Amestris

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This article is about the wife of Xerxes. For the fictional country in the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, see Amestris (Fullmetal Alchemist).

Amestris or Amastris (Friend in Old Persian) was the wife of Xerxes I of Persia, mother of king Artaxerxes I of Persia. Her reputation is very bad among ancient Greek historians.

Amestris was the daughter of Otanes, one of the seven conspirators who killed the Persian rebel king Gaumâta (September 22, 522 BCE). After this, Darius I the Great of Persia started his reign. According to the Greek researcher Herodotus (5th century BC), Otanes was honored with a diplomatic marriage. The new king married Otanes' daughter Phaedymia, and Otanes married a sister of Darius, who gave birth to Amestris.

When Darius died in 486 BC, Amestris was married to the crown prince, Xerxes and must have been in her thirties. Herodotus describes Queen consort Amestris as a cruel despot:

I am informed that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, when she had grown old, made return for her own life to the god who is said to be beneath the earth by burying twice seven children of Persians who were men of renown.

Herodotus, Histories 7.114.

It is not clear what lies behind this strange story. According to known records and accounts, human sacrifices were not permitted within the Persian religion. On the other hand, the subterranean god may be identical to Angra Mainyu, 'the hostile spirit', who was the eternal enemy of the supreme god Ahuramazda.

According to an oriental fairy tale told by Herodotus, Amestris was a very jealous woman. When Xerxes returned from the Greco-Persian Wars, he fell in love with the wife of one of his sons Crown Prince Darius, Artaynte. In return for her favors, she demanded a special cloak that Amestris had made for Xerxes. When the queen saw her daughter-in-law parading in the royal dress, she knew what was going on, and she ordered Artaynte's mother to be mutilated. (Herodotus offers no convincing explanation.) Artayntes' father, Xerxes' brother Masistes, decided to revolt against his king and brother, but was not successful.

Amestris remained influential after the death of her husband. During the reign of her son Artaxerxes I (465 -424 BC), another son, Achaemenes, was killed by Egyptian rebels. They and their Athenian allies were defeated by the general Megabyzus, who offered terms to the rebels to shorten the war. According to the Greek historian Ctesias (who is not known for his reliability but is our only source), Amestris was enraged because Megabyzus had not punished the murderers of her son. Initially, Artaxerxes did not allow her revenge, but after five years (c. 449 BC), he handed over to her the Egyptian leader, Inarus. A fragment of Ctesias handed down to us by Photius tells us "Inarus was impaled on three stakes; fifty of the Greeks, all that she could lay hands on, were decapitated."^[1]

Amestris may have died as late as 440 BC.

Given the similarity of names, and the parallel identification of Ahasuerus with her husband Xerxes I, it is possible that Amestris is the Biblical Esther. Wilson, who identified Ahasuerus with Xerxes I and Esther with Amestris, suggested that both "Amestris" and "Esther" derived from Akkadian words Ammi-Ishtar or Ummi-Ishtar ^[2]. Hoschander alternatively suggested Ishtar-udda-sha ("Ishtar is her light") as the origin with the possibility of -udda-sha being connected with the similarly sounding Hebrew name Hadassah.