Amytis was a Persian

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...

 princess, daughter of king Xerxes I and queen Amestris

Amestris

Amestris or Amastris was the wife of Xerxes I of Persia, mother of king Artaxerxes I of Persia. She was known to have been poorly regarded by ancient Greek historians....

, and sister of king Artaxerxes I. She was given in marriage to the nobleman Megabyzus

Megabyzus

Megabyzus was a Persian general, son of Zopyrus, satrap of Babylon. His father was killed when the satrapy rebelled in 482 BC, and Megabyzus led the forces that recaptured the city, after which the statue of the god Marduk was destroyed to prevent future revolts. Megabyzus subsequently took part...

. Amytis and her mother are portrayed in Ctesias

Ctesias

Ctesias of Cnidus was a Greek physician and historian from Cnidus in Caria. Ctesias, who lived in the 5th century BC, was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he accompanied in 401 BC on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger....

' account as the most powerful women during Artaxerxes' reign.

Near 445 BC

445 BC

Year 445 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augurinus and Philo...

, her husband Megabyzus started a successful revolt in Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 against Artaxerxes I. Initially, Amytis stayed with the king during the war; however, she later participated, along with Amestris and the satrap

Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....

 Artarius, in the reconciliation negotiations between the rebel and the king. Notwithstanding this, Megabyzus again fell in disgrace and was expelled from the court and exiled to a town on the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

. After five years in exile, Magabyzus was forgiven and allowed to return to the court, again thanks to the intercession of Amytis and Amestris.

Amytis bore Megabyzus two sons: Zopyrus and Artyphius. After the death of his father and mother, Zopyrus fled to Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, where, according to Ctesias, he "was well received owing to the services his mother had rendered to the Athenians".

Greek sources portray Amytis as a licentious woman. According to Ctesias, during Xerxes' reign she was accused of adultery by Megabyzus. The same historian further affirms that, after her husband's death, she had a love affair with the Greek physician Apollonides of Cos

Apollonides of Cos

Apollonides of Cos was a Greek physician of the 5th century BC, and a central character of Ctesias' history . He served as royal physician of the Persian king Artaxerxes I. According to Ctesias, he had a secret love affair with princess Amytis...

, and that when the affair was discovered, Apollonides was tortured and put to death by queen mother

Queen mother

Queen Mother is a title or position reserved for a widowed queen consort whose son or daughter from that marriage is the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since at least 1577...

 Amestris. Dinon

Dinon

Dinon or Deinon of Colophon was a Greek historian and chronicler, the author of a history of Persia, the Persica , many fragments of which survive. The Suda mistakenly attributes this work to Dio Cassius...

, another Greek historian, describes Amytis as the most beautiful and licentious woman of Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. The most difficult challenge in using historians as Ctesias or Dinon as reliable sources is the fact that they tended to write amazing stories that would better appeal to their readers, often without much attention to historical rigor. The lack of primary sources makes it therefore impossible to have an accurate image of Amitis.

Classical references

• Photius' epitome
  Epitome
  An epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment....
  
   of Ctesias account: 24, 26, 33, 34, 42-45.
• Dinon
  Dinon
  Dinon or Deinon of Colophon was a Greek historian and chronicler, the author of a history of Persia, the Persica , many fragments of which survive. The Suda mistakenly attributes this work to Dio Cassius...
  
  , cited by Athenaeus of Naucratis: Deipnosophistae
  Deipnosophistae
  The Deipnosophistae may be translated as The Banquet of the Learned or Philosophers at Dinner or The Gastronomers...
  
  13. 89, where her name is misspelled as Anoutis.