus uentorum remouit. Quare cum nec nauigare possent, et pestilentiam sustinerent, consulta oracula dixerunt, Agamemnonio sanguine esse placandam Dianam. Ergo cum ab Vlyxe per nuptiarum simulationem adducta Iphigenia in eo esset ut immolaretur, numinis misericordia sublata est, et cerua supposita. et translata ad Tauricam ciuitatem, regi Thoanti tradita est, sacerdosque facta, Dictynnae Dianae secundum consuetudinem statutam, humano sanguine placaret, cognouit fratrem Orestem. qui accepto oraculo carendi sororis furoris causa, cum amico Pylade Colchos petierat, et cum occiso Thoante simulacrum sustulit, absconditum fasce lignorum (unde et fascelis dicitur, non tantum a face cum qua pingitur, propter quod et lucifera dicitur) et Ariciam detulit. Sed cum postea Romanis sacrorum crudelitas displiceret, quanquam serui immolarentur, ad Laconas Diana translata est, ubi sacrificii consuetudo adolescentum uerberibus seruabatur, qui uocabantur Bomonicae, quia aris superpositi contendebant, qui plura posset uerbera sustinere. Orestis uero ossa de Aricia Romam translata sunt, & condita ante templum Saturni, quod est ante cliuum Capitolinum iuxta Concordiae templum.
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