Tomyris and the Head of Cyrus,Frankenthal porcelain, c. 1773Queen Tomyris learns that her sonSpargapises has been taken alive by Cyrus, by Jan Moy (1535–1550).Tomyris Plunges the Head of the Dead Cyrus Into a Vessel of Blood byRubens
Tomyris (/ˈtɒmɪrɪs/;Saka:*Taumuriyah;Ancient Greek:Τόμυρις,romanized: Tómuris;Latin:Tomyris[1][2]) also calledThomyris,Tomris, orTomiride, was a queen of theMassagetae who ruled during the 6th century BCE. Tomyris is known only from the writings of the Greek historianHerodotus, according to whom she led her armies to defend against an attack byCyrus the Great of theAchaemenid Empire, and defeated and killed him in 530 BC.[3] She is not mentioned in the few other early sources covering the period, especiallyCtesias.
Tomyris became a popular subject in European art and literature during the Renaissance. In visual art, she was typically depicted either receiving the head of Cyrus or placing it into a vessel filled with blood, a motif derived from one version of the accounts. This theme belonged to the 'Power of Women' tradition in Renaissance art, which celebrated women who triumphed over men in various ways.
The nameTomyris is theLatin form of theAncient Greek nameTomuris (Τόμυρις), which is itself the Hellenisation of theSaka name*Taumuriyah, meaning "of family" derived from a cognate of theAvestan wordtaoxman (𐬙𐬀𐬊𐬑𐬨𐬀𐬥) and of theOld Persian wordtaumā (𐎫𐎢𐎶𐎠), meaning "seed," "germ," and "kinship."[1][2]
When the founder of thePersianAchaemenid Empire,Cyrus, asked for the hand of Tomyris with the intent of acquiring her kingdom through the marriage, she understood Cyrus's aims and rejected his proposal. On the advice of theLydianCroesus, Cyrus responded to Tomyris's rejection by deciding to invade the Massagetae.[3][5][4]
When Cyrus started building a bridge on theAraxes river with the intent of attacking the Massagetae, Tomyris advised him to remain satisfied with ruling his own kingdom and to allow her to rule her kingdom. Cyrus's initial assault was routed by the Massagetae, after which he set up a fancy banquet with large amounts of wine in the tents of his camp as an ambush and withdrew.[6][7][4]
The Massagetae, led by Tomyris's son and the commander of their army,Spargapises, who primarily usedfermented mare's milk andcannabis as intoxicants like many Iron Age steppe nomads, and therefore were not used to drinking wine, became drunk and were easily defeated and slaughtered by Cyrus, thus destroying a third of the Massagetaean army. Spargapises had been captured by Cyrus, and, once he had become sober and understood his situation, he asked Cyrus to free him, and after Cyrus acquiesced to his pleas, he killed himself.[6][7][4]
After Tomyris found out about the death of Spargapises, she sent Cyrus an angry message in which she called the wine, which had caused the destruction of her army and her son, a drug which made those who consumed it so mad that they spoke evil words, and demanded him to leave his land or else she would, swearing upon the Sun, "give him more blood than he could drink."[6][4]
Silver dish showing Tomyris with Cyrus' corpse,Stourhead
In the account of Herodotos (contradicted by various other sources), Tomyris herself led the Massagetaean army into war, and, during the next battle opposing the Massagetae to the forces of Cyrus, Tomyris defeated the Persians and destroyed most of their army. Cyrus himself was killed in the battle, and Tomyris found his corpse, severed his head and put it in a bag filled with blood while telling Cyrus, "Drink your fill of blood!"[3][6][5][8]
According to another version of the death of Cyrus recorded byCtesias, Cyrus died in battle against the Derbices, who were either identical with the Massagetae or a Massagetaean sub-tribe: according to this version, he was mortally wounded by the Derbices and theirIndian allies, after which Cyrus's ally, the king Amorges of theAmyrgians, intervened with his own army and helped the Persian soldiers defeat the Derbices, following which Cyrus endured for three days, during which he organised his empire and appointedSpitaces son ofSisamas as satrap over the Derbices, before finally dying.[9][10][1][11]
Little is further known about Tomyris after the war with Cyrus. By around 520 BCE and possibly earlier, her tribe was ruled by a king namedSkuⁿxa, who rebelled against the Persian Empire until one of the successors of Cyrus, the Achaemenid kingDarius I, carried out a campaign against the Sakas from 520 to 518 BCE during which he conquered theMassagetae, captured Skuⁿxa, and replaced him with a ruler who was loyal to Achaemenid power.[11][12]
Shakespeare's reference to Tomyris as 'Queen of the Scythians', rather than the usual Greek designation 'Queen of the Massagetae', points to two possible likely sources,Marcus Junianus Justinus' "AbridgedTrogus Pompeius"[18] in Latin, orArthur Golding's translation (1564).[19]
The name "Tomyris" also has been adopted intozoologicaltaxonomy, for theTomyris species group of Central Americanmoths and theTamyris genus of skipper butterflies.[22]
Washington D.C.–based, female-fronted, heavy metal bandA Sound of Thunder, features a song titled "Tomyris," based on the historical figure, on their sixth full-length albumIt Was Metal released in 2018.[27]
^abcdeGera, Deborah Levine (2018).Warrior Women: The Anonymous Tractatus De Mulieribus. Leiden, New York City:Brill. pp. 187–199.ISBN978-9-004-32988-1.
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