Amestris
Amestris (also Amastris ), daughter of Otanes , was the wife of Xerxes I, a queen of the Persian Achaemenid Empire . Her father was one of the seven conspirators against Gaumata . On her mother's side, she was a niece of the Great King Darius I. She was married to her cousin, to whom she bore several children, including the heir to the throne Artaxerxes I and Amytis.
According to Ktesias, Amestris was very dissolute and cruel. Herodotus narrates the following story regarding them in his Histories : Xerxes is said to have fallen in love with his daughter-in-law Artaynte after his return from Greece (480 BC) (after he had previously tried to have a relationship with her mother, his brother's wife Masistes , which in research is occasionally equated with Ariamenes ). Artaynte had asked for the royal cloak woven by Amestris from Xerxes, with which she, from the point of view of the ancient world, demanded rule for her family. Amestris then demanded the mother of Artaynte, who she probably held responsible for the affair, for herself at the feast for Xerxes' birthday, at which the attending guests had to fulfill every wish. In the end, the Great King complied with this request and Amestris had Artayntes mother seized by the palace guard, cruelly mutilated and then sent home. Masistes then tried to stage an uprising in Bactria , but was murdered on the way there with his sons and followers on Xerxes' orders.
When Amestris got older, she is supposed to have sacrificed fourteen distinguished Persian boys by burying them alive for their well-being to the underworld god. She survived her husband Xerxes and died in old age towards the end of the reign of her to 424 BC. Living son Artaxerxes.
literature
- Josef Wiesehöfer : Ancient Persia. Patmos Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Albatros Verlag, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-491-96151-3
- Bernhard Kytzler : women of antiquity. From Aspasia to Zenobia . 1994, ISBN 3-7608-1084-5 , p. 24
- Eduard Meyer : Amastris 4 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, column 1750.
- R. Schmitt: Amestris 1 , in: Encyclopædia Iranica , Vol. 1 (1985), p. 935.
Remarks
- ↑ While Herodotus calls Amestris' father Otanes, Ktesias ( Persika 20, FGrH 688, F 13, 24) calls him Onophas .
- ↑ Herodotus, Histories 7, 61, 2.
- ↑ Ktesias, Persika 42, FGrH 688, F 14.
- ↑ Herodotus, Historien 9, 109-112.
- ↑ Herodotus, Historien 7, 114, 2; Plutarch , De superstitione 13.
- ↑ Ktesias, Persika 42f., FGrH 688, F 14.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Amestris |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Queen in ancient Persia |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 6th century BC Chr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th century BC Chr. |