Atossa

Atossa was an Achaemenid queen, daughter of Cyrus the Great, wife of Darius I and mother of Xerxes I. Her position linked the founding line of Cyrus to Darius’s branch of the dynasty and made her an important figure in Persian royal succession; she also appears prominently in Aeschylus’s Persians.

Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound and Other Plays places Atossa within a narrative shaped by court politics and dynastic power and empire, conquest and resistance.