20 Women in the Persian Empire

W omen 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 societys negative views of women. They emphasized the dangers of womens power and often portrayed Persian kings as slaves to their women. Herodotus, for example, claims that Dariuss wife Atossa was the real force behind the invasion of Greece and later pulled strings to make sure her son Xerxes became king. Xerxess wife Amestris is said to have mutilated her rivals, buried some people alive, and cruci ed others. Parysatis, the halfsister and wife of Darius II, supposedly poisoned her daughterinlaw Stateira and made human sacri ces. .