The Persian Empire | Women in the Persian Empire (Lecture 20)

Lecture 20: Women in the Persian Empire enjoyed a great deal of economic and legal power compared to their sisters in Athens and elsewhere in the Greek world, and when Greek authors wrote about Persian women, their writing was shaped by their own society’s negative views of women. They emphasized the dangers of women’s power and often portrayed Persian kings as slaves to their women. Herodotus, for example, claims that Darius’s wife Atossa was the real force behind the invasion of Greece and later pulled strings to make sure her son Xerxes became king. Xerxes’s wife Amestris is said to have mutilated her rivals, buried some people alive, and crucified others. Parysatis, the half-sister and wife of Darius II, supposedly poisoned her daughter-in-law Stateira and made human sacrifices. Such stories helped Greek authors create a myth of Persian effeminacy and decadence that persists even today. To understand the realities of women’s lives in the Persian Empire, we need to look beyond the Greek tales of oversexed princesses and bloodthirsty queens. Fortunately, we can do so—thanks to the tablets from Persepolis and business documents from Babylonia.

Suggested Reading:
Brosius, Women in Ancient Persia.
Llewellyn-Jones, “Eunuchs and the Royal Harem in Achaemenid Persia.”

Lecture 21: https://www.bitchute.com/video/BEK5aeHOG97d/