Axiothea of Paphos

Axiothea (Ancient Greek: Ἀξιοθέα) was queen of Paphos, a city-state on the island of Cyprus, in the 4th century BC. She was the wife of Nicocles of Paphos, the last monarch of Paphos.

Ptolemy I Soter besieged Paphos and ordered Nicocles to commit suicide.

Ancient accounts

According to ancient authors, Axiothea killed her own daughters to keep them from their enemies, then joined a group of women in a mass suicide. Diodorus Siculus wrote that the women brought their children to the palace roof to kill them. Polyaenus claimed that the women set fire to the palace and died in the blaze, and that Axiothea killed herself to avoid being burned alive. Diodorus Siculus wrote that the fire was set by Nicocles's male relatives.

The Parian Chronicle suggests that the events described by ancient authors may have actually occurred in Salamis rather than Paphos, and involved Nicocreon of Cyprus rather than Nicocles of Paphos. Athenaeus names an Axiothea as the wife of Nicocreon.

These attributions are debated, and there is no clear consensus among scholars that these events happened in Salamis.

References

  1. ↑ Lightman, Marjorie; Lightman, Benjamin (2008). "Axiothea (2)". A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women. Facts On File, Incorporated. p. 51. ISBN 9781438107943. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  2. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 20.21
  3. ↑ Polyaenus, Strategems in War 8.48
  4. 1 2 Hill, George Francis (2010) [1940]. A History of Cyprus: To the conquest by Richard Lion Heart. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-108-02062-6. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  5. ↑ Fox, Robin Lane (2007). The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. Basic Books. p. 243. ISBN 9780465003662. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  6. 1 2 Heckel, Waldemar (2021). "Axiothea". Who's Who in the Age of Alexander and His Successors: From Chaironeia to Ipsos (338–301 BC). Greenhill Books. ISBN 9781784386498. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  7. ↑ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 8.349e

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Mason, Charles Peter (1870). "Axiothea". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 449.