Thamoris (from the Amberley Castle 'Heroines of Antiquity') (Amberley Queens)

Thamoris — Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae — was among the most dramatically compelling of the Amberley heroines: according to Herodotus, she defeated and killed Cyrus the Great of Persia, then plunged his severed head into a skin of blood to quench his thirst for bloodshed. The story was one of the most vividly narrated exempla of female vengeance in the classical tradition, and Tomyris appears repeatedly in Renaissance programmes of female worthies alongside Judith and other biblical and classical avengers. Barnard's representation, now at the Novium Museum, would have featured the queen with the head of Cyrus as her identifying attribute.

Oil on panel. The Thamoris/Tomyris panel would have featured the decapitated head of Cyrus as the heroine's distinguishing attribute, creating a compositional element similar to Judith with the head of Holofernes. Barnard renders the grim attribute within the series' standardised half-length format.