Histories

Son-in-law of Histiaeus, tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras ruled the Ionian city while Histiaeus was serving as counselor in Darius’ court at Susa, the Persian capital. After a failed attempt to take power in Naxos with Persian support, Aristagoras, was encouraged by Histiaeus to lead a revolt of the Ionian cities, Cyprus, Caria, and the Greek towns in the Hellespont against the Persian empire. The revolt took place between 499-494 BCE with limited support from the Athenians. After the insurrection was suppressed, Aristagoras fled to Myrcinus, a settlement in Thrace founded by Histiaeus, where he was killed. Herodotus claims that Aristagoras, fearful of Darius’ wrath after the failed Naxian coup d’etat, incited the Ionian rebellion to protect his personal position. His ouster of the Ionian tyrants and creation of popular governments in the area was calculated, rather than proceeding from the love of political liberty.

Athenian politician and rival of Themistocles, by whose efforts he was previously ostracized from Athens, Aristides assisted the Athenian general in convincing the Peloponnesians that a naval battle at Salamis was unavoidable. At Plataea, he commanded the Athenian contingent of hoplites. Herodotus considers Aristides “the best and most just man that Athens ever produced” (474).

Artabanus, Darius’ brother and Xerxes’ uncle, served as an influential and trusted counselor to both Persian kings. A “wise adviser” to the despots in Herodotus’ narrative, he tried to dissuade Darius from invading Scythia and Xerxes from his campaign on Greece. Though, at first, Xerxes was enraged at Artabanus’ admonishment, he later realized the prudence of his uncle’s counsel and decided to cancel the invasion. A series of dreams Xerxes and Artabanus then had convinced them that the campaign was favored by the gods and must proceed. Artabanus continued to have forebodings about the expedition, however, and prophetically warned Xerxes that the Ionians would be faithless allies, a premonition that proved true at the Battle of Mycale. Xerxes sent Artabanus back to Susa before the Persian forces crossed the Hellespont en route to Greece.

Artabazus commanded the Parthians during Xerxes’ invasion of Greece and escorted the king to the Hellespont during the Persian retreat after the Battle of Salamis. He warned Mardonius against attacking the Greek position at Plataea but was ignored by the Persian commander. Fearing a catastrophic defeat, he held his troops out of the battle, and as soon as the tide turned against the Persians, made a hasty retreat to Thessaly. Reaching the Hellespont, he crossed over to Asia with a fraction of his squadron, many of whom had been killed by Thracians or died of starvation. In Herodotus’ narrative, he functions as a wise adviser to Mardonius whose warning goes unheeded.

Brother of Darius, Artaphernes was the Persian governor of Sardis circa 510-492 BCE. He was instrumental in suppressing the Ionian revolt and executed the Milesian tyrant Histiaeus, an instigator of the rebellion. After the revolt was put down, Artaphernes forced the Ionians to submit to arbitration to resolve their internecine disputes and he established fair tax assessments for their territories. Artaphernes had a son by the same name who, along with Datis, led the Persian invasion of Greece in 490 BCE that culminated in the Persian defeat in the Battle of Marathon.

Trusted adviser to Xerxes, Artemisia became tyrant of Halicarnassus after her husband died. She commanded five ships from Halicarnassus and Cos during Xerxes’ invasion of Greece in 480 BCE and distinguished herself at the Battle of Artemisium. Alone among the Persian naval commanders, Artemisia advised Xerxes not to engage the Greek fleet at Salamis, arguing that the Hellenes were superior seamen and a naval defeat could compromise the safety of the Persian army. Herodotus notes that during the chaotic Persian defeat at Salamis, Artemisia saved her vessel from a pursuing Athenian trireme by ramming a Persian warship lying in her path. Xerxes mistook her target for an enemy ship and praised her military prowess. After Salamis, Artemisia advised the king to return to Asia and allow Mardonius to pursue a land-based campaign against the Greeks, the success of which would bring honor to Xerxes while failure would merely discredit Mardonius. Artemisia represents a marvel in Herodotus: a woman fighter and regent, known for her courage, skill, and wisdom, who becomes one of Xerxes most trusted counselors.

King of Media from 585-550 BCE, Astyages was Croesus’ brother-in-law and Cyrus’ maternal grandfather. During his reign, Persia was a subject nation of the Median empire. Astyages had premonitory dreams that his daughter’s child would usurp his throne and ordered the newborn’s death to prevent this. The child—who was Cyrus—survived and led the Persians in a successful revolt against the Median army, encouraged by Astyages’ lieutenant, Harpagus, whose own child had been murdered and fed to him by the Median king.

The son of Cyrus, Cambyses ruled Persia from 530-522 BCE. He conquered Egypt but his invasion of Ethiopia was disastrous; the ill-equipped Persian army was forced to resort to cannibalism faced with starvation in the African desert. Arrogant and headstrong, Cambyses murdered his brother and sister and desecrated Egyptian sanctuaries and tombs, among other crimes. Herodotus strongly condemns the outrageous behavior of the king, whom he suggests was possibly epileptic and evidently insane. Cambyses died after accidentally wounding himself, briefly recovering his sanity before death.

A member of the powerful Alcmaeonid family of Athens, Cleisthenes rose to power in 508 BCE after Hippias, the son of the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus, was ousted by the Spartan king Cleomenes. Cleisthenes is considered the father of Athenian democracy for instituting political reforms that included reorganizing the traditional tribes of the city, which increased the number of franchised citizens, and adopting isonomia, literally, “equality before the law,” as the form of Athenian government.

King of Sparta from circa 519 BCE to circa 490 BCE, Cleomenes pursued an aggressive foreign policy, particularly against Athens. Deceived by the Delphic priestess, who had been bribed by the powerful Alcmaeonid family of Athens, he expelled the tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratus, from Athens. He then tried unsuccessfully to install Isagoras as tyrant in the city, and after that attempt failed, conspired to return Hippias to power. Cleomenes refused Aristagoras’ request to support the Ionian revolt after the Milesian tried to bribe him with 50 talents of silver. Cleomenes conspired to have his co-regent, Demaratus, deposed in response to the latter’s slander of him. Cleomenes eventually fled Sparta for Arcadia when news of the conspiracy spread among the Spartans. The Spartans recalled him, fearing he intended to lead an Arcadian attack against the city, but he was imprisoned when he began acting erratically. Herodotus reports that Cleomenes, by this time apparently insane, died of self-inflicted wounds in captivity.

King of Lydia from 560-547 BCE, Croesus is the first foreign (or “barbarian”) monarch to have extensive dealings with the Greek cities, according to Herodotus. The story of Croesus illustrates Herodotus’ moralistic theory of history. Croesus was descended from Gyges, who usurped the Lydian throne by killing Candaules of the Heraclid dynasty. After conquering the Greeks living on the western coast of Asia Minor as well as most of the western half of the Anatolian peninsula, Croesus decided to attack Cyrus, king of Persia. He was motivated by a desire to expand his empire and to punish Cyrus, who had destroyed the Median empire ruled by Croesus’ brother-in-law, Astyages. Croesus sought advice from the Delphic oracle, who prophesied that if he were to attack Cyrus, a great empire would be destroyed. Emboldened, Croesus engaged the Persians but was defeated and captured. Impressed by Croesus’ remorse and wisdom, Cyrus rescued him from the funeral pyre on which Croesus was about to be immolated and kept him as an advisor during the rest of his campaigns.

The narrative of Croesus illustrates Herodotus’ claim that the gods envy, and often destroy, human prosperity. Proud of his remarkable wealth, Croesus expected the Athenian law-giver Solon to declare the Lydian king the happiest of men. Solon replied that no one can be accounted happy until his death, because human fortune is notoriously mutable. Croesus rejected Solon’s admonishment, and shortly thereafter, his son died in a hunting accident that was presaged by a dream forewarning the calamity. Croesus’ misinterpretation of the Delphic oracle and his defeat by Cyrus exemplify Herodotus’ belief that divine punishment, or nemesis, follows overweening pride, or hybris. At the same time, Croesus’ destiny was predetermined, Herodotus claims, because the Delphic oracle had earlier proclaimed that the Heraclids would have their revenge for Gyges’ murder of Candaules in five generations’ time. Croesus’ role in Herodotus’ narrative assimilates elements of the tragic heroes of contemporary Athenian drama, who undergo a reversal of fortune and belatedly recognize the fatal flaw that leads to their undoing. As trusted counsellor to Cyrus after his capture, however, Croesus embodies the wisdom associated with Solon and the philosophic truth of Solon’s discourse concerning happiness.

King of Persia from 559-530 BCE, Cyrus led the Persians in revolt against the Medes, defeating Astyages, the Median king, in 550 BCE. Under Cyrus, the Persian empire expanded to include Lydia, Ionia, Media, Assyria, and Babylonia. Cyrus died in a horrifically bloody battle with the Massagetae, who inhabited territory to the east of the Caspian Sea, in modern Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan. His downfall follows the pattern of reversal of fortune exemplified by Croesus and other notable figures in Herodotus’ narrative. The Massagetae lived across the river Araxes; for Herodotus, the crossing of natural boundaries such as rivers or mountain ranges symbolizes transgressing the natural limits to human ambition and invites divine retribution.

Cyrus’ birth and childhood are the stuff of folklore, incorporating motifs found in the lives of legendary heroes such as Moses, Hercules, and Perseus. Astyages, Cyrus’ grandfather, dreamt that his daughter urinated so copiously that it swamped his city and flooded Asia. The Magi were so troubled by this dream that Astyages gave his daughter in marriage to a Persian of lower status, rather than allow her to remain in Media. When his daughter became pregnant, Astyages dreamt that a vine grew from her womb that spread over all of Asia. Frightened, he ordered that the newborn be taken from his daughter and killed. The command was not fulfilled, however, and the child was reared by a shepherd, whose wife’s stillborn son was substituted for the king’s grandson as proof that the order of infanticide had been obeyed. Cyrus’ identity was discovered when the precocious child displayed a regal demeanor before the king when questioned for whipping a friend during a game. The Magi reassured Astyages that the boy was no longer a threat to him, and he was reunited with his true parents in Persia, where he eventually rose to military leadership. Cyrus was encouraged by Harpagus, Astyages’ lieutenant, to attack the Median king and liberate the Persians, who had been subject to the Medes for many years. Upon capturing Astyages, Cyrus treated him with consideration and kept him at his court until he died.

Herodotus indicates that he knows of four versions of Cyrus’ history, and offers what he considers the least exaggerated account of his life. Other ancient sources provide totally different versions of Cyrus’ death.

Son of Hystaspes, Darius ruled the Persian Empire at the height of its power and extent, from 521-486 BCE. He ascended to the throne after overthrowing a Magian usurper who impersonated Cambyses’ brother at the royal court in Susa. Darius suppressed a Babylonian rebellion and pursued notable campaigns in Egypt, India, and Scythia before the Ionian revolt. After suppressing this rebellion, he entrusted Mardonius with an invasion of Greece intended to punish Athens and Eretria for their support of the Ionians. The Persian fleet was wrecked in a storm off Mount Athos in northern Greece, and Mardonius was forced to return to Asia. In 490 BCE, Darius launched a naval invasion of Greece under his nephew Artaphernes (the younger) and Datis; the Persians were defeated by the Athenians and Plataeans at the Battle of Marathon and again forced to retreat. Darius was planning a larger invasion of Greece, with himself as commander, when he died in 486 BCE.

King of Sparta from circa 510 to 491 BCE, Demaratus opposed the aggressively anti-Athenian policy of his co-regent, Cleomenes, and was ultimately deposed when the latter bribed the Delphic oracle to proclaim that Demaratus was not a legitimate claimant to the throne. Demaratus ultimately fled to the Persian court and accompanied Xerxes on his invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. According to Herodotus, Demaratus warned the Persian king of the valor, character, and love of freedom of the Spartans, who he insisted would fight the foreign despot no matter the cost. Though Demaratus allied himself with the Persians, Herodotus depicts him favorably as an undeserving victim of Cleomenes’ Machiavellianism.

Eurybiades, a Spartan, was chosen by the Peloponnesians to lead the naval forces of the Greek confederacy at Artemisium and Salamis during Xerxes’ invasion of Greece in 490 BCE. Discovering that the Persian fleet at Aphetae, across the strait from Artemisium, was larger than expected, Eurybiades consented to the Greeks’ desire to abandon their position and sail southward to protect the Peloponnese. The Athenian general Themistocles, at the instigation of the Euboeans, bribed Eurybiades to remain and fight a naval engagement to protect the inhabitants of the island. After the Battle of Salamis, the decisive naval victory for the Greeks that followed the burning of Athens, Eurybiades was awarded the prize of valor, an olive wreath, by the Spartans.

King of Lydia from 716-678 BCE, Gyges usurped the throne by murdering Candaules, whom he served as a bodyguard. Candaules insisted that Gyges see the beautiful naked body of the queen, concealing him behind a curtain. The queen, however, caught sight of Gyges as he escaped the royal bedroom and insisted that he either kill the king and take her as his wife, or die himself for the impropriety. Gyges chose the former, and thus the Lydian throne passed from the Heraclids to the Mermnadae. The Delphic oracle legitimated Gyges’ claim to throne but foretold that the Heraclids would have their revenge five generations later, which occurred when Croesus was deposed by Cyrus.

The story of Gyges and Candaules highlights the despotic character of the barbarian monarch in Herodotus’ text and the regulation of sexual desire in the ancient Greek world. Infatuated with his wife, Candaules proposes an impropriety that horrifies Gyges. His invitation to Gyges to see his wife naked represents a violation of the social order, because, as Gyges exclaims to Candaules, a man should only see what is his own, and a woman without clothes is a woman without modesty. The queen does not object to the specific act of Gyges’ viewing her naked, but rather that he does so without legal claim to her. Thus, she is satisfied with either Candaules’ or Gyges’ death, assisting the latter in murdering her husband and accepting him as her new consort.

Born around 485 BCE in Halicarnassus, a city on the southwest coast of Asia Minor, Herodotus is believed to have traveled extensively around the eastern Mediterranean and Greece, including visits to Egypt and Scythia. His traditional biography suggests that he spent time in Athens and was a friend of Sophocles, the tragedian. In Athens, Herodotus likely read from the Histories at public assemblies; ancient sources suggest he received a stipend from the Athenians for his work. He is said to have participated in the founding of Thurii, an Athenian-led colony, in southern Italy in 443 BCE. Herodotus died around 425 BCE.

Son of the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus, Hippias succeeded his father as ruler of the city in 527 BCE. After his brother, Hipparchus, was assassinated by Harmodius and Aristogeiton in 514 BCE, Hippias’ governance grew increasingly oppressive. Cleomenes, the king of Sparta, expelled Hippias from Athens in 510 BCE and tried to reinstate him in 504 BCE, realizing that Alcmaeonids had bribed the Delphic priestess to encourage Sparta to overthrow the Pisistratids. After the attempted restoration failed, Hippias went to Darius’ court and allied himself with the Persian king. He accompanied the Persian campaign as an advisor in 490 BCE and recommended that they land at Marathon to engage the Athenian forces.

Tyrant of Miletus, Histiaeus earned Darius’ favor during the Persian invasion of Scythia when the Ionian rejected the Scythians’ request to destroy a bridge over the Danube, thus allowing the Persian army to evacuate. Darius rewarded Histiaeus but later recalled him to Susa on the advice of Artaphernes, who suspected Histiaeus of insurrection. While in Susa, Histiaeus secretly encouraged his son-in-law Aristagoras, deputy ruler of Miletus, to foment rebellion against Persia. After Aristagoras was defeated, Histiaeus fled to Chios and then Lesbos, which equipped him with several vessels with which he raided merchant shipping at the mouth of the Hellespont. Histiaeus was captured in a battle with Persian forces on the mainland opposite Lesbos; Artaphernes executed him and sent his head to Darius. 

Son of the Spartan king Anaxandridas, Leonidas assumed the throne after his brother, Cleomenes, died. Leonidas led the combined Greek forces against the Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae during the second Persian War (480 BCE). After the Greek position had been flanked by Persian troops, Leonidas dismissed most of the Greek allies, but chose to remain with a small contingent of Spartans, Thespians, and Thebans to oppose the numerically superior enemy. Herodotus records that Leonidas wished to win a glory for the Spartans that would be the envy of all Greece. All the Spartans except one (or possibly two) were killed during the struggle that ensued; the Thebans, who had accompanied Leonidas reluctantly, surrendered to Xerxes. The Persians found Leonidas’ body after the battle; Xerxes, enraged at the defiance of the Spartan king, ordered the head cut off and put on a stake.

A Spartan king who superseded Demaratus on the throne after the latter was deposed, Leotychides commanded the Greek fleet which defeated the Persians at the Battle of Mycale (479 BCE). Leotychides later commanded an expedition against Thessaly, during which he was caught red-handed accepting a bribe. He was brought to trial, banished, and died in Tegea. Herodotus suggests that his ignominious end was retribution for his crimes against Demaratus.

Commander of the Persian infantry under Darius and Xerxes, Mardonius’ initially successful invasion of northern Greece in 492 BCE was thwarted by a storm that destroyed the Persian fleet off Mount Athos. As a result of this failure, Darius deprived him of command and appointed Datis and Artaphernes to lead the Persian expedition of 490 BCE that was defeated by the Athenians at Marathon. Mardonius encouraged Xerxes to pursue his campaign against Greece in 480 BCE, and, after the Persian defeat at Salamis, remained in Thessaly with 300,000 select troops to pursue hostilities against the allied Greeks the following year. Mardonius sought an alliance with Athens, hoping to use its fleet in his projected attack on the Peloponnesians, but was rebuffed by the Athenians. Aided by the Boeotians, he invaded Attica, burned Athens, and withdrew to Boeotia to await the Peloponnesian forces marching to intercept him. In order to break a stalemate between the Greeks and Persians encamped at Plataea, each having received oracles to fight a defensive battle, he challenged the Spartans to direct combat with his Persian squadron. He was killed during the ensuing fray, his death fulfilling the Delphic oracle that advised the Spartans to accept whatever compensation Xerxes offered for the killing of Leonidas at Thermopylae.

Miltiades was a prominent Athenian citizen who served as commander of the Athenian and Plataean forces at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. Prior to this he had been tyrant in the Chersonese peninsula (the Hellespont) and had narrowly escaped from the Phoenician fleet sent by Darius to subdue the area in the aftermath of the Ionian revolt. He also captured the islands of Lemnos and Imbros, which he ceded to Athens. Miltiades won great esteem among the Athenians for his brilliance and fortitude at Marathon, and with a fleet of 70 ships granted to him by the city, attacked the island of Paros seeking retribution for a personal grievance. He was severely injured during the siege and returned to Athens where he was put on trial for defrauding the Athenians. The jury voted to fine, rather than execute, him. Miltiades died from gangrene as a result of his wound shortly thereafter. 

Nitocris was a Babylonian queen whom Herodotus singles out for her intelligence and engineering accomplishments fortifying the ancient city. She diverted the Euphrates to slow its approach to Babylon and built a bridge connecting the two halves of the city. Her son, Labynetos, was defeated when Cyrus besieged Babylon during his campaign against Assyria.

Spartan commander of the Greek forces at Plataea, Pausanias defeated the Persian general Mardonius and destroyed nearly the entire Persian army in the critical battle of 479 BCE. He refused to desecrate the body of the Persian commander after the battle. Following the defeat of the Persians, he led a siege of Thebes to punish its leaders who sided with barbarians. Herodotus alludes to Pausanias’ disgraceful end, which occurred after the events described in the Histories.

Tyrant of Corinth from 627-585 BCE, Periander is described by Herodotus as a savagely violent ruler who murdered his wife and sexually defiled her corpse. The death of his mother estranged Periander’s son, Lycophron, from his father. Late in life, Periander tried to make amends with his son, who was now living in Corcyra, a colony of Corinth with which it was on hostile terms. Lycophron rejected his father’s pleas to return to Corinth and was eventually murdered by the Corcyraeans to prevent Periander from coming to the city, which he promised to do in exchange for Lycophron assuming power in Corinth.

Mother of Arcesilaus, a late 6th century BCE ruler of Cyrene, a Greek city on the coast of Libya. After her son’s murder by the inhabitants of Barca, a neighboring town, Pheretima implored the Persian governor of Egypt to punish the Barcaeans. The Persians sacked the city and Pheretima had the bodies of her son’s killers impaled on posts around the town’s walls. Pheretima later died a horrible death in Egypt, riven by parasites. Herodotus offers her as an example of the gods’ punishment of humans exacting excessive vengeance on their enemies.

Pisistratus was a military hero and three-time tyrant (unelected autocrat) of Athens during the 6th century BCE. Herodotus describes two famous ruses Pisistratus used to gain power. First, he wounded himself and appealed to the Athenians to appoint him a bodyguard, claiming he was fleeing from enemies who tried to kill him. The Athenians granted him a private force with whose help he took control of the Acropolis. After being evicted from the city shortly thereafter, he concocted a scheme to dupe the citizens into thinking the goddess Athena wanted him reinstated as ruler. A tall, beautiful woman, dressed in armor as the goddess, rode beside him in a chariot to the city’s citadel. Believing her to be the goddess, the Athenians welcomed Pisistratus back and he regained power. Herodotus says that Pisistratus ruled effectively and moderately, and purified the sacred island of Delos, birthplace of Apollo, by reinterring remains out of sight of the sanctuary.

Polycrates became tyrant of the Aegean island of Samos in 535 BCE and formed an alliance with the Egyptian king Amasis. He quickly achieved a run of economic and military successes and aspired to extend his dominion over all of Ionia through control of the Aegean Sea. Concerned about the immense luck Polycrates enjoyed, Amasis advised him to discard his most valuable possession to protect himself against the envy of the gods. Polycrates thereupon cast his favorite ring into the sea. Several days later, a Samian fisherman caught a magnificent fish and presented it to the ruler as tribute. When the fish was cooked, Polycrates’ signet ring was found inside. Amasis thought this was a bad omen, because even what the king deliberately threw away came back to him. He ended his pact with Polycrates, so as not to be distressed when the inevitable calamity eventually fell upon the tyrant king. Polycrates was later invited to Sardis under false pretenses, murdered by its Persian governor, and crucified in public after his death. The story reiterates Herodotus’ beliefs about the cyclical nature of human fortune.

Ruler of Egypt from 664-610 BCE, Psammetichus succeeded the Reign of the Twelve Kings, which followed a period of Ethiopian rule in Egypt. Assisted by Ionian and Carian mercenaries, Psammetichus unified Egypt under one monarch. As a result of their aid, Greek settlements were established in Egypt for the first time, which Herodotus credits for the precise knowledge the Greeks have had about Egyptian events since the reign of Psammetichus.

Early 6th century BCE statesman of Athens, Solon instituted constitutional reforms in Athens that laid the groundwork for the later development of ancient Greek democracy. A poet and philosopher, he travelled after his archonship, visiting Croesus in Sardis. In Book 1 of the Histories, Herodotus credits Solon with a theological explanation for the mutability of human fortune; namely, that the gods envy human happiness and wish to destroy it. Solon’s discussion with Croesus about the nature of happiness, and Croesus’ subsequent fate, exemplify Solon’s moral philosophy.

Athenian statesman and general, Themistocles led the Athenian fleet during Xerxes’ invasion of Greece in 480-479 BCE. An ambitious, brilliant, and cunning politician, he persuaded the Athenians in 483 BCE to donate the proceeds from the silver mines at Laurium toward the construction of 200 ships to be used against Athens’ rival, Aegina. The fleet formed the backbone of the Greek confederacy’s naval defense against Xerxes, fighting major battles at Artemisium and Salamis in 480 BCE, the latter a decisive victory for the Greeks. Herodotus largely credits Themistocles with the salvation of Greece; by means of his sagacity, patriotism, and oratorical skill, coupled with bribery, coercion, and subterfuge, he prevented the Hellenic alliance from fragmenting in the face of Xerxes’ seemingly invincible onslaught and immense fleet. Before and after the Greek victory at Salamis, Themistocles made deceptive overtures to the Persian king, hoping to win his favor in case his own political fortunes should change. Ostracized by the Athenians after Xerxes’ defeat, Themistocles eventually sought protection at the Persian court of Artaxerxes and was given the governorship of Magnesia.

Tomyris was queen of the Massagetae, a people possibly associated with the Scythians living to the east of the Caspian Sea. After conquering the Babylonians, Cyrus turned his attention to this region and offered a proposal of marriage to Tomyris, hoping by this means to acquire her realm. She spurned the offer and advised Cyrus to satisfy himself with his previous territorial acquisitions. On the advice of Croesus, Cyrus employed a ruse to annihilate one third of the Massagetae forces and capture Tomyris’ son. Enraged, Tomyris engaged and defeated Cyrus’ army in a battle that Herodotus describes as the most violent ever fought by barbarians. Cyrus was killed and his head brought to Tomyris, who stuffed it in an animal skin full of blood. The courageous warrior-queen Tomyris, living on the primitive fringe of the civilized world, embodies the geographical and sexual other in Herodotus’ narrative and is the instrument of nemesis that destroys Cyrus. At once intelligent, female, barbarian, savage, and maternal, she promises the arrogant Persian king she will glut his thirst for blood, and her defilement of his corpse’s head is a cautionary finale to Herodotus’ account of Cyrus.