Contemplating the beginnings of the Persian empire, I’m intrigued by Cassandane and Atossa, who seem to be respectively the wife and daughter of Cyrus II. Were they the means by which these first Persian emperors were identified as Achaemenid?, an i.d. of some pride that is still to describe those kings. It appears to be a family line that Cyrus II grabbed hold of with Cassandane and that Darius adopted by marrying Atossa (Cassandane’s daughter by Cyrus). But I can find little definitive or explicit about these intriguing women. What was life like for these women, and what was the nature of their relationships with Cyrus and Darius? Cyrus is said to have mourned Cassandane’s death greatly (and made everybody else mourn her for a time, too); and Atossa convinced Darius to make her son Xerxes (not his eldest son) his successor. The ancient Greek playwright, Aeschylus draws a complimentary portrait of Atossa in his Persae. Which reminds me: I’m eager to check out Stacy Schiff‘s Cleopatra: A Life. What a life!
