Gorgo, the woman who most influenced Spartan politics, was the daughter, wife and mother of a king

We do not know if she would look like Lena Hadley, the actress who played her in the movie 300 , but we do know that the Spartan Gorgo has not gone down in history only because she was the wife of the hero Leonidas but also because she was the only woman from that Greek city who, in addition to being the king's spouse, was also the king's daughter and mother of king, in addition to exercising an important -and exceptional- role in politics and being one of the few females that Herodotus cites by name in his Nine Books of History .

Gorgo was born in Sparta on an uncertain date that, according to Herodotus, must have been between 518 and 508 BC, although the chronological arc could be extended to 506 BC. She was the daughter of Cleomenes I, sovereign of the Agiad dynasty who had been on the throne since 520 BC, although it should be noted that since the reform of Lycurgus in the 8th century BC. the Spartan monarchy was double, a diarchy in which one of the kings belonged to the Agiad dynasty (of Dorian origin) and the other to that of the Eurypontidae (of Achaean origin). In this way, Cleomenes had to successively share power with the Eurypontid Ariston and Demaratus.

That double head symbolized, according to legend, the two twin descendants of Heracles, although the truth is that in practice it represented a system of political balance that was reinforced by the prohibition that both lineages were related to each other (they even had to be buried in different places), something that was not broken until the marriage of Cleomenes III with Agiatis, widow of his fellow diarchy, already in the third century BC. The succession was hereditary, with preference for the offspring born during the reign over the first-born, although, as is often the case, in practice there was some flexibility.

Herodotus tells that Cleomenes I only had one daughter, Gorgo, who is reviewed in his work when she was already eight or nine years old and intervened in an anecdotal episode:the audience granted to Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus, a Hellenic city in Asia Minor . Aristagoras was the son-in-law and cousin of Histieus, whom the Persians had appointed governor of Miletus and whom he replaced in office when the latter was called to the court of Darius I as an adviser. When the Cycladic island of Naxos rebelled against "certain opulent men" Philo-Persian lords, they asked Aristágoras for help, who accepted with the idea of taking control of the island and convinced the satrap of Lydia, Artaphernes, to collaborate.

But the expedition he sent failed and, fearing the ill will of Darius, who was the brother of Artaphernes, Aristagoras took a radical turn in his strategy, raising Miletus against Persian domination (perhaps incited with malicious intent by Histieus, who cunningly expected him to come out). wrong to be able to resume the position of tyrant). Shortly after, other Ionian cities joined the insurrection and, faced with the foreseeable repression of the Persian Empire, Aristagoras began a tour of Greece, from city to city, requesting help. The first visited was Sparta and it was in the aforementioned audience with Cleomenes when, as we said, Gorgo appeared in history.

Aristagoras explained the subjugation suffered by the Ionians and that it would not be difficult to obtain victory, given the difficulties that the Persians would find in gathering enough troops to subdue the entire coast of Anatolia and taking into account that they were "easy to defeat" for its scant protections and lack of bravery; furthermore, he added, the invasion would provide great economic benefits because "those who occupy that continent possess more wealth than all men put together" . But Cleomenes was not convinced due to the logistical complexity that this operation would entail, seeing the map that the other showed him (transport of the army through the Aegean and advancing for three months by land to Susa, the capital of Darius, which would mean moving away from the sea for three months, something unacceptable for a Greek).

Consequently, he dismissed Aristagoras by announcing that Lacedaemon would not intervene. But the Miletus did not give up and that night, carrying an olive branch in his hand, he went to see the king in his own home.

Although it may not seem like it from the name, fifty talents of silver constituted a fortune, since the talent was a measure of capacity equivalent to a twenty-six kilogram amphora, which meant three thousand three hundred kilograms of silver. However, Cleomenes listened to Gorgo and Aristagoras had to go to Athens and Euboea, where they did accept the request and sent two fleets. As Herodotus says, it was easier to convince an assembly of thousands of Athenians than a single Spartan king; especially if he was accompanied by his daughter, it should be added.

And it is that, without being a feminist utopia, the life of Spartan women was different from that of other Greeks, enjoying greater freedom and education (which, for some philosophers such as Aristotle, meant the final decline of Sparta). Plutarch says that girls were not subjected to that presumed possibility of infanticide that boys did suffer, as he himself relates and, contrary to what happened in Athens, for example, their diet was as good as theirs for them to grow healthy and able to bear strong children, the main mission of the Lacedaemonian woman.

Therefore, although they did not have to leave home to reside in the agelé (barrack), like them, the girls also received an agogé or compulsory physical education of a eugenic nature. They practiced wrestling, horse riding, racing, discus and javelin throwing... Hence they used to be the winners in the Hereian Games (a kind of women's Olympic Games that were held in Olympia and Argos in honor of the goddess Hera) and they could participate in the gymnopedias (religious festivals in which the ephebes did dance competitions and exercises). In the case of the Spartan women of the social elite, they even learned to read and write, plus music, dance and poetry.

Gorgo belonged to the elite, so her education must have been quite careful; so much so that Plutarch, in the book dedicated to Lycurgus of his Parallel Lives , tells another curious anecdote about the daughter of Cleomenes, perhaps with an Athenian interlocutor:

There are experts who believe that, if it really existed, this dialogue would have taken place in the period of time that elapsed between two momentous battles for Hellas:those of Marathon and Thermopylae, when the confrontation between the Greeks and the Persians had escalated and they were openly immersed in the Persian Wars. By then, Gorgo was already married to Leonidas, fourth son of the Agiad king Anaxándridas II, therefore, Cleomenes's stepbrother and her uncle, of whom he was about four decades older than her. Leonidas was not destined to reign, but he ascended to the throne, around 490 BC, in the absence of male heirs from Gorgo's father (women could inherit the paternal estate, but not the throne) and his other brother, Dorieus.

The previous year, Demarato, the eurypontid who shared a diarchy with Cleomenes I, confronted him over political-strategic differences and ended up deposed by the ephors in favor of Leotychidas II. Demaratus went into exile at the court of Darius I, who handed over the government of several Ionian cities to him. Meanwhile, Cleomenes was also forced out of power when his move against Demaratus was revealed; according to one version, they considered that he had gone mad and locked him up; according to another, he took his own life. In any case, as we have seen, Leonidas took his place and to secure his new position he married Gorgo; possibly he was a widower.

The new monarch had the aforementioned Leotyquidas as diarch and both decided to intervene in the First Medical War, although Sparta did not arrive in time to take part in the culminating moment of the contest, the battle of Marathon, which sealed the defeat of Darius I. But the danger was not over; it had just been postponed. In 486 BC C., the Persian monarch died and Demaratus intervened in the succession, which faced his two sons, Xerxes and Artabazanes, favoring the candidacy of the former, who was the one who ended up being King of Kings. The Spartan thus gained confidence and was able to find out that the new sovereign wanted to avenge the humiliation of his father and his own, after his heralds were executed.

The new invasion began to be organized in 484 BC. Demaratus, however, did not forget his origin and, as Herodotus tells it, he seconded Artabanus (Xerxes' uncle) in trying to dissuade the king from that campaign. Furthermore, he warned Sparta of the plan and did it in a way that put Gorgo back in the lead:

The text does not make it clear whether Gorgo personally read the message, but it is possible that he did so because, as we have already explained, he knew how to read and write. He did not imagine that that unusual letter was the omen of his early widowhood. As is known, Leonidas was not willing to let the Athenians save Greece again, ignoring both the Persian heralds, who demanded vassalage from him, and the ephors, who, bribed by Xerxes, took refuge in the celebration of the Carneia to denying permission to the military mobilization, he set off with three hundred of his men towards the pass of Thermopylae, the ideal place to stop the enemy while minimizing their numerical superiority.

Despite this tactical disquisition and the fact that Spartan women used to send their husbands off with the solemn phrase "Come back with your shield or on it" It was not lost on Gorgo that her husband's chances of returning, no longer victorious but even alive, were practically nil. So before she left, she asked him what he should do if the omen came true. Leonidas was also aware that this was a one-way mission; Plutarch says that his response was: «Marry a good man who treats you well, give him children and live a good life» .

In fact, they already had a first-born son, Plistarchus, who would take over from his father when he actually died at Thermopylae in 480 BC. He was still a child, so his uncle Cleombrotus and his cousin Pausanias (who would also reign later and be the winner in another battle against the Persians, that of Plataea) acted as regent and tutor, respectively, until he came of age. and he reigned alongside Leotychidas II first and his cousin Archidamus II later.

As for Gorgo, we do not know if he listened to Leonidas's recommendation or not because from then on he disappears from the historical sources and there would only be a couple more anecdotes to review, collected again by Plutarch but now in the eighteenth book of his Moralia , the titled Lacaenarum apophthegmata (Maxims of Lacedaemonian women). In one, his strong personality from a young age is highlighted again, criticizing the alleged problem of alcoholism that his father would suffer, adding that the more people drink, the more helpless they are. In another, he displays his laconic spirit by forcefully refusing a dress offered by a stranger: “Get out of here! You are not worthy to do or what women do!» .

Terrible character. After all, that is what his name means, which is more familiar to us because of three sisters from mythology:Medusa, Esteno and Euríale; yes, the gorgons, those whose heads did not have hair but snakes.

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