Artemisia: Greek queen ally of Xerxes in the Greco-Persian War

Beginning:

Greece was invaded for the first time in 490 BC by the then powerful Persian Empire. This campaign by Emperor Darius I ended in failure after the Battle of Marathon. Ten years later his son, Xerxes I, was determined to erase that stigma. He left for Greece with a large army. Persian vassal states also joined him, one of them being Helicarnassus.

Queen of Helicarnassus

The capital of the ancient Caria region was the Greek city-state of Helicarnassus, Bodrum in present-day Turkey. At the time of Xerxes, their queen was Artemisia, who also ruled the islands of Cauz, Kalymnos, and Nissuras. His role in the second Greek invasion of Persia is detailed in the Greek historian Herodotus' book The Histories. Incidentally, Herodotus was also born in Helicarnassus.

Artemisia was queen of Helicarnassus in the Caria region; Image Source: thesecondachilles.com

Exactly when Artemisia was born is a matter of debate. He is believed to have been born in Helicarnassus around 520 BC. Darius I was then on the throne of Persia, and all of Caria was his kingdom. His father is said to have been Lygademis, a member of the dynasty of Helicarnassus, and his mother a native of the island of Crete.

Artemisia married the then king of Helicarnassus in 500 BC. Soon after, the Ionian Revolt began, when the Greek kingdoms of the region rebelled against Persia. The then superpower Persia began to clash with Greece over its support for them.

The Ionian Revolt poisoned relations between Persia and Greece; Image Source: wordpressua.uark.edu

On the other hand, after the death of her husband after a few years of marriage, Artemisia started ruling on behalf of her minor son Pisindelis. When Xerxes raised an army against Greece, he ordered the rulers of the allied states to supply men. Artemisia supplied a total of 70 ships, including six of her own. She was the only female commander of Xerxes' forces. Helicarnassus' fleet is said to have been the most powerful and spectacular after the Phoenicians.

Artemisium

Persian and Greek navies first met in 480 BC at Artemisium on the northern coast of Euboea, Greece. At the same time, a combined Greek army with Xerxes on land was fighting at the pass of Thermopylae. For three days the Greek ships, despite being outnumbered, fought evenly against the Persians. But when news of the defeat of Thermopylae arrived, they retreated. Artemisia herself took part in the conflict, and Athens announced a bounty of around 10,000 drachmae in current currency on her head after Herodotus claimed Artemisium.

At Artemisium the Greek fleet was forced to retreat; Image Source: castingthroughancientgreece.com

After Thermopylae, Xerxes' troops poured into Greece like a torrent. The Athenian army commander Themistocles quickly evacuated the city and evacuated the inhabitants to safety. The Greek fleet took refuge in the narrow Salamis Strait between the island of Salamis and the port city of Piraeus. He thought it appropriate to deal with the 800 Persian ships massed in the open sea, as it would not have been possible for the enemy to gather so many warships together in a small space. Moreover, their giant ships have limited maneuverability in the Straits of Salamis, from which the smaller Greek warships advance.

Salamis

Xerxes' troops burned Athens. Although he did not engage the Greek fleet at Salamis, he was safe on one side if he destroyed them. He therefore sent the general Mardonius to seek the opinion of the naval commanders on the matter. All sang the praises of Xerxes' valor and suggested that the Greeks could be crushed in the twinkling of an eye at Salamis. But Artemisia was an exception. He urged Xerces not to take this risk.

According to the writings of Herodotus, Artemisia told the Persian emperor that although the ships were less, the Greeks were far ahead of his people in naval warfare. Moreover, their fleet at Salamis would be at a strategic disadvantage. At that point he also questioned the need for naval warfare, “You wanted to demolish Athens, you did! All of Greece is open to you. Now it doesn't make sense to waste too much power with their fleet."

Xerxes' other commanders felt that Artemisia should be severely punished for her outspokenness. But Xerxes was pleased, on the contrary, because Artemisia had gone against the grain and presented her opinion reasonably. However, following the opinion of the majority, he ordered war.

The Battle of Salamis was a major disaster for the Persian fleet. However, the Greek historian Posenius described Artemisia as showing considerable bravery. It was he who rescued the body of Ariamenes, the emperor's brother and the commander-in-chief of the fleet, from the sea.

Artemisia fights bravely at Salamis © Altpreussische Monatsschrift Nene Folge p.300

Near the end of the battle, when defeat was obvious, Herodotus tells a funny story about Artemisia's retreat. A Greek warship chased him. Finding herself surrounded on all sides, Artemisia steered straight into the middle of one of her ally's battleships. Damasithymos, King of the Callindians under Xerces, was piloting the ship. Some believe that Artemisia had a quarrel with him.

The Persian victory at the Battle of Salamis was then evident; Image Source: naval-encyclopedia.com

Damasithimos's ship was broken into two pieces by Artemisia's blow, the king and all his sailors were buried. As he sank an enemy ship, they mistook it for an allied ship. Little did he realize that Artemisia herself, on whose head Athens had declared the price, was piloting this warship.

Xerxes and his advisors were watching the battle from afar. There was no way to tell that Artemisia had destroyed their own ship, but they recognized her ship by the flag. One of her advisers drew the attention of Xerxes, who thought that Artemisia had struck the enemy with great vengeance. Xerxes lamented, "Alas, men under me fight like women, and women like men." The extent to which Herodotus' story is true is debatable. Posenius claimed that Artemisia carried both Greek and Persian flags. Realizing the defeat, he left the battlefield safely wearing the Greek flag.

Leave Greece

After the defeat of Salamis, however, the situation of the Greeks did not change much. The Greeks failed to completely destroy the Persian fleet. Moreover, they could not put up any effective resistance against the vast army of Xerxes till then.

But Xerces was not at peace. He entered Europe from Asia Minor through the Hellespont (present-day Dardanelles) strait, so floating bridges were built over the sea. He feared that if the Greek fleet destroyed the bridge after the victory at Salamis, the way home would be blocked. So he asked Mardonius for his opinion. The general advised him to launch a large-scale attack directly into the Peloponnese region. Other advisors also supported him. Mardonius, understanding the king's hesitation, begged him to send a hundred thousand troops, and he would subdue the Greeks for the king.

In this situation, Artemisia appeared at the court. Remembering his preconceptions about Salamis, Xerxes asks for his opinion. The queen of Helicarnassus urged the king to accept Mardonius's second proposal. He reasoned that if Mardonius succeeded, Xerxes would have the credit as lord. And if he failed, it would not hurt, for the Greeks would not be able to touch the hair of Xerxes. And the king's victory against a slave is nothing to be seen as big. Conversely, Jerseys will come back stronger later.

Herodotus notes that this time Xerxes agreed with Artemisia, as he himself wanted to return home. He entrusted Artemisia with escorting the prince and princess to safety in Ephesus. A year later, Mardonius was killed at the Battle of Plataea, and the Persian army was devastated. Probably the same day the Battle of Michaeli killed his remaining fleet. Xerxes' dream of conquering Greece is buried there.

Xerxes' campaign in Greece essentially ended soon after the defeat at the Battle of Plataea; Image Source: warfarehistorynetwork.com

Artemisia in other sources

Apart from Herodotus and Posenius, several other ancient historians mention Artemisia. The fifth-century Greek physician Thessalus scorned her as a cowardly pirate, but playwright Aristophanes praised her as a warrior queen in his play. Artemisia is depicted as a skilled general in the writings of Posenius, Polynius, Plutarch, and the Suda, an encyclopedia of Mediterranean subjects during the Byzantine period.

After Artemisia's death, her son Psyndelis I reigned. But what happened to Artemisia after 480 BC, or exactly how she died, remains unknown. Photius, a priest of Constantinople, refers to a folk tale in this regard, where it is said that Artemisia later fell in love with a young man from Abydos. However, not getting a response from that young man, he committed suicide by jumping into the sea. It is very likely fiction.

From the writings of Posenius, it is known that he saw a statue made in honor of Artemisia in a place called the Persian Hall in the market of Sparta. British archaeologist Charles Thomas Newton excavated the royal tombs of Helicarnassus in 1857 and found the sealed jar of Xerces. It is believed to have been gifted to Artemisia by the king himself. So it can be said that some part of the history of Greece and Persia is allocated to Artemisia.