Otanes

Otanes (Old Persian: Utāna, Ancient Greek: Ὀτάνης) is a name given to several figures that appear in the Histories of Herodotus.

Otanes, speaking first, argues for turning the government over to the people, and for the principle of equality before the law (3.80.2, 3.83.1, 6.43.3, isonomíē).

In Histories 3.139-3.149, Otanes ("one of the seven", 3.141.1) reappears as commander of Achaemenid troops during their recapture of Samos for Syloson, the brother of Polycrates.

In Histories 5 (Histories 5.25-5.28),[4] Herodotus speaks of an Otanes - a son of a previously mentioned Sisamnes (3.31) - who served as a judge under Cambyses II and later under Darius I, and who following Darius' expedition against the "Scythians", and who succeeded Megabazus as the governor/supreme commander of the united forces of the peoples of the Aegean (5.26.1), and who subjugated Byzantium and other cities during the Ionian revolt (5.123.1, 5.116.1).

As a figurative defender of democracy in Greek literature, the Otanes of Histories 3.68-3.87 has been used as a point of reference in a number of subsequent political discussions.

[8] In addition, the Dutch TV movie Volk en vaderliefde ('People and Fatherly Love', 1976) is about Otanes and the coup.

Phaedyme is sent by her father Otanes, to check if King Smerdis has ears under his turban, as the suspected imposter was known to have had them cut off in punishment for a crime. She found that indeed the king did not have ears anymore, which proved that King Bardiya was an imposter, and justify the coup led by Darius I .
Cambyses II appointing Otanes as judge in place of his flayed father Sisamnes , after a painting by Peter Paul Rubens .