Parysătis

, a Persian prince , wife of Darius Ochus, by whom she had Artaxerxes, Memnon, and Cyrus the younger. She was so extremely partial to her younger son, that she committed the greatest cruelties to encourage his ambition, and she supported him with all her interest in his rebellion against his brother Memnon. The death of Cyrus at the battle of Cunaxa, was revenged with the gro est barbarity, and Parysatis sacrificed to her resentment all such as she found concerned in his fall. She also poisoned Statira the wife of her son Artaxerxes, and ordered one of the eunuchs of the court to be flayed alive, and his skin to be stretched on two poles before her eyes, because he had, by order of the king, cut off the hand and the head of Cyrus. These cruelties offended Artaxerxes, and he ordered his mother to be confined in Babylon; but they were soon after reconciled, and Parysatis regained all her power and influence till the time of her death. Plutarch , Artaxerxes .— Ctesiphon.