Artemisia I of Caria (died 460 BC) was the Queen of Halicarnassus from 484 to 460 BC, preceding Pisindelis. She was known as a trusted and talented admiral of the Persian Empire, as well as a close ally of Xerxes I, and she was defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC.
Biography[]
Artemisia was the daughter of Satrap Lygdamis of Halicarnassus and his Cretan wife. A legend said that Artemisia's family - ethnic Greeks - was raped and murdered by Greek hoplites before she was taken as a sex slave and subsequently left for dead in the streets. She was rescued and adopted by a Persian emissary, and her lust for vengance gained her the attention of King Darius the Great, who made her a naval commander after she killed many of his enemies. Snd later married the King of Halicarnassus, whom she succeeded as ruler in 484 BC. That same year, she saw to it that the newly-crowned Persian king Xerxes I became a "God-King" in the eyes of his people, with a Spartan legend stating that she saw Darius' warning to Xerxes that only the gods could defeat the Greeks as a challenge and not a warning - she had Xerxes walk naked through the desert, be baptized in otherworldy fluids, and become an eight-foot-tall God. She also killed all of those closest to Xerxes, trusting nobody, and she ensured that Xerxes became a revered deity among his people. During the Greco-Persian Wars, Artemisia was given command of the Persian fleet which supported Xerxes' invasion army, and she fought at the inconclusive Battle of Artemisia in 480 BC. She attempted to seduce the Athenian commander Themistocles in an attempt to lure him to the Persian side as her second-in-command, but she threw him off of her in mid-coitus after he refused, swearing revenge on him. At the Battle of Salamis, she ignored Xerxes' warning that the Greeks were luring her into a trap, and she fought an indecisive duel with Themistocles, leaving both of them injured. Just then, ships from several other Greek states joined the battle, and the Persian fleet was destroyed. However, Xerxes acknowledged that Artemisia had served him well, and he sent her a complete suit of Greek armor. Artemisia's later life was unfortunate, as she fell in love with a man from Abydos and blinded him when he ignored her. However, her love for him increased, and an oracle told her to jump from the rock of Leucas, which ws said to be able to cure people from the passion of love. However, this instead led to her death.