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.

Capture and marriage

When Darius III began a military campaign against the invading army of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

, 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 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), southe ...

. In the spring of 324 BCE, Drypetis was married to Hephaestion, 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 ...

. Soon after, Drypetis was widowed when Hephaestion accompanied Alexander to Ecbatana 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 ...

, 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 (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, ''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 ...

*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 {{Asia-royal-stub