Phaedymia (or ''Phaedyme'', ''Phædima''; ) was the daughter of
Otanes, a nobleman of the
Achaemenid
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the large ...
Persian court in the early 6th century BCE.
She was married, successively, to
Cambyses II
Cambyses II () was the second King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning 530 to 522 BCE. He was the son of and successor to Cyrus the Great (); his mother was Cassandane. His relatively brief reign was marked by his conquests in North Afric ...
, then
Bardiya (or Galatia), and then
Darius I
Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...
.
Herodotus tells us in his ''
Histories'' that the Persian king
Cambyses II
Cambyses II () was the second King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning 530 to 522 BCE. He was the son of and successor to Cyrus the Great (); his mother was Cassandane. His relatively brief reign was marked by his conquests in North Afric ...
married Phaedymia. Otanes may have been the brother of
Cassandane, who was Cambyses' mother. If this is correct, Phaedymia was not only Cambyses's wife but also his cousin.
Cambyses died in the spring of 522 BCE and was succeeded by Bardiya, son of Cyrus. But according to the conventional history as related by ancient writers, the "Bardiya" now on the throne was an impostor; in reality he was a
magus named Gaumata. Herodotus wrote that Otanes was the first to suspect that the new king was an impostor. Next came Phaedymia who, with all the other wives of Cambyses, was now wife of the false Bardiya. Phaedymia told her father of the ruse. Upon hearing this, Otanes organized a conspiracy that ousted Gaumata put
Darius I
Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...
on the Persian throne in the autumn of 522 BCE. Phaedymia then married Darius; her father Otanes married a sister of Darius.
Most modern historians do not consider Darius's version of events (i.e., the conventional history) convincing, and assume that the person who ruled for a few months was the real son of Cyrus, and that the story of his impersonation by a magus was an invention of Darius to justify his seizure of the throne.
[.][.][.][ Holland, Tom ''Persian Fire''][.][Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd ''Persians: The Age of the Great Kings'' pp 97-106]
References
{{Reflist
Histories of Herodotus Book 3, 3.69
6th-century BC women
Women from the Achaemenid Empire
6th-century BC Iranian people
Cambyses II
Remarried royal consorts