Drypetis or Drypteis (died 323 BCE), is a princess of the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia.

Drypteis was born between 350 and 345 BCE, the daughter of Stateira I

Stateira I

Stateira I was the wife of Darius III of Persia of the Achaemenid dynasty. She was known as the most beautiful woman on Earth and, as was the custom for royal Persian women, accompanied her husband while he went to war. It was because of this that she was captured by Alexander the Great after the...

 and Darius III of Persia

Darius III of Persia

Darius III , also known by his given name of Codomannus, was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia from 336 BC to 330 BC....

. When her father began a military campaign against the invading army of Alexander the Great, he was accompanied by Drypteis, along with her mother, sister Stateira

Stateira II

Stateira II , possibly also known as Barsine, was the daughter of Stateira I and Darius III of Persia. After her father's defeat at the Battle of Issus, Stateira and her sisters became captives of Alexander of Macedon. They were treated well, and she became Alexander's second wife at the Susa...

, and her grandmother Sisygambis

Sisygambis

Sisygambis was the daughter of king Artaxerxes II Memnon, who married Arsames of Ostanes and was the mother of Darius III of Persia, whose reign was ended during the wars of Alexander the Great....

. Following the Battle of Issus

Battle of Issus

The Battle of Issus occurred in southern Anatolia, in November 333 BC. The invading troops, led by the young Alexander of Macedonia, defeated the army personally led by Darius III of Achaemenid Persia in the second great battle for primacy in Asia...

 in 333 BCE, Darius fled, and his family was captured by Macedonian troops. Alexander personally met with the women and promised to provide dowries for Drypteis and Stateira.

Although Darius tried repeatedly to ransom his family, Alexander kept them with him until 331 BCE. At that point Drypteis and her sister were sent to Susa

Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers....

 to learn the Greek language.

Drypteis married Hephaestion Amyntoros

Hephaestion

Hephaestion , son of Amyntor, was a Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great...

, a general in Alexander's army in 324 BCE. She was widowed soon after.

Many historians accept Plutarch's account that Drypteis was killed in 323 BCE alongside her sister Stateira. Alexander had died earlier that year, and his other widow, Roxana

Roxana

Roxana sometimes Roxane, was a Bactrian noble and a wife of Alexander the Great. She was born earlier than the year 343 BC, though the precise date remains uncertain....

, wished to remove her rival.

According to historian Elizabeth Donnelly Carney, however, Drypeteis was not killed by Roxane. Drypeteis would have been of little threat to Roxana's position, as she would not have borne Alexander a child. Instead, Carney theorizes that Roxana killed Parysatis

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:...

 (daughter of Artaxerxes III of Persia

Artaxerxes III of Persia

Artaxerxes III of Persia , was the Great King of Persia and the eleventh Emperor of the Achaemenid Empire, as well as the first Pharaoh of the 31st dynasty of Egypt. He was the son and successor of Artaxerxes II and was succeeded by his son, Arses of Persia...

), who was likely also a wife of Alexander.

External links

• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
  The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary.- Characteristic :...
  
  
• Drypetis, daughter of Darius and wife of Hephaestion in Pothos.org