Artemisia

ARTEMISIA, daughter of Lygdamis, was queen of Halicarnassus and Cos about 480 B.C. Being a dependent of Persia, she took part in person in the expedition of Xerxes against the Greeks, and fitted out five ships, with which she distinguished herself in the sea-fight near Salami's (480). When closely pursued by the Athenians she escaped by the stratagem of attacking one of the Persian vessels, whereupon the Athenians concluded that she was an ally, and gave up the pursuit (Herod, vii. 09, viii. 68). After the battle Xerxes declared that the men had fought like women, and the women like men. By her advice he did not risk another battle, but at once retired from Greece. She is said to have loved a young man named Dardanus, of Abydos, and, enraged at his neglect of her, to have put out his eyes while he was asleep. The gods, as a punishment for this, ordered her, by an oracle, to take the famous but rather mythical lover's leap from the Leucadian promontory (Photius, Cod. 1530). ARTEMISIA, the sister and wife of Mausolus (or Maussollus), king of Caria. was sole ruler from about 353 to 350 B.C. She has immortalized herself by the honours paid to the memory of her husband.

She built for him, in Halicamassus, a very magnificent tomb, called the Mausoleum, which was one of the seven wonders of the world, and from which the name mausoleum was afterwards given to all tombs remarkable for their grandeur. She appointed panegyrics to be composed in his honour, and offered valuable prizes for the best oratorical and tragic compositions. She also ARTEMON— ARTERIES erected a monument, or trophy, in Rhodes, to commemorate her conquest of that island. When the Rhodians regained their freedom they built round this trophy so as to render it inaccessible, whence it was known as the Abaton. There are statues of Mausolus and Artemisia in the British Museum. Vitruvius ii. 8; Diodorus Siculus xvi. 36; Cicero, Tusc. iii. 31; Val. Max. iv. 6.