Violence and the mutilated body in Achaemenid Iran

Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8174-1964 2020. Violence and the mutilated body in Achaemenid Iran. Fibiger, Linda, Fagan, Garrett G., Hudson, Mark and Trundle, Matthew, eds. The Cambridge History of Violence. Volume 1: The Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds, Vol. 1. The Cambridge World History of Violence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 360-379. (10.1017/9781316341247.019)

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Abstract

Little thought per se has been given to women as agents of violence in antiquity, let alone to the role of the royal harem as the site of revenge-fuelled violence and murder. This chapter addresses this gap by exploring how royal women in the Persian Empire could be instruments of violence. While acknowledging the Greek obsession with this topos, it goes beyond the Western preoccupation with the harem as a site of Oriental decadence and attempts to put stories of women’s violence against women into its ancient Near Eastern context. It explores the mutilation of the body and is particularly focused on the Herodotean tale (which has genuine Persian roots) of the revenge mutilations of Amestris, wife of Xerxes I.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISBN:	9781316341247
Last Modified:	26 Apr 2024 11:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/103806

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