Pheretīma
(
Φερετίμα). The wife of Battus III. and mother of
Arcesilaüs III., successive kings of Cyrené. After the murder of her son
by the Barcaeans, Pheretima fled into Egypt to Aryandes, the viceroy of Darius Hystaspis; and
representing that the death of Arcesilaüs had been the consequence of his submission
to the Persians, she induced him to avenge it. On the capture of Barca by the Persian army,
she caused those who had the principal share in her son's murder to be impaled, and ordered
the breasts of their wives to be cut off. Pheretima then returned to Egypt, where she soon
after died of a painful and loathsome disease (
Herod.iv. 162Herod., 200-205).