* DĀTAMIΘRA (El. Da-da/tam5-mi-ut-ra, Aram. dtmtr), Iranian personal name resulting from an inversion of Miθra-dāta- “given by Mithra” and continued in the New Persian Dādmehr. It is also attested in the variant *Dāta-miça-(El. Da-da-mi-iš-šá), with persianized second element (Hinz and Koch, pp. 261, 298). Such a name may also form the basis of the shortened Old Iranian *Dātama-, reflected in Greek Datámēs (see DATAMES).
One bearer of this name was a treasurer, who is attested sixteen times in Aramaic documents from Persepolis of the period between the seventh and nineteenth years of Xerxes I (486-65 B.C.E.), that is, 479/8-67/6 B.C.E. (Bowman, pp. 73, 193a). In 467/6 he was replaced by one Bagapāta; in two instances Dātamiθra is explicitly designated “the treasurer, who is in Arachosia” and “the treasurer, who is in ghštk,” apparently references to his later post (Bowman, pp. 28-29), though its geographical location is unclear.
Bibliography:
R. A. Bowman, Aramaic Ritual Texts from Persepolis, Chicago, 1970.
W. Hinz and H. Koch, Elamisches Wörterbuch, 2 vols., Berlin, 1987.
(Rüdiger Schmitt)
Originally Published: December 15, 1994
Last Updated: November 18, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 2, p. 117
