Parysatis

For the wife of Alexander the Great and daughter of Artaxerxes III, see Parysatis II.

Parysatis (/pəˈrɪsətᵻs/; Ancient Greek: Παρύσατις) was the 5th-century BC illegitimate daughter of Artaxerxes I, Emperor of Persia and Andia of Babylon.

She was the half-sister of Xerxes II, Sogdianus, and Darius II. She married her half-brother Darius[1] and had four sons: Artaxerxes II, Cyrus the Younger, Ostanes, and Oxathres.[2] Her favorite was Cyrus and it was on account of her influence that he was given supreme command in western Anatolia as a teenager in around 407 BC.[3] When her husband died, she supported her younger son Cyrus. Cyrus was defeated in the Battle of Cunaxa, and she blamed the satrap Tissaphernes for his death. She later had Tissaphernes assassinated.

Asteroid 888 Parysatis is named after her.

Notes

  1. ↑ Agesilaos , P Cartledge p186
  2. ↑ Plutarch, Lives, Life of Artaxerxes
  3. ↑ Agesilaos , P Cartledge p186


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