 The human sacrifice in mythology, the "deus ex machina" salvation in some versions of Iphigeneia (who was about to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon) and her replacement with a deer by the goddess Artemis, may be a vestigial memory of the abandonment and discrediting of the practice of human sacrifice among the Greeks in favour of animal sacrifice.In ancient Rome, human sacrifice was infrequent but documented.Roman authors often contrast their own behavior with that of people who would commit the heinous act of human sacrifice.