By now, you probably know that Shakespeare ripped off the plot of Romeo and Juliet from Ovid’s tale of Pyramus and Thisbe. But this was hardly the only über-dramatic tale of doomed love to emerge from the ancient world. The saga of Zarinaia, a brave queen, and the man who fell head over heels for her is legendary … and wonderfully depressing.

This story survives in tons of different fragments recorded by many authors, but they all seem to trace their roots to one, since-lost version by Ctesias.

 A Greek doctor who resided at the Persian court in the late fifth century and early fourth centuries B.C., Ctesias composed volumes on Persia and India, most of which are lost to us now except for pieces quoted in later writings. So we can’t retrieve the original work by Ctesias – in this case, the Persica  - and only have different versions from other authors. He apparently recorded a variety of gossipy myths and, thanks to a consolidation of all the different versions from our transmitters, we’ve got the details of one juicy romance.

Prisoner … of Love?

The story begins with Zarinaia, a sixth-century B.C. queen of the Saka people – probably a northern Iranian tribe or possibly the Scythians. She was widowed upon the death of her brother-husband, Cydraios. Brother-sister marriage was common in the royal families of the Ancient Near East, including Persia and Egypt. As quoted in the anonymous Tractactus de Mulieribus Claris in Belli (Tract on Women Who Were Famous in War), dating from the fifth or sixth century B.C., Zarinaia married “Mermeros, the ruler of the Parthian lands,” after her hubby’s death.

So the Parthian king became ruler of the Saka. Awkward politics!

Later, Zarinaia fought against the Medes. Wounded in battle, she pled for her life to the Median Stryangeios. Ctesias’s rendition of a Scythian queen righting an Iranian-Median king echoes the encounters between King Cyrus and two other warrior women. In fact, fighting and defeating a Scythian warrior queen might have been a trope of an Iranian king’s heroic resumes.

Eventually, the tables turned and Mermeros took Stryangeios as his prisoner. Zarinaia’s husband was about to kill the Mede, but Zarinaia requested that his life be spared for the mercy he'd once shown her. She couldn’t persuade her husband to help out her new pal, so she freed the Median captives and killed Mermeros! Then, she “handed control of her country over to the Medes and made a friendly alliance with them, according to Ctesias.” The SudaLexicon, a tenth-century A.D. Byzantine encyclopedia, recorded that “she sent gifts in order to secure a friendship and alliance which Stryangaios had proposed.” So it's possible 

No More Drama?

Nicolaus of Damascus spins a different version of this tale. This one is super dramatic. When Mermeros died, “Stryangaios was secretly gripped with passion for Zarinaia, who likewise was in love with him.” Zarinaia met up with him in their capital and gave him a big smooch. So what stopped this royal twosome from tying the knot? It was pretty clear that they were in love, but Stryangaios hadn’t told the queen he had feelings for her yet.

Getting angsty over his unconfessed love, he confided in one of his eunuchs. His friendly servant advised him to tell Zarinaia how he felt. She welcomed him to her room, and “her warm greeting gave him the resolve to tell her how he was burning with desire and powerful love for her.” Even she adored Stryangaios, Zarinaia turned him down. 

Why? Stryngaios was already married to “Rhoitaia, the daughter of Astibaras [king of the Medes], who was said to be more beautiful than Zarinaia and all other women.” Talk about endangering an alliance! Zarinaia told him to harden his heart, especially since their love would just be a fling if Rhotaia found out about them. She felt really bad about turning him down, though, so she offered him anything else he wanted – just not her love.

Not surprisingly, Stryngaios became super-depressed. He decided to commit suicide and wrote a letter to Zarinaia, but “made the eunuch swear an oath that he would deliver it to Zarinaia only after Stryangaios had died, without saying anything beforehand.” In the note, he took credit for Zarinaia doing well as a queen, but stated that she'd killed him by depriving him of her love. He then put the letter under his pillow and asked for his sword. The text cuts off soon after, but presumably he killed himself.

Warrior Woman

Why would Zarinaia just hand over her kingdom to a guy she barely knew, even if he saved her life? She seemed to be an empowered woman, riding into battle like an Amazon, a hint that wouldn’t be lost on readers. In his version of the story, the Byzantine scholar Johannes Tzetzes, who wrote about the Amazons in his own work, ate this up. Instead, he focused on Zarinaia as an alpha female. He claimed her Saka tribe invented the shield – she was a warrior by birth – and had their women ride on horseback into battle with them.

Other writers, including Diodorus Siculus, portrayed Zarinaia as comparable to other famously independent queens from antiquity, like Semiramis. There’s more than just an unhorsing here. According to Diodorus, there was a ton of politics involved in this affair … but no love. The Saka and the nearby Medes, who resided in Iran, went to war after the Saka’s BFFs, the Parthians, revolved against the Medes.

To make a very long story short, it was Saka vs. Medes … but the Saka had a secret weapon: Zarinaia. Diodorus writes, “At that time a woman named Zarinaia ruled over the Saka who, admirable in matters of war, was far superior to the other women of the Saka in boldness and action.” In fact, “she cleared a large part of the countryside, founded many cities, and made the lives of her fellow country-men more prosperous in every way. “ Good for her! 

Back to Stryangaios. He was the Median lord to whom the author of the de Mulieribus claimed Zarinaia gave her kingdom. But there may have been (much) more to the story! According to Demetrius in his De Elocutione, Stryangaios didn’t spare Zarinaia in battle because she got on her knees and begged. Instead, Demetrius says, “When he saw that she was young and beautiful, he changed his mind and chose to spare her life.” This isn't unprecedented: there is a longstanding pattern in mythology of “the beautiful woman warrior who awakens love in a male opponent,” according to Deborah Levine Gera.

Stryangaios probably assumed that Zarinaia would come skipping over to his palace, but she didn’t. His men made peace with her Saka, but she didn’t return his feelings. In a truly depressing move, he decided to get back at Zarinaia by writing her an angry letter and starving himself to death. The letter included the following rude retort: “I saved you and you are alive because of me, but now I am ruined because of you.” Talk about a guilt trip!

One papyrus elaborated on this suicide note. In that letter, Stryangaios rambled on and on about how Love cursed him. He wrote, “Whenever he [Love] grows angry, like he did with me now, he stirs a lot of trouble and finally ruins and destroys someone.” But the king didn’t seem to bear his lost lady-love any ill will: “I give as evidence my own death; for, I, calling no curse upon your head, will make the most righteous prayer on your behalf.” This papyrus tails off on a wistful note: “If you had treated me right…” Sounds like a classic song. This is the “first love-letter in Greek literature, doubling up as a suicide note.” 

After her death, Zarinaia became such a local hero that, according to Diodorus Siculus, her people built her a massive three-sided pyramid. He noted, “They set upon the tomb a colossal golden statue, imparted heroic honors on her and made everything more magnificent than what was granted to her ancestors.” Sounds like she was a true warrior queen.