A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Pheretima
PHERETIMA,
Wife of Battus, King of Cyrene, and the mother of Arcesilaus, who was driven from his kingdom in a sedition, and assassinated. After her son's death, she recovered the kingdom by the aid of Amasis, King of Egypt; and to avenge the murder of Arcesilaus, she caused all his assassins to be crucified round the walls of Cyrene, and she cut off the breasts of their wives, and hung them near their husbands. It is said she was devoured by worms; which probably had reference to the remorse she must have felt for her cruelties. She lived about 624 B.C.