Glaphyra

Who is Glaphyra?

Glaphyra was a Hetaera that lived in the 1st century BC.

Glaphyra was a Greek woman from Cappadocia from obscure origins. Glaphyra was famed and celebrated in antiquity for her beauty, charm as well as she had a reputation for being seductive.

Glaphyra had married a Cappadocian Greek nobleman called Archelaus, the High Priest Ruler of the temple state of Comana, Cappadocia. Archelaus was the High Priest of the Roman Goddess of War, Bellona. Through her marriage to Archelaus, Glaphyra became a ruler of the temple state. Archelaus' father of the same name had descended from King Mithridates VI of Pontus.

Glaphyra bore Archelaus two sons:

⁕Archelaus Sisines, also known as King Archelaus of Cappadocia who reign from 36 BC until his death in 17

⁕Sisines

In 47 BC the Roman Dictator Gaius Julius Caesar after the conclusion of his military victory against the Triumvir Pompey, deprived and deposed Archelaus of his office of high priest and rule over Comana. Archelaus was replaced by another Greek nobleman called Lycomedes. Pompey was their family patron and it was he that appointed his father as High Priest Ruler of the temple state of Comana. Sometime after Archelaus had died at an unknown date. After the death of Archelaus, Glaphyra remained in Cappadocia with her sons. Glaphyra could be seen as the widow of the dynast of Comana.