The title comes from Greek mythology and refers to the story of Agamemnon and Iphigenia from which the narrative of the movie stems: At Aulis (ancient Greece), the leader of the Greeks, Agamemnon, accidentally kills a deer in a grove sacred to the goddess Artemis. She punishes him by interfering with the winds so that his fleet cannot sail to Troy. The seer Calchas reveals that, to appease Artemis, Agamemnon must sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia.