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Atossa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atossa or Hutaosa (550 BC-475 BC) was a Queen consort of Persia. In Modern Persian, her name is آتوسا.
She was the daughter of Cyrus the Great and a half-sister of Cambyses II. Cambyses insisted on marrying her, although there was no legal precedent for this in Persia; to avoid offending the king, Cambyses' advisors instead informed him that the laws allowed him to do whatever he wished. Atossa married Darius I in 522 BC after Darius overthrew a man claiming to be Smerdis. Xerxes I was one of her children with Darius.
Atossa probably died before Xerxes came to power, although Herodotus believed she was still alive during Xerxes' reign. Aeschylus also included her as a central character in his tragedy The Persians. Very little is known about the real Atossa, although it is speculated that she came from a Zoroastrian family, as Atossa is a mythical figure in that religion.
She may have died due to breast cancer [1].