Mitradites III (Earth-616)

King Mitradites III
Name	Mitradites III
Aliases	Mitradites, King Mitradites, His Majestry
Affiliation and Relationships
Group Affiliation	Monarch of Zamora; master of the Army of Zamora and of Tork (enginner, spy)
Relatives	Satrina (wife, deceased)
Marital Status	Widowed
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Citizenship	Zamoran
Occupation	King of Zamora
Base of Operations	Shadizar, Zamora
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Roy Thomas
First	Conan the Barbarian #5 (May, 1971) (Mentioned, unnamed) Savage Sword of Conan #81 (August, 1982) (Possible first appearance, unnamed) Savage Sword of Conan #207 (January, 1993) (Mentioned, first time name)
First	Conan the Barbarian #5 (May, 1971) (Mentioned, unnamed) Savage Sword of Conan #81 (August, 1982) (Possible first appearance, unnamed) Savage Sword of Conan #207 (January, 1993) (Mentioned, first time name)

Mitradites III or simply Mitradites, was the king of Zamora during the Hyborian Age of Conan, circa 10,000 BC. The King of Zamora ruled from Shadizar the Wicked.

History

In his early youth, the King of Zamora took Satrina, a maid he loved passionately, as wife. She eventually fell ill and died of fever.

Mitradites was consistently described as a drunk, and was known to be, along his councillors, an enthousiastic devotee of Madame X'arthalla's palace of pleasure. In Shadizar, he had adopted rules forbidding death duels, including spike fighting.

Mitradites III was often contested, and even plotted against by many, including sorcerers and other Zamorian rulers:

• In a remote village, Zukala asked for tribute and considered its inhabitants his subjects. He was eventually defeated by Conan and left.
• In Shadizar, Madame X'arthalla plotted with the captain of the royal guard against the King, intending to seize control of Zamora. Spike fighting in a tavern, Conan was consequently arrested, but was offered to join the guardsmen, and foiled two attempts at the King's life: During a hunting trip, the king was lured by the shapeshifting Madame X'arthalla, who posed as Satrina, trying to hurl the king to his death from a cliff, but was saved by Conan, who was made his most trusted personal bodyguard. X'arthalla then approached and mezmerized Conan into slaying the king in his sleep. Conan managed to stop himself but was spotted by the king who unleashed his guards upon him. Later sentenced to death but surviving the execution, Conan rushed to the pleasure palace, where he timely saved the royal chancellor of the exchequer, the lord chamberllan, and finally the King from X'arthalla's minions. X'arthalla herself was slain by Nadia. The captain was later executed and Conan rewarded by the King.
• In the the early adventuring days of Conan, Queen Isadona of Sakyara wished to conquer a region of Zamora and even make King Mitradites come to terms with her. To this end, she intended to use the flying technology of the Corinthian scientist Daedikaron to equip her troop. Daedikaron and Conan escaped from Sakyara.
• Around the same period, the Grand Inquisitor of Ong, who had tortured and slain his city's former king, wanted to capture and "save [the] soul" of Isadona. Feeling Zamora was plagued with too many sins and gods (including Omm, Spider-God, and Bel, God of Thieves), he wanted to unite Zamora under a more pious ruler than Mitradites: himself, the high priest of lion-headed Ong.
• King Mitradites feared and mistrusted the Yezudites. He consequently sent Tork, an engineer and spy, who intended to destroy Yezud by shifting a few boulders in the mines beneath the city who rested on a fault, which he managed to do with the help of Conan.
• Two years later, after Yezud was rebuilt, Zath high priest Feridun threatened King Mitradites with his Children of Zath, feeling confident in the myth of arachnic invincibility he had communiated to Zamora's king, and expecting Mitradites' ragtag army to crumble in panic at the mere sight of the Children of Zath (despite vicar Mirze's concerns). Conan managed to take down Zath's cult, and the Children of Zath were destroyed.
• Later, priest of Zath Harpagus, rechristened himself Zath, took possession of the ruins of the Tower of the Elephant and of the Lotus caches of Yara. He intended to poison Zamora's king with spider venom, use the Lotus to bend an army to his will by supplying them Distilled Lotus, and finally rule from the Kezankian Mountains to the borders of Brythunia, and even beyond. That plan was foiled by Conan as well.

Years later, by the time Conan rose to and fell from the position of captain of the Free Companions, it was said that King Mitradites sometimes ("in his more drunken moments") claimed the strip of plains set between the desert and the Kezankian Mountains, which was also claimed by Turan's King Yildiz.

Religion

Mitradites was considered to be not so pious (though the comment came from the fanatical Grand Inquisitor of Ong).

He invoked the names of Mitra, Erlik, and Ishtar, though it is unrevealed if he was himself a worshiper of those gods.

Attributes

Weaknesses

Mitradites was consistently described as a drunk.

Notes

• Mitradites was originally named "Mithradates" in the novels ("given by the Mithra"), a conscious choice made given the fact Robert E. Howard's Mitra was based on the Eastern god Mithra.
• This name was presumably inspired by the many historical figures known as Mithridates.
• The sole appearance of the King of Zamora on panel, in "The Palace of Pleasure" (Savage Sword of Conan #81; October, 1982), was unnamed. Though he doesn't displayed the drunkenness mentioned in other mentions, given Mitradites III seems to have been the king throughout the Age of Conan, it can be assumed that the King of Zamora featured in this issue was Mitradites.
  • If not Mitradites, this King might be Tiridates (the predecessor of Mitradites), or Hadranor, the King of Zamora mentioned only in "Curse of the Undead-Man" (Savage Sword of Conan #1; August, 1974). It is unknown how Hadranor fits in Zamora's chronology, given the span of Mitrades' rule, and if his name was an error, another name for Mitradites, or if Hadranor is simply a local king of Zamora.

Trivia

• In the novels, Mithradates is presumed to have succeeded to Tiridates before "Spider God". No mention of this succession has been made on-panel so far.

See Also

• 1 appearance(s) of Mitradites III (Earth-616)
• 9 mention(s) of Mitradites III (Earth-616)