Thaïs
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Thaïs was a Greek hetaira who accompanied Alexander the Great on his military campaigns. Likely from Athens, she is most famous for having instigated the burning of Persepolis, the capital city of the
Thaïs of Athens with Torch (1781) by Joshua Reynolds
Thaïs leading the destruction of the palace of Persepolis, as imagined in Thaïs by Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse, 1890.
Thaïs leads Alexander to start the fire, Ludovico Carracci, c. 1592
Lodovico Carracci, Alexander and Thaïs
Ptolemy I Soter
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Ptolemy I Soter was a Macedonian Greek general, historian, and successor of Alexander the Great who went on to found the Ptolemaic Kingdom centered in Egypt. Ptolemy was king and pharaoh of Ptolemaic
Thaïs
…Persepolis, the capital city of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, after it was conquered by Alexander's army in 330 BCE. At the time, Thaïs was the lover of Ptolemy I Soter, who was one of Alexander's close companions and generals. It has been suggested that she may also have been Alexander's lover on the basis of a statement…
Bust of Ptolemy I.
Ptolemaic coin showing Alexander the Great wearing an elephant scalp, a symbol of his conquest in India
Coin of Ptolemy I, British Museum, London
Ptolemy I gold stater with elephant quadriga, Cyrenaica