Zarinaea also referred to as Zarinaia (

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who hist ...

: ;

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: ;

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ) or Zarina was a queen of one of the

tribes or of the

Dahae The Dahae, also known as the Daae, Dahas or Dahaeans (Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: , , , ; Latin: ; Chinese: ; Persian: ) were an ancient Eastern Iranian nomadic tribal confederation, who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia. Ident ...

of the 7th century BCE who is mentioned by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus.

Name

The name is the

form of the Greek name (), which is itself the Hellenisation of the

name , meaning "the golden one." is a

hypocoristic A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek: (), from (), 'to call by pet names', sometimes also ''hypocoristic'') or pet name is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as '' Izzy'' for ...

name formed out of the

Old Iranian The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped ...

term , meaning "golden," and the suffix .

Historicity

According to the

Iranologist Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

Rüdiger Schmitt, Zarinaia was a legendary figure, while the historian

Adrienne Mayor Adrienne Mayor (born 1946) is a historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist. Mayor specializes in ancient history and the study of "folk science", or how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world, and how these ...

suggests that she was a historical figure.

Life

Zarinaia was the sister and wife of the Saka king Cydraeus, but after he died while she was still young, she became the ruling queen of her tribe, among whom the women would fight alongside the men. Zarinaia was a strikingly beautiful woman whose beauty surpassed that of other Saka women, and she distinguished herself both as a warrior and a ruler, being considered a hero for defeating enemy tribes, and she reputedly founded multiple cities. After Cydraeus's death, Zarinaia had married the

Parthia Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...

n king Marmares, and at one point the

ns revolted against the

Medes The Medes ( Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, ...

and entrusted their country and their capital city to Zarinaia's people, after which a war broke out between the latter, led by Zarinaia herself, and the Medes. Various accounts of the war of the Sakas against the Medes exist: according to one version Zarinaia was knocked off her horse by Stryngaeus, the son-in-law of the Median king

Cyaxares Cyaxares (Median: ; Old Persian: ; Akkadian: ; Old Phrygian: ; grc, Κυαξαρης, Kuaxarēs; Latin: ; reigned 625–585 BCE) was the third king of the Medes. Cyaxares collaborated with the Babylonians to destroy the Assyrian Empire, a ...

(whom Diodorus named Astibaras in his account), who, struck by her beauty, allowed her to remount her horse and flee unharmed; according to another version, Zarinaia was wounded and captured by Stryngaeus, who listened to her pleas and spared her life. When Marmares later captured Stryngaeus, Zarinaia pleaded to her husband for his release because he had saved her life. And when Marmares was about to execute Stryngaeus, Zarinaia instead killed Marmares, freed Stryngaeus and the Median prisoners of war, and handed her land to the Medes. At the end of this war, the Parthians accepted Median rule, and peace was made between the Medes and the Saka. Stryngaeus himself had fallen in love with Zarinaia, and he visited her in the city Rhoxanake, where she greeted him, kissed him publicly, and rode in his chariot while chatting happily. When Stryngaeus told Zarinaia of his feelings, she gently rejected him and chastised him for his infidelity towards his own wife and concubines, after which Stryngaeus wrote a farewell letter to Zarinaia and decided to commit suicide. However the records beyond Stryngaeus's decision to kill himself have not been preserved, leaving his fate unknown. Thanks to Zarinaia's heroic achievements and because she had kept her people happy, after her death she was honoured by them with a huge 600 feet high pyramidal mound-tomb at the top of which was a golden statue.

Legacy

Several versions of the name, including '' Zarina'', ''Zareena'', or ''Zareen'', are common in

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...

, and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

. The name of Zarinaia has also been artificially revived among

Ossetians The Ossetians or Ossetes (, ; os, ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ, translit= ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ, label=Ossetic) are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the no ...

in the form ().

References

Sources