Myrrine (480 BC-) was a Spartan noblewoman who served as Oligarch of Naxos during the Peloponnesian War. She was the daughter of King Leonidas, the wife of Nikolaos of Sparta, and the mother of Kassandra and Alexios, and she joined her long-lost daughter as a lieutenant on her ship Adrestia in 429 BC in order to fight the Cult of Kosmos and reunite her family.
Biography[]
Myrrine in 446 BC
Myrrine was born circa 480 BC, the only daughter of King Leonidas of Sparta and his wife Gorgo. Her father was slain at the Battle of Thermopylae shortly after she was born, and she inherited the broken fragment of his spear, which became a family heirloom. She came to be a beautiful young woman, and she fell in love with the much older philosopher Pythagoras, who impregnated her before leaving to live a life of seclusion on Thera. In 453 BC, Myrrine gave birth to her child, Kassandra, and she married the famed Spartan general Nikolaos shortly after. Nikolaos was a dutiful Spartan who devoted his life both to Sparta and to the daughter of its late King, raising Kassandra as his own child and fathering Myrrine's second child, Alexios, in 446 BC. However, the Oracle of Delphi - controlled by the secretive Cult of Kosmos - demanded that this second child be sacrificed at Mount Taygetos. Kassandra attempted to stop the sacrifice, but she accidentally pushed both the priest and the baby Alexios from the cliff. The other attendees accused Kassandra of murder and forced Nikolaos to throw her from the cliff as well, and a sobbing and heartbroken Myrrine failed to convince Nikolaos not to do it. Nikolaos then grabbed Kassandra and dropped her from the cliff to her apparent death.
Finding a purpose[]
Myrrine immediately rushed to the bottom of the mountain and found Alexios, who was still clinging to life; however, Kassandra had secretly run away, and she was presumed dead. Myrrine travelled alone to Argolis to seek out the medician's assistant Hippocrates, who directed her to the priests at the Sanctuary of Asklepios instead. Myrrine was given food, shelter, and a bath, but the priests predicted that Alexios could not be saved. The priestess Chrysis was aware that Alexios would survive, however, and she kidnapped him and raised him as a weapon for the Cult of Kosmos (due to his shared bloodline with Leoniads); she then had the priest Mydon lie to Myrrine and inform her that her child had died. Believing that both of her children were now dead, Myrrine grew estranged from her husband and decided to run away.
Myrrine then renounced her name and Spartan citizenship and assumed the alias "Phoenix", making her way to Corinth and being taken in by the hetaera Anthousa. She often kept to herself and refused to reveal her past to any of the hetaerai, but she joined Anthousa in opposing the Monger's rise to power. The Monger threatened to behead her and take her head to the Cult if she persisted in opposing him, and she ultimately left aboard her ship, the Siren Song, which she had won in a dice game.
Island ruler[]
Myrrine telling Xenia of her decision to leave
Phoenix later came to the island of Keos, where she met the pirate queen Xenia and joined her crew. She became close friends with Xenia, who regarded her as an excellent pirate, but, after a period of sailing with Xenia, she ultimately decided that being a pirate was not her true calling and bade farewell to her former friend.
Myrrine then sailed to the island of Naxos, which she found was in a naval war with neighboring Paros. By this point, little was known about the woman named Myrrine prior to her arrival in Corinth. Whispers of her brief but ruthless career as a smuggler under Xenia, the Pirate Queen, came and went. However, Phoenix became known across the Greek world as the cunning and fearless leader of Naxos, which sought for her to lead them in their struggle. By 429 BC, amid the Peloponnesian War, Naxos and Paros' rivalry escalated into open war due to the aggressive nature of the Parian oligarch Silanos. Myrrine had several generals at her disposal, including Timo, with whom she may have had a romantic relationship, as she called her "my sweet" and had a strong bond with her.
Reunions[]
Kassandra and Myrrine's reunion
In 429 BC, Myrrine's long-lost daughter Kassandra turned up at Myrrine's estate, surprising her mother and causing a tearful reunion between the two. Kassandra had come to Myrrine with the help of her stepfather (whom she briefly met in Megaris), Herodotus, Xenia, Mydon, Anthousa, and Alcibiades, having met them during her search for her family and her quest to take down the Cult of Kosmos. She caught up with her mother, with the two updating each other on their whereabouts for the past several years. Their conversation was cut short by a Parian invasion, but Kassandra joined her mother in repulsing the attack. She then invited her mother to sail with her and attempt to find Alexios, who had become the feared Cult warrior "Deimos". Myrrine resolved to ensure Naxos' safety first, and, after Kassandra slew Silanos and destroyed his fleet, Myrrine agreed to join Kassandra, leaving the late Pericles' mistress Aspasia as the new Archon of Naxos.
In 428 BC, Kassandra and Myrrine headed to Sparta, where they found that their old home had been seized by the state. At the behest of Brasidas, they suppressed a helot rebellion to win the favor of the kings of Sparta, and the Spartan kings sent Kassandra to compete in the Olympic Games in Elis to win the gods' favor and then conquer Boeotia from Athens, while Myrrine journeyed to Arcadia with Brasidas to track down the cultist Lagos. With Kassandra's help, they discovered from Lagos that King Pausanias of Sparta was a Cult puppet, and they revealed this in front of the ephors, leading to Pausanias being exiled. The other Spartan king responded by restoring the family's home to them, and Myrrine and Kassandra later met Alexios at Mount Taygetos and convinced him to rejoin the family and abandon the Cult. They were joined by Nikolaos and his adopted son Stentor, and the family sailed together and went on several more adventures over the years.