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15 - Atossa

from Part III - The Iron Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2023

Guy D. Middleton
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Summary

Atossa was in every sense a Persian royal woman. She was a daughter of Cyrus the Great, who ruled the Persian Empire from 559 to 530 bc, a wife of her brother Cambyses, king from 530–522 bc, one of the many wives of Darius I, king from 522 to 486 bc, and the mother of Xerxes I, 486–465 BC (Figure 15).1 But her lasting fame in the western tradition comes from her appearances in two of the most well-known texts from ancient Greece, Aeschylus’ Persians and Herodotus’ Histories. Both of these works, one a tragedy play the other combining history and anthropology, present the war between the Greeks and Persians in the early fifth century bc – the wars marked by the famous battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. Atossa is portrayed as a powerful woman with great influence over the men in her life.

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Chapter
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Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
From the Palaeolithic to the Byzantines
, pp. 132 - 137
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Atossa
  • Guy D. Middleton, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Book: Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
  • Online publication: 19 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108646529.020
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  • Atossa
  • Guy D. Middleton, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Book: Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
  • Online publication: 19 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108646529.020
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Atossa
  • Guy D. Middleton, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Book: Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
  • Online publication: 19 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108646529.020
Available formats
×