Thomyris, the Queen of Scythia, Avenging Her Son

From the Getty Museum record

The queen of Scythia took command of the territory’s army when Cyrus, a greedy king of many Asian kingdoms, sought to conquer her homeland. After losing her young son to a foul trick played by the king’s soldiers, Thomyris plotted revenge against Cyrus in equal measure. Upon defeating his soldiers in the mountains where she had lured them to gain advantage, she had Cyrus’s body found, his corpse decapitated, and his head placed in a bucket of her own dead soldiers’ blood. The image shows her pointing at the bucket while declaring, “Take your fill of the blood for which you have thirsted.”