DORIS

DORIS (first century B.C.E.), first wife of herod the Great, whom he married (c. 47 B.C.E.) before he became king and while he was strategos of Galilee (Jos., Wars, 1:241, 432f., 448, 562, 590; Jos., Ant., 14:300; 17:68). The name Doris is Greek but was similar to Dorothea. Josephus refers to her as a Jerusalemite: "her family (γένος) being from Jerusalem" (War 1:432). Her precise background is unknown, but it is assumed she was Idumaean in origin and of Hellenized stock. On ascending the throne in 37 B.C.E. Herod dismissed her in order to marry the Hasmonean princess mariamne . Doris was now banished from the city together with her son Antipater II. Later Antipater was allowed back (c. 14 B.C.E.). Doris too was recalled and honored at the court, only to be dismissed again (c. 7/6 B.C.E.) with the discovery of her son's disloyalty and plotting against the king: "… he (Herod) stripped her of all the finery which he had bestowed upon her and for the second time dismissed her from court" (Wars 1: 590). She seems to have been as unscrupulous as her son, with whom she cooperated in all his crimes against the sons of Mariamne and against Herod himself. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Schalit, Namenwörterbuch zu Flavius Josephus (1968); N. Kokkinos, The Herodian Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society and Eclipse (1998): 208–11; T. Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity. Part I: Palestine 330 B.C.E.–200 CE (2002): 316–17. (Isaiah Gafni / Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)