Otanes

Family: Persian · Role: son of Pharnaspes; leader among the Persians · First appears: Book 3 · §65–70

Otanes, son of Pharnaspes, discovered in the eighth month that the king was Smerdis the Magian, not Smerdis the son of Cyrus. He brought his trusted friends Aspathines and Gobryas into his proposal, and Intaphrenes, Megabyzos and Hydarnes joined them; at Susa they also brought Dareios into the plan. The seven pledged faith to one another and deliberated how to kill the Magian. When Dareios urged them to act that day, they went to the palace and stabbed those who tried to stop them.

Afterwards, Otanes withdrew his claim to rule on condition that he and his descendants would not be ruled by any of the other six. They agreed to this and granted him and his descendants special gifts if another of the seven became king. Dareios later sent him as commander to fulfill Syloson’s request. At Samos, Otanes agreed to a truce with Maiandrios, but after Charilaos led an attack that killed prominent Persians, Otanes disregarded Dareios’s orders and commanded his army to kill every Samian they captured. The Persians delivered the island to Syloson stripped of men; afterwards, Otanes joined in settling people there.

In Book 5, Dareios appointed Otanes commander of those living along the sea coasts. Otanes conquered the Byzantians, Calchedonians, Antandros, Lamponion, Lemnos and Imbros, and later, with Artaphrenes, took Clazomenai and Kyme. He was married to a daughter of Dareios; his daughter Phaidyme had been taken as a wife by Cambyses. In Book 7, Otanes is identified as the father of Amestris, wife of Xerxes, and of Anaphes, while Patiramphes and Smerdomenes are identified as his sons.