Atossa (daughter of Artaxerxes II.)

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Atossa ( old Persian: Hutausā / Hutauthā ; * before 400 BC; † 358 BC ) was a member of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in the 4th century BC. She was a daughter of the Great King Artaxerxes II and Stateira († 400 BC), daughter of Hydarnes.

Atossa had been promised as a wife to the noble Tiribazos by her father . However, it was the great king himself who fell in love with his own daughter and even married her against all Persian law and custom. However, Artaxerxes II had Persian judges assure him that, as the great king, he stood above all laws and was allowed to marry whoever he wanted and be it his own daughter. His love for her is said to have been so great that he slept with her even when she was sick with leprosy . This incestuous process, unprecedented until then, was significantly promoted by the Queen Mother Parysatis , who hoped it would have a growing influence on her son. Artaxerxes II later also married his second daughter Amestris .

Among her brothers Atossa supported the youngest Ochos (later Artaxerxes III ), with whom she had a secret affair, against the eldest Dareios in the line of succession . In addition, she used her relationship with her father to let Ochos rise in his favor. Nevertheless she was after the death of her father consort in 358 BC. BC, like many other family members, from Ochos / Artaxerxes III. was murdered.

literature

  • Carsten Binder: Plutarch's Vita des Artaxerxes: A historical commentary. Walter de Gruyter, 2008, pp. 309-311.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Plutarch , Artoxerxes. 23 and 27.
  2. ↑ Plutarch, Artoxerxes. 26 and 30.
  3. ↑ Valerius Maximus 9, 2nd Ext. 7.
personal data
SURNAME Atossa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Achaemenidin, daughter and wife of the great king Artaxerxes II.
DATE OF BIRTH before 400 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 358 BC Chr.