DRYPETIS

 

DRYPETIS (Gk. Drýpĕtis [Arrian] or Drypêtis [Diodorus]), daughter of Darius III Codomannus (Arrian, 7.4.5) and younger sister of Stateira (Diodorus, 17.107.6); in the collective wedding arranged by Alexander the Great at Susa in 324 B.C.E. she was given in marriage to Hephaestion (Arrian, 7.4.5; Diodorus, 17.107.6). After Alexander’s death, which was lamented by “Hephaestion’s widow,” according to Curtius Rufus (10.5.20), his wife, Roxane, out of jealousy, ordered Stateira “and her sister” (i.e., Drypetis) murdered and thrown into a well (Plutarch, Alexandros 77.6). The Iranian original form of the name and its etymological interpretation have been the subject of unconvincing speculation (see most recently, Werba, pp. 164-65).

 

Bibliography:

(For abbreviations in this bibliography, see “Short References.”) [F.] Stähelin, “Drypetis,” in Pauly-Wissowa, Suppl. III, col. 415.

C. Werba, Die arischen Personennamen und ihre Träger bei den Alexanderhistorikern, Ph.D. diss., Vienna, 1982.

(RÜDIGER SCHMITT)

Originally Published: December 15, 1996

Last Updated: December 1, 2011

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