Atossa

170 AT L A S M O U N TA I N S Africa and extend to the Pillars of Hercules (which stand one on each side of the Strait of Gibraltar) and beyond (Hdt. 4.184–5). JULIE BROWN Atossa (Ἄτοσσα) The daughter of the founder of the PERSIAN empire, Cyrus the great (ruled 559–530 BCE), Atossa was the consort of her brother Cambyses (ruled 530–523), and then married DARIUS son of Hystaspes (ruled 522–486) (Hdt. 3.88.2). She lived c. 550 to c. 475. Atossa plays a pivotal role in Herodotus’ Histories (Dominick 2007). She encourages her husband Darius to invade a foreign people to increase Persia’s power and to show the Persians they are ruled by a man; constant warfare diminishes the chances of insurrection (3.134.1–2). She calls for Darius to invade Greece because she fancies female SLAVES from SPARTA, ARGOS, ATHENS, and CORINTH (3.134.5). When a struggle for succession breaks out between Darius’ eldest son by Artobazane, daughter of Gobyras, and his eldest son by Atossa, XERXES (who was younger than Darius’ son by Artobazane), Xerxes wins on the grounds that Darius was king when he was born (7.3). Herodotus remarks that even without this reason, Xerxes would have become king, because “Atossa held all the power” (7.3.4; Brosius 1996: 107–9 rightly doubts the historicity of the claim). The name Atossa does not survive in the Persian documentary record (Brosius 1996: 14, 48–50). That AESCHYLUS’ PERSIANS fails to name Atossa or mention her patronymic has been taken as a sign of her fictionality (Groeneboom 1930: 42 n. 113) – she was “less than a name” at Athens in 472 and could be treated with dramatic license (Sancisi-Weerdenburg 1993: 24; cf. Broadhead 1960: xxvi). Many would concur that “There is nothing … really Persian in her behaviour” (Sancisi-Weerdenburg 1993: 24; Brosius 1996: 16–17) and that she plays the role of loving MOTHER (e.g. Broadhead 1960: xxvi; Alexanderson 1967: 9; McClure 2006) – perhaps “smothering” in 0001739845.INDD 170 her “concern” for her son, and oblivious “to the political dimensions of her nation’s defeat” (Griffith 1998: 56–7; cf. Schenker 1994). McClure (2006) contends that the Queen plays a role similar to that of THETIS: her failure to prevent or to heal Xerxes’ disaster intensifies his SHAME and demonstrates his mortality (cf. Michelini 1982: 142). Others have seen a dark side to the Queen. T. Harrison (2000): 148 n. 11 describes her as “selfish, superficial, and petulant” (cf. Dominick 2007: 436–8); Georges (1994: 102–9) finds her “morally sane” and “intelligent, but ultimately a “masculine” female paired with an effeminate CHORUS to indicate the inversion of the proper GENDER roles in PERSIA. Many consider the Queen representative of the royal family’s interests in contrast to the Chorus, which represents the interests of the Persian monarchy and empire (Broadhead 1960: xxv–xxvi; Dworacki 1979: 104; Michelini 1982: 92; Schenker 1994; cf. T. Harrison 2000: 45). Garvie (2009a: xxiv) suggests that the Queen represents Xerxes’ tragedy and the Chorus Persia’s tragedy. When Xerxes returns, there is no longer a dramatic need for the Queen; hence she fails to appear at the end of the tragedy. Scholars often explain the Queen’s absence by the need for the ACTOR who played the Queen to play Xerxes (Pickard-Cambridge 1988: 138; Taplin 1977: 120 is critical of this position; cf. Dworacki 1979; Rosenbloom 2006a: 113–15, 126, 135–6). References Alexanderson, B. 1967. “Darius in the Persians.” Eranos 65: 1–11. Broadhead, H.D. (ed.). 1960. The Persae of Aeschylus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brosius, M. 1996. Women in Ancient Persia: 559– 331 BC. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Dominick, Y. 2007. “Atossa and Instability in Herodotus.” CQ 57: 432–44. Dworacki, S. 1979. “Atossa’s Absence in the Final Scene of the Persae of Aeschylus,” in G.W. Bowersock, W. Burkert, and M.C.J. Putnam (eds.), Arktouros: Hellenic Studies Presented to 12/8/2012 3:05:16 PM AT T I T U D E S T O W A R Bernard M.W. Knox. Berlin: De Gruyter: 101–8. Garvie, A.F. (ed.). 2009a. Aeschylus: Persae. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Georges, P. 1994. Barbarian Asia and the Greek Experience: From the Archaic Period to the Age of Xenophon. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Griffith, M. 1998. “The King and Eye: The Role of the Father in Greek Tragedy.” PCPS 44: 20–84. Groeneboom, P. 1930. Aeschylus’ Persae. Groningen: J.B. Wolters (German tr. Göttingen: H. Sönnichsen, 1960). Harrison, T. 2000. The Emptiness of Asia: Aeschylus’ Persians and the History of the Fifth Century. London: Duckworth. McClure, L. 2006. “Maternal Authority and Heroic Disgrace in Aeschylus’s Persae.” TAPhA 136: 71–97. Michelini, A.N. 1982. Tradition and Dramatic Form in the Persians of Aeschylus. Leiden: Brill. Pickard-Cambridge, A.W. 1968/1988. The Dramatic Festivals of Athens. 2nd edn. revised by J. Gould and D.M. Lewis; reissued with supplement and corrections, 1988. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Rosenbloom, D. 2006a. Aeschylus: Persians. London: Duckworth. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. 1993. “Exit Atossa: Images of Women in Greek Historiography on Persia,” in A. Cameron and E. Kuhrt (eds.), Images of Women in Antiquity. London: Routledge: 20–33. Schenker, D. 1994. “The Queen and the Chorus in Aeschylus’ Persae.” Phoenix 48: 283–93. Taplin, O. 1977. The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: The Dramatic Use of Exits and Entrances in Greek Tragedy. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Further Reading Conacher, D.J. 1996. “Persae (The Persians),” in Aeschylus: The Earlier Plays and Related Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 3–32. Hall, E. (ed.). 1996. Aeschylus: Persians. Warminster: Aris & Phillips. Podlecki, A.J. 1983. “Women in Aeschylus.” Helios 10: 23–47. DAVID ROSENBLOOM Atreidae/Atreids see MENELAUS 0001739845.INDD 171 AGAMEMNON; 171 Atreus see AGAMEMNON; MENELAUS Attendants see SILENT CHARACTERS Attic Dialect see LANGUAGE TRAGEDY; STYLISTIC DEVICES OF GREEK Attica As one of the most continuously inhabited locales of Greece as well as the setting for Greece’s crown jewel, ATHENS, Attica features frequently in tragedy. Many characters from MYTH and history lived or passed through Attica, and all the tragedians were born there. SOPHOCLES, perhaps, by disposition and because he lived and died at Athens, is more interested in the local geography of this well-known area of central Greece. See also GEOGRAPHY IN GREEK TRAGEDY JULIE BROWN Attitudes to War Warfare can be central to a tragedy (Aesch. Sept., Eur. Hec.), in the recent past as background (Aesch. Pers., Soph. Trach.), or an earlier event that shapes current action (ORESTES plays). Four out of seven plays attributed to AESCHYLUS have significant war content, and five out of seven SOPHOCLEAN tragedies. War is central to seven, and the background for five of EURIPIDES’ 19 plays. Fifteen tragedies feature the TROJAN WAR and five, the THEBAN War of OEDIPUS’ SONS. War is men’s duty but already the Iliad recognizes its terrible costs to them and those whose safety depends on them. Tragedy continues to explore such themes. Many tragedies explore women’s horrific fate in captured cities (cf. Aesch. Sept. 181, 321–2). Notably, in EURIPIDES’ TROJAN WOMEN, iconic examples of female SUFFERING meditate on war’s miseries (see also FEMALE CHORUSES). Cassandra claims (394–9) that war is glorious and benefits those who undergo it by bringing them eternal remembrance: such a view is Iliadic, 12/8/2012 3:05:16 PM