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Atossa (or Hutaosa) was a queen of Persia in the
6th and 5th
centuries BC.
She was the daughter of Cyrus the Great and the 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 then married Smerdis, who overthrew Cambyses, and in 522 BC she married Darius I when Darius overthrew
Smerdis. Xerxes I was one of their children.
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. According to Herodotus she also had
Greek slaves, whom she preferred to Persian slaves.
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