Drypetis

Who was Drypetis?

Drypetis or Drypteis, was a princess of the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia.

Drypteis was born between 350 and 345 BCE, the daughter of Stateira I and Darius III of Persia. When her father began a military campaign against the invading army of Alexander the Great, he was accompanied by Drypteis, along with her mother, sister Stateira, and her grandmother Sisygambis. Following the Battle of Issus in 333 BCE, Darius fled, and his family was captured by Macedonian troops. Alexander personally met with the women and promised to provide dowries for Drypteis and Stateira.

Although Darius tried repeatedly to ransom his family, Alexander kept them with him until 331 BCE. At that point Drypteis and her sister were sent to Susa to learn the Greek language.

Drypteis married Hephaestion Amyntoros, a general in Alexander's army in 324 BCE. She was widowed soon after.

Many historians accept Plutarch's account that Drypteis was killed in 323 BCE alongside her sister Stateira. Alexander had died earlier that year, and his other widow, Roxana, wished to remove her rival.

According to historian Elizabeth Donnelly Carney, however, Drypteis was not killed by Roxana. Drypteis would have been of little threat to Roxana's position, as she would not have borne Alexander a child. Instead, Carney theorizes that Roxana killed Parysatis, who was likely also a wife of Alexander.