Daisy Dunn tells the story of the Greco-Persian Wars through the deeds of the extraordinary female figures who shaped them
Though I conquered you in battle while you still lived,” began Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae, a nomadic tribe that ranged the Eurasian steppe, “You have utterly destroyed me.” The man she addressed was Cyrus the Great, founding king of the first Persian ‘Achaemenid’ empire – or at least, he had been. Now, his severed head dangled from the queen’s hands in a blood-soaked bag.
We can only imagine how deeply this episode haunted Cyrus’s daughter Atossa. It is hardly surprising that when her husband, Darius I of Persia, set out to invade the territory of an equally aggressive nomadic tribe 17 years later, in about 513 BC, she did her best to dissuade him. Darius hoped making war on the Scythians would strengthen his empire’s eastern border. Would it not be better, Atossa asked him, to confront the Greeks instead?
Darius disregarded Atossa’s advice. Little did he know, however, that he would one day be forced to do precisely what she’d suggested. Following a revolt of city-states, the Persians went into battle with the Greeks, triggering the outbreak of the Greco-Persian Wars.
The wars between the two powers in the first half of the fifth century BC were some of the most destructive in classical history. Fought across land and sea, the Greco-Persian Wars changed the landscape of the two mighty empires. They resulted in victory for the Greek city-states, though at a considerable cost. While the historical narrative of these events is populated by the men who led the various battles, women played important roles, which have too often been overlooked.
What follows is an account of the wars foregrounded, as far as is possible, by the women who were there.
Power and persuasion
The story of the Greco-Persian Wars through the eyes of women begins with Atossa. Like many eastern kings, her husband Darius was polygamous, but of the six principal women in his harem, Atossa was the most politically engaged. According to Herodotus, the premier historian of the wars and a citizen of Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum in Turkey), Atossa had “the totality of power” at court. This might have been an exagger
