Some time ago we published an article in which we told how the Spanish Isabel de Barreto was the first female admiral in history. In reality, there was at least one precedent that, yes, had the advantage of being queen over her and therefore the power to personally lead a squadron:Artemisia I, Carian sovereign of Halicarnassus, who commanded the five ships that her satrapy contributed to the fleet of the Persian sovereign Xerxes I to fight against the Greeks in the battles of Artemisium and Salamis.
A movie title from 2014 will have come to mind for more than one:300, the rise of an empire , sequel to the famous and successful 300 , an adaptation of the graphic novel by Frank Miller. In it, the French Eva Green played an Artemisia who was not satisfied with holding the naval command but fought as one more warrior. But she was not the first to assume that role, since in 1962 she had already done the British Anne Wakefield in The Lion of Sparta , the film that, by the way, inspired Frank Miller to make his comic, as he himself confessed.
The magic of cinema will surely have increased interest in this character that produced admiration in ancient times, among them historians such as the Macedonian Polyene or the Roman Justin, who praised the cunning and courage shown by that woman in a world - that of war - essentially masculine. The first, for his part, left evidence of an audacious stratagem to take Heracleia from Latmo, organizing a party outside the walls that made the defenders leave (an episode that in reality should have been carried out by Artemisia II, the builder of the famous mausoleum of Halicarnassus, a century later). Another who praised her was her compatriot Heródoto, who also highlighted the influence that Artemisia exerted on Xerxes I.
On the other hand, others of her did not stop considering her an enemy in the service of the hated King of Kings and criticized her for her actions just as they would have done if they had been a man. This is the case of Thessalo, a doctor who, on his own merits, was famous for being the son of Hippocrates and accused Artemisia of wanting to destroy the island of Cos for her resistance to accepting Persian authority, although the intervention of the gods sank their ships. and made her flee (yes, later he returned and conquered the island). After all, Artemisia was Greek, with a Carian father and a Cretan mother; therefore, she a traitor in her eyes.
Halicarnassus, the city where she was born at an uncertain date in the 5th century BC, was of Hellenic origin. But being located on the southwestern coast of Caria, in Asia Minor, it was incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire by the general Harpagus -in the name of Cyrus II- after crushing the rebellion of the Lydian king Croesus, back in 545 BC. The Persians granted the Carians some autonomy but with the Ionian Rebellion, in which the Greek cities of Asia Minor rose up against Darius I, he decided to subdue it and turn Halicarnassus into a satrapy. In fact, Artemisia's father was the satrap Lígdamis I, who ruled between 520 and 484 BC. founding a dynasty of tyrants who controlled power in the region.
From Artemisia, who succeeded her father when he died given the absence of a male heir (his son Pisindelis should have done it, but he was a minor), the origin of her name is not clear, nor if it is of Phrygian or Persian origin. (in which case the stem arta , art or art would mean great or sacred), although her relationship with Artemis seems obvious. She was the goddess of wildlife, virginity, births and hunting, hence some experts lean towards an etymology referring to archer, pure or maiden; As this divinity was one of the oldest in the pantheon, it is possible that her name is pre-Hellenic.
The episode that has made Artemisia enter history through the front door is her participation in the Second Medical War and, more specifically, in the campaign that Xerxes I unleashed against continental Greece with the aim of invading it and punishing the the insurrection to the Ionian city-states. The initial plan was her father's Darío de ella, but he died during the preparations and her son decided to continue after crushing another revolt in Egypt. The best-known moments of the first operations were the crossing of the Hellespont by pontoons and the digging of a channel through the peninsula of Mount Athos, in the Greek region of Chalcidice, to avoid the detour that would otherwise have to be taken by its fleet and Thus, do not expose it to adverse weather.
The Greek polis came together to face the danger, but the Persian army was so colossal that the key to the conflict was not going to be on land but on the sea, just as the Athenian Themistocles foresaw, which was why he had promoted the construction of a huge fleet of more than two hundred triremes, the command of which he personally assumed. The first clash with the colossal Persian army was at Cape Artemisium. The Persian navarch, Achaemenes, had seen how a strong storm that lasted two days caused him to lose a third of his ships, but still tripled the number of the Greeks, which gave him confidence to go beyond mere support to the army that was advancing on land.
The battle took place off the coast of Euboea and lasted three days. In the first, the Persians expected the enemy to flee and were disrupted by surprise when instead they attacked unexpectedly and caused them to lose some thirty ships. The arrival of another storm forced a postponement and the next day, while the Spartans, Phocians, Thebans and Thespians fell at Thermopylae, overwhelmed by the superiority of their rival's troops, Achaemenes used the time to rebuild his fleet while the Greeks, reinforced by fifty Athenian triremes, finished with the ships that had been isolated.
The third day was the final. Themistocles distributed his ships by taking cover in the strait and blocking it while the Persians tried to surround them. They fought for hours and the sun was already setting when the Greeks, having received the news of the defeat of Leonidas and considering that they could not resist much longer, withdrew towards Athens, where it seems that the Persian troops were already occupying the city. Themistocles had in mind where what would probably be the decisive confrontation would take place:the bay of Salamis, ideal for the trap he was planning.
This required that the Persian fleet attack precisely in that scenario and not in the open sea, so, through a servant named Sicinus, he sent a message to Xerxes I tricking him into attacking:he told him that Athens was actually willing to recognize his authority, that the Greek commanders were at odds with each other and the Peloponnesians were leaving that very night. Xerxes, who wanted a quick and resounding victory, fell into the trap in spite of Artemisia, who advised him against entering that narrow bay, apparently being the only one of the commanders who dared to argue with him when he consulted them through the chief of staff. his army, Mardonius:
Herodotus adds that the Persian commanders feared that Xerxes would punish Artemisia's audacity but, instead, not only did he appreciate that advice in due measure but that "although he had previously considered her a woman of merit, he then highly esteemed her more» . However, he ignored her as he believed that the disappointing outcome of the previous battle was due to his not being present; on this occasion he would witness the confrontation - from Mount Egaleo - and he would make sure that his captains were up to the task. Or so he thought because, as we know, Salamina was a resounding defeat for him.
The truth is that, just as Themistocles planned, the huge number of Persian ships caused them to hinder each other in the small size of the bay and nullify their numerical superiority; According to the sources of the time, his fleet totaled one thousand two hundred seven ships (although current historians reduce that amount to just over half) compared to the Greek, which did not reach four hundred. Of these, Artermisia was in command of five of the seventy triremes contributed by Caria:those of the cities of Halicarnassus and Calinda, and those of the islands of Cos and Nisyros; according to Herodotus, "they were reputed to be the best of the entire fleet after those of Sidon" .
A significant comment, considering that the historians of the time attributed to the Persian ships and crews a superior quality to that of their adversaries. But it was not enough. The Greeks charged with their spurs the first enemy line, pushing it against the second and this against the third. That sowed chaos in the ranks of Xerxes that increased when his brother Ariamenes, who was in command of him, fell mortally wounded. The fleet was split in two and the Phoenician squadron, considered the elite, ended up running aground on the coast.
In the midst of that pandemonium, Artemisia couldn't do much either except try to get to safety because she was being chased by an Athenian ship. Herodotus gives an account of the episode:
Herodotus is of the opinion that Ameinias, the Athenian captain, was unaware that Artemisia was on board or had not given up her pursuit, as there was a reward of ten thousand drachmae for capturing her alive, since it was considered an infamy for a woman to make war on her. Athens. Polyenus gives a somewhat different view, stating that Artemisia had the Persian banners on her masts replaced by Greek ones and deliberately attacked Calinda's ship. In any case, the confusion reached Xerxes himself, who watched the action from his position and, thinking that he had sunk an enemy ship, left one of those phrases that go down in history:«My men have become women and my women into men» .
Learning the truth later did not alter his conviction. Furthermore, according to Polyenus, she gave him full hoplite armor, while she gave the captain of the ship a spindle and a spinning wheel, thus symbolically acknowledging that she had distinguished herself above the male officers. In fact, Xerxes was especially grateful to him because, Plutarch tells us, it was Artemisia who rescued Ariamenes' corpse from the waves and brought it to her brother so that she could give him the proper funeral. She is not surprised, then, that the king once again asked for his opinion on how to act after the defeat.
Xerxes liked her answer, he praised Artemisia and sent her to Ephesus entrusting her with the care of some bastard children that he had taken with him on campaign. Or so says Herodotus, who is mocked by Plutarch when he considers that the Persian would have women to spare for that task. The one from Halicarnassus could not hide a certain admiration for his compatriot, despite the fact that in 461 B.C. her grandson, the satrap Lígdamis II, executed her uncle, the poet Paniasis, for instigating an uprising against him (Herodotus himself had to flee to Samos). Lígdamis was the son of Pisindelis, of whom we do not know the identity of his father because, as Herodotus points out again, he had died when the Second Medical War began.
And there is not much information about Artemisia's personal life. Photius the Great , patriarch of Constantinople, collected in his work Myrobiblion (an anthology of historical accounts) a legend according to which she fell in love with Dardanus, a man from Abydos (a Hellespont city belonging to Mysia, where Xerxes I began to build his bridge to cross the strait). But he did not pay attention to her amorous compliments and Artemisia, desperate, gouged out her eyes, although that did not dissipate her love for him. Following the dictation of an oracle, she jumped from a cliff on the island of Leucas that was reputed to cure her sentimental affections, killing herself in the fall.
Now, that story is practically the same as that of the poetess Sappho and Photius also lived thirteen centuries later, so it seems almost certain that he mixed both characters. Therefore, we do not know what the true end of that extraordinary woman was, whose name has lasted for millennia, she baptized a ship of the Shah's Iranian navy and is remembered in various artistic and cultural manifestations, as we saw at the beginning.