page_title: Parysatis
section_title: Supporting Cyrus the Younger
hierarchical_section_title: Parysatis / Biography / Supporting Cyrus the Younger
caption_attribution_description: עברית: פריסאטיס, מלכה אחמנית, אשתו של המלך דריווש השני מלך פרס מוציאה להורג את הסריס שהתעלל בגופת בנה האהוב כורש הצעיר במהלך המרד הכושל שלו. תחריט של ג'יימס אנסור משנת 1900 English: “La Reine Parysatis ecorchant un eunuque” (Queen Parysatis flaying a eunuch) an etching by James Ensor, showing Persian Queen Parysatis flaying the eunuch who killed her favorite son Cyrus the Younger during his failed rebellion
context_page_description: Parysatis was a powerful Persian Queen, consort of Darius II and had a lot of influence during the reign of Artaxerxes II.
context_section_description: Her favorite son was Cyrus, and it was on account of her influence that he was given supreme command in western Anatolia as a teenager in around 407 BC.  When her husband died, she supported Cyrus. When Cyrus was defeated in the Battle of Cunaxa, she blamed the satrap Tissaphernes for his death, and thus had him assassinated a little later.
  According to the chapter on Artaxerxes II in Plutarch's Life, a young Persian soldier named Mithridates unknowingly struck Cyrus the Younger during the Battle of Cunaxa (Greek: Κούναξα), making him fall from his horse, dazed.  Some eunuchs found Cyrus and tried to bring him to safety, but a Caunian among the king's camp followers struck a vein behind his knee with a dart, making him fall and strike his head on a stone, whereupon he died. Unwisely, Mithridates boasted of killing Cyrus in the court, and Parysatis had him executed by scaphism. She likewise got vengeance on Masabates, the king's eunuch, who had cut off Cyrus' hand and head, by winning him from her son Artaxerxes in a game of dice and having him flayed alive.
caption: Queen Parysatis flaying a eunuch James Ensor
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