Artemisia I of Caria

For the female satrap and builder of the Mausoleum, see Artemisia II of Caria.

Artemisia I of Caria
Ἀρτεμισία (Greek)
Queen of Halicarnassus, Kos, Nisyros, and Kalymnos
Painting by German artist Wilhelm von Kaulbach depicting Artemisia shooting arrows at the Greek fleet during the Battle of Salamis, 1868[1]
Reignfl. 480 BC
PredecessorUnknown (her husband)
SuccessorPisindelis
BornHalicarnassus
(modern-day Bodrum, Turkey)
Issue
DynastyLygdamid
FatherLygdamis I
MotherUnknown
ReligionGreek polytheism
Lygdamid dynasty
(Dynasts of Caria)
c. 520–484 BCE Lygdamis I
c. 484–460 BCE Artemisia
c. 460–454 BCE Pisindelis
c. 454–450 BCE Lygdamis II

Artemisia I of Caria (Ancient Greek: Ἀρτεμισία; fl. 480 BC) was a queen of the ancient Greek city-state of Halicarnassus, which is now in Bodrum, present-day Turkey. She was also queen of the nearby islands of Kos, Nisyros and Kalymnos,[2] within the Achaemenid satrapy of Caria, in about 480 BC.[2] She was of Carian-Greek ethnicity by her father Lygdamis I, and half-Cretan by her mother.[3] She fought as an ally of Xerxes I, King of Persia against the independent Greek city states during the second Persian invasion of Greece.[4] She personally commanded ships at the naval battle of Artemisium[5] and at the naval Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. She is mostly known through the writings of Herodotus, himself a native of Halicarnassus, who praises her courage and relates the respect in which she was held by Xerxes.

  1. ^ On the identification with Artemisia: "...Above the ships of the victorious Greeks, against which Artemisia, the Xerxes' ally, sends fleeing arrows...". Original German description of the painting: "Die neue Erfindung, welche Kaulbach für den neuen hohen Beschützer zu zeichnen gedachte, war wahrscheinlich „die Schlacht von Salamis“. Ueber den Schiffen der siegreichen Griechen, gegen welche Artemisia, des Xerxes Bundesgenossin, fliehend Pfeile sendet, sieht man in Wolken die beiden Ajaxe" in Altpreussische Monatsschrift Nene Folge p. 300
  2. ^ a b Enc. Britannica, "Artemisia I"
  3. ^ Penrose, Walter Duvall (2016). Postcolonial Amazons: Female Masculinity and Courage in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-19-953337-4.
  4. ^ Polyaenus: Stratagems- Book 8, 53.5 "Artemisia, queen of Caria, fought as an ally of Xerxes against the Greeks."
  5. ^ Herodotus Book 8: Urania, 68 "...which have been fought near Euboea and have displayed deeds not inferior to those of others, speak to him thus:..."