- Artazostre
Artazostre (or Artozostre) (
Old Persian *"Arta-zausri") was a Persian princess, daughter of kingDarius I (521 BC -485 BC ) byArtystone , daughter ofCyrus the Great .According to the Greek historian
Herodotus (VI, 43) Artazostre was given in marriage toMardonius , young son of the nobleGobryas , not much before he took the command of the Persian army inThrace andMacedon (c. 493/492 BC ).Artazostre seems not to be mentioned by name in the
Persepolis Fortification Tablets (administrative documents found atPersepolis ), but there are references (in tablets dated on the year498 BC ) to a "wife of Mardonius, daughter of the king", who received rations for a trip she made with Gobryas and a woman called "Radušnamuya" or "Ardušnamuya", perhaps Gobryas' wife [Lewis, p. 354; Brosius, pp. 25, 71, 92 ] . However, another interpretation of the text suggests that "Ardušnamuya" was actually the anonymous "wife of Mardonius" [See Lendering.]Mardonius had a son, probably by Artazostre, named
Artontes .Notes
References
*Brosius, M: "Women in Ancient Persia, 559-331 BC", Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998.
*Kellens, J: [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v2f6/v2f6a022.html "Artazostra"] , inEncyclopaedia Iranica
*Lendering, J: " [http://www.livius.org/man-md/mardonius/mardonius.html Mardonius] ", in http://www.livius.org.
*Lewis, D: "Persians in Herodotus", in "Selected Papers in Greek and Near Eastern History", pp. 345-362, Cambridge University Press, 1997. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521522110&id=V_w5AaqqiGAC&pg=PP1&lpg=PP11&dq=artazostra&sig=CEu5SjAqhoOf7im77OcAk6BO_Nc]
* [http://persepolistablets.blogspot.com/ Persepolis Fortification Archive Project]
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