Artaynte

The unfortunate daughter of Masistes and the wife of Darius II.

Artaynte was forced to marry Darius at the bidding of Darius’ father, Xerxes; since Xerxes was the king of the Persian Empire, his wishes were literally the commands of his subjects and family.

Xerxes coveted the wife of his brother, Masistes, and used young Artaynte as a pawn in his game to seduce his brother’s wife; Xerxes arranged for his son, Darius, to marry Artaynte and thus endear himself to the girl’s mother but Xerxes soon lost interest in Masistes’ wife and began a love affair with Artaynte.

When Xerxes’ wife, Amestris, suspected the betrayal, she set a clever trap for her husband and her daughter-in-law; she gave Xerxes an exquisite cloak that she knew Artaynte would covet; Xerxes, in his prideful way, promised Artaynte anything she desired and she surprised him by asking for the unique and beautiful cloak; Xerxes tried to dissuade her by offering her gold, cities and command of her own army but Artaynte wanted only the cloak.

When Amestris saw the cloak in the possession of young Artaynte, she planned an evil and unexpected revenge; instead of punishing Xerxes or Artaynte, Amestris killed and mutilated Artaynte’s mother.

As a logical conclusion to this tragedy, Xerxes killed Artaynte’s father, Masistes, her brothers and her father’s supporters so that they could not enact revenge for the excesses of the king and his hateful wife, Amestris.

• Histories, book 9, chapter 108-113