Drypetis (died 323 BCE; sometimes Drypteis) was the daughter of
Stateira I
Stateira ( gr, Στάτειρα; 370 BC - early 332 BC) was a queen of Persia as the wife of Darius III of Persia of the Achaemenid dynasty.
She was possibly the sister of her husband. She accompanied her husband while he went to war. It was ...
and
Darius III of Persia
Darius III ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; c. 380 – 330 BC) was the last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC.
Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Dariu ...
. Drypetis was born between 350 and 345 BCE, and, along with her sister
Stateira II
Stateira ( el, Στάτειρα; died 323 BC), possibly also known as Barsine, was the daughter of Stateira and Darius III of Persia. After her father's defeat at the Battle of Issus, Stateira and her sisters became captives of Alexander ...
, was a princess of the
Achaemenid dynasty
The Achaemenid dynasty ( Old Persian: ; Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) was an ancient Persian royal dynasty that ruled the Achaemenid Empire, an Iranian empire that stretched from Egypt and Southeastern Europe in the west to the In ...
.
Capture and marriage
When Darius III began a military campaign against the invading army of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
, he was accompanied by Drypetis, along with her sister, her mother, and her grandmother
Sisygambis
Sisygambis (died 323 BCE) was the mother of Darius III of Persia, whose reign was ended during the wars of Alexander the Great. After she was captured by Alexander at the Battle of Issus, she became devoted to him, and Alexander referred to her a ...
.
[Heckel (2006), p. 116.] Following the
Battle of Issus
The Battle of Issus (also Issos) occurred in southern Anatolia, on November 5, 333 BC between the Hellenic League led by Alexander the Great and the Achaemenid Empire, led by Darius III. It was the second great battle of Alexander's conquest of ...
in 333 BCE, Darius fled and his family was captured by Macedonian troops. Alexander personally met with the women and promised to provide
dowries
A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...
for Drypetis and Stateira.
[
Although Darius tried repeatedly to ransom his family, Alexander kept them with him until 331 BCE when Drypetis and her sister were sent to ]Susa
Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...
to learn the Greek language
Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...
.[
In the spring of 324 BCE, Drypetis was married to ]Hephaestion
Hephaestion ( grc, Ἡφαιστίων ''Hephaistíon''; c. 356 BC – October 324 BC), son of Amyntor, was an ancient Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "by far the dearest of all the ...
, a general in Alexander's army, during the Susa weddings
The Susa weddings was a mass wedding arranged by Alexander the Great in 324 BC in the Persian city of Susa.
Alexander intended to symbolically unite the Persian and Greek cultures, by taking a Persian wife himself and celebrating a mass wedding wi ...
.[ Soon after, Drypetis was widowed when Hephaestion accompanied Alexander to ]Ecbatana
Ecbatana ( peo, 𐏃𐎥𐎶𐎫𐎠𐎴 ''Hagmatāna'' or ''Haŋmatāna'', literally "the place of gathering" according to Darius I's inscription at Bisotun; Persian: هگمتانه; Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭧𐭬𐭲𐭠𐭭; Parthian: 𐭀𐭇 ...
and upon arriving in autumn, died after falling ill with a severe fever.[Arrian 7.14.3]
Death
Many historians accept Plutarch's account that Drypetis was killed in 323 BCE alongside her sister Stateira. Alexander had died earlier that year, and his other widow, Roxana
Roxana (c. 340 BC – 310 BC, grc, Ῥωξάνη; Old Iranian: ''*Raṷxšnā-'' "shining, radiant, brilliant"; sometimes Roxanne, Roxanna, Rukhsana, Roxandra and Roxane) was a Sogdian or a Bactrian princess whom Alexander the Great married a ...
, wished to remove her potential rivals.[Heckel (2006), p. 116.][
Alternatively, historian Elizabeth Donnelly Carney claims that Drypetis was not killed by Roxana as Drypetis would not have borne a child by Alexander and as such, would have been of little threat to Roxana's position.][Carney (2000), p. 111.] Instead, Carney theorizes that Roxana killed Parysatis II
Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III of Persia, married Alexander the Great in 324 BC at the Susa weddings. She may have been murdered by Alexander's first wife, Roxana, in 323 BC.
Early life
After her father's murder in 3 ...
(daughter of Artaxerxes III of Persia
Ochus ( grc-gre, Ὦχος ), known by his dynastic name Artaxerxes III ( peo, 𐎠𐎼𐎫𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ἀρταξέρξης), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 359/58 to 338 BC. He was the son and successor of A ...
), who was likely also a wife of Alexander.[Carney (2000), p. 110.]
Portrayals of Drypetis in fiction
* Drypetis is one of the main characters in Stephanie Thornton's 2015 novel ''The Conqueror's Wife'' ().
* Indian actress Shalini Sharma plays the character of Drypetis in the 2017 Indian TV series Porus
Porus or Poros ( grc, Πῶρος ; 326–321 BC) was an ancient Indian king whose territory spanned the region between the Jhelum River (Hydaspes) and Chenab River (Acesines), in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. He is only ment ...
.
Notes
References
Ancient sources
*Arrian
Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; la, Lucius Flavius Arrianus; )
was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period.
''The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best ...
, ''The Campaigns of Alexander''
Modern sources
*
*
*
External links
*Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...
*Drypetis, daughter of Darius and wife of Hephaestion i
Pothos.org
323 BC deaths
4th-century BC women
People associated with Alexander the Great
Murdered royalty
Women in Hellenistic warfare
People who died under the regency of Perdiccas
Achaemenid princesses
Year of birth unknown
4th-century BC Iranian people
Women in ancient Near Eastern warfare
Darius III
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