Atossa

Atossa, ( ancient Greek Ἄτοσσα, Old Persian Hutausā / Hutauthā; * 550 BC; † 475 BC) was the eldest daughter of Cyrus II and the Cassandane; her name means "Good -giving ".

Life

She was first married to her half-brother of Cambyses II. Siblings marriages, common, already adopted in the kingdom of Elam from the Persians, the descent should keep themselves pure and were therefore ridiculed by the Greeks. She was considered the most educated woman in the court - she could write - and stood in front of the palace administration. After Cambyses II died, she was geehelicht from the lean Gaumata to be appointed after the death of Darius I as the chief consort and Head of the Harem.

Xerxes I, the firstborn son of Darius I and Atossa was the, sponsored by this as a great king, though Darius had older sons from a previous marriage to the daughter of Gobryas ( Artobazanes, Ariabignes and?). Xerxes I increasingly turned to the mages. This had the consequence that temple in Greece and Babylon were destroyed.

For the change in the religious policy of Darius to Xerxes, the influence of Atossa is blamed. Herodotus (VII, 3 ) claims about them, " Atossa did everything by what they wanted. " Herodotus also tells that it was the Greek physician Demokedes managed from one breast disease ( perhaps, for sure mastitis no breast cancer) to heal Atossa. However, Herodotus' representation is highly controversial. The Oxford classics scholars Malcolm Davies represents the hypothesis, the name of Atossa and over they transmitted messages were invented by Herodotus and the actual mother of Xerxes was unknown. Davies points out that Ctesias of Cnidus nothing of Atossa white and that her name was not on the Behistun inscription.

The Greek tragedian Aeschylus processed the shape of Atossa literary in his play The Persians. He calls her name in the text do not, but referred to it only as " the queen ". The only mention of her name before verse 159 may be from a scholium, which is not part of the original text, but was later inserted into it.

Sons of Atossa with Darius I.

• Xerxes I
• Achaemenes
• Hystaspes
• Masistes