Tomyris

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Tomyris is mentioned by Dante in Purgatorio XII, v. 56, within the examples of humility carved on the cornice of the proud, where the slaughter of the Persians and the cruel dismemberment of Cyrus's body are recalled. According to the authorized note to Canto XII, the episode of Tomyris is not drawn from mythology, but from the Histories of Orosius, Dante's primary source for ancient history, and in that passage it is echoed at verse 57, as already for the story of Semiramis in Inferno V 58-9. The note also refers to an account already present in Herodotus (I 205 ff.), indicating the ancient historiographic tradition from which Dante draws. Tomyris acts as a figure of vengeance and justice against the arrogance of Cyrus, presented as a moral counterpoint to the proud being purged.