King’s female relatives (1)

Text
The respect for the king’s mother, Akkadian ummi šarri, is an important custom of the Babylonian court inherited by the Achaemenians. The attributes or characteristics which defined the role of king’s mother have differed within the courts of Near Eastern monarchies, but her high position was recognized at the Assyrian and Babylonian courts, and it is likely the king’s mother held an equally important also position among Elamite kings. The Persian court which was modelled on the structure of earlier Near Eastern royal courts, followed their example in regarding the mother of the king as ranking very high among royal women, with a seniority and status perhaps superior even to that of king’s wife. The king’s wife was called in Akkadian aššat šarri during the Achaemenid period, and for the daughter of the king in the Achaemenid court was used Akkadian title mārat šarri, recorded in a Neo-Babylonian document 486 BCE which refers to Xerxes’ daughter.

Bibliography

Andrea Piras

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000725.php