The Greek Warrior Queen, Artemisia I
The Greek queen Artemisia I (flourished in the 400s BC) ruled Halicarnassus in Caria – a satrapy, or province, of the Persian Empire in southwestern Anatolia. A naval commander and pirate queen, Artemisia fought for the Persians during their invasion of Greece. She won acclaim for her role in the naval Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, which her side lost, but during which she distinguished herself.
She was born to the king of Halicarnassus, who named her after Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Artemesia married the satrap of Caria, and after his death, she assumed the Carian throne as regent for her underage son. Contemporaries depicted her as a courageous and clever commander of men and ships, who preyed upon the Greeks during the Greco-Persian conflict.
When Persia’s king Xerxes invaded Greece, Artemisia distinguished herself in the naval battle of Artemisium, which was fought simultaneously with the more famous Battle of Thermopylae. She caused the Greeks so much trouble that they put a bounty on her head, offering 10,000 drachmas to whoever killed or captured her. The reward went uncollected.
In the even greater naval Battle of Salamis soon thereafter, Herodotus describes Artemisia as the only commander on the Persian side worthy of mention: ” I pass over all the other officers [of the Persians] because there is no need for me to mention them, except for Artemisia, because I find it particularly remarkable that a woman should have taken part in the expedition against Greece. She took over the tyranny after her husband’s death, and although she had a grown-up son and did not have to join the expedition, her manly courage impelled her to do so“.
She escorted Xerxes’ sons to safety after the battle, then faded from recorded history. Legend has it that Artemisia fell madly in love with a man who ignored her. So she had him blinded. However, her passion continued to burn hot despite his disfigurement. To rid herself of her feelings for him, she decided to leap from a tall rock that reportedly held magical powers, such that jumping off it would snap the bonds of love. She ended up snapping her neck.
