Anyone familiar with Frank Miller’s 2006 hit 300 should not be surprised to find its sequel, 300 Rise of an Empire, full of over-the-top images, exaggerated creatures, and completely unrealistic action sequences. But, despite 300‘s comic book stylization, the film stayed true to its ancient sources in many ways. Herodotus, Greece’s first great historian, fills his account of the Persian Wars with fantastic images, too. There are no lobster-handed people in Herodotus, and his Xerxes is not 9 feet tall, but there is a hunchbacked Ephialtes whose deformities contribute to his disloyalty, Leonidas’s Spartan guards are portrayed as nearly super-human, and, to Frank Miller’s credit, much of the action of the original movie follows the Herodotean account.
But, how about the new film? Does it show fidelity to the ancient history, too, or does it represent more of a departure? And what about Artemisia, in particular? Was there really a great and evil woman pulling the strings during the second Persian invasion?
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of inaccuracies in 300 Rise of an Empire–far more, I would argue, than in the original 300 film–but Artemisia is, indeed a real character in Herodotus’s Histories. She is an accomplished naval commander, according to Herodotus, as well as a respected adviser to Xerxes. And, she is singled out in Herodotus’s account for both of these things. There are no other female naval commanders in Herodotus’s account of Xerxes’s Persia. He has no other military advisors who are women. So, Artemisia really was kind of a big deal.
On the other hand, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Artemisia had anything to do with Xerxes development (supernatural or not) as an emperor or that she had any relationship whatsoever with Darius. Neither is there any suggestion that she and Themistocles . . . um . . . “met.” In fact, the Herodotean account makes both of these elements of 300 Rise of an Empire entirely implausible.
The real Artemisia was not a villain (except perhaps from the perspective of Damasithymos, king of of the Kalyndians; but, we’ll need a little more context before we can make sense of that part of the story). Xerxes think she’s great, although he worries a bit that she might be a freak of nature. And, Herodotus, who was Greek, goes out of his way to paint her in a positive light.
Here’s what we know from Herodotus about Artemisia, and here are the passages from the Histories that tell us her story.
Artemisia’s first appearance in Herodotus’s Histories comes in Book 7, chapter 99 (7.99). After giving a list of the names of the Greek and Persian fleets, Herodotus tells us that he will tell us about only one “subordinate commanders,” Artemisia.
Although I am not mentioning the other subordinate commanders because I am not compelled to do so, I shall mention Artemisia. I find it absolutely amazing that she, a woman, should join the expedition against Hellas. After her husband died, she held the tyranny, and then, though her son was a young man of military age and she was not forced to so so at all, she went to war, roused by her own determination and courage. Now the name of this woman was Artemisia; she was the daughter of Lygdamos by race part Halicarnassian on her father’s side, and part Cretan on her mother’s side. She led the men of Halicarnassus, Kos, Nisyros, and Klymna, and provided five ships for the expedition. Of the entire navy, the ships she furnished were the most highly esteemed after those of the Sidonians, and of all the counsel offered to the king by the allies, hers was the best. I can prove that all the cities under her leadership which I have just mentioned were Dorian, since Halicarnassians came from Troizen and all the rest came from Epidauros.
(The Landmark Herodotus, 7.99,trans. Andrea Purvis)
There’s a lot in this passage to unpack, but we’ll just pick out the big things.
1. Artemisia was not kidnapped and abused as a child. She was the daughter of royalty, married a king, and had children.
2. She was in charge not only of the fleet of her polis (city-state), but of several others, as well. She didn’t have to be. Her son was old enough to step up. But, she was motivated by “her own determination and courage.”
3. She was, as the movie depicted, Greek–Dorian, specifically, rather than Ionian. This meant that ethnically, she was related to the Spartans. This wasn’t unusual, though, and it didn’t make her a traitor. There was no unified Greece in the 5th century BCE, and lots of ethnically Greek cities in Asia Minor (and even in what is now mainland Greece) had been “medized,” that is, gathered up into the Persian empire, both politically and culturally.
4. Xerxes respected her for good ships, good military leadership, and good counsel. (She was a bad ass.)
The next time Artemisia shows up in the Histories, the Persians have burned Athens are trying to decide whether or not to engage the Greek fleet at Salamis, so we get to see her in action as Xerxes’s advisor.
So Mardonios made his way around and questioned them, beginning with the Sidonian. They all expressed the same opinion, urging him to initiate a battle at sea, except for Artemisia, who said:
“Speak to the King for me, Mardonios, and tell him what I say, since I have not proven to be the worst fighter in his naval battles of Euboea, nor have I performed the least significant of feats. Tell him, “My lord it is right and just that I express my opinion, and what I think is best regarding your interests. ‘Here is what I think you should do: spare your fleet; do not wage a battle at sea. For their men surpass yours in strength at sea to the same degree that men surpass women. And why ss it necessary for you to risk another sea battle. Do you not already hold Athens, the very reason for which you set out on this campaign? And do you not have the rest of Hellas, too? No one is standing in your way; those who have stood against you have ended up as they deserved.
“‘Let me tell you what I think your foes will end up doing. If you do land, or even if you advance to the Peloponnese, then, my lord, you will easily achieve what you intended by coming here. The Hellenes are incapable of holding out against you for very long; you will scatter them, and each one will flee to his own city. For I hear that thy have no food with them on this island, and if you lead your army to the Peloponnese, it is unlikely that those who came from there will remain where they are now and concern themselves with fighting at sea for the Athenians.
“‘But if you rush into a sea battle immediately, I fear that your fleet will be badly mauled, which would cause the ruin of your land arby as well. And there is one more thing that you should think about, sire, and keep in mind: bad slaves tend to belong to old people, while good slaves belong to bad people. And you, the best of all men, have the worst slaves, who are said to be included among your allies, namely the Egyptins, Cyprians, clinicians, and Pamphylians: they are absolutely worthless.'”
As Artemisia was speaking to Mardonios, all those who were well-disposed toward her thought her words most unfortunate, since they believe she would suffer some punishment from the King for telling him not to wage a battle at sea. On the other hand, those who were envious and jealous of her, because she was honored as one of the most prominent of the allies, were delighted by her response to the question, thinking that she would perish for it. When these opinions were reported to Xerxes, however, he was quite pleased with Artemisia’s answer. Even prior to this, he had considered her worthy of his serious attention, but now he held her in even higher regard. Nevertheless, his orders were to obey the majority; he strongly suspected that off Euboea they had behaved like cowards because he was not present, but now he was fully prepared to watch them fight at sea. (8.68-69)
A couple more key things about the real Artemisia come out of this long quotation:
5. She wasn’t afraid to disagree with Xerxes’s other advisors. She had an independent mind.
6. She had friends in Xerxes’s court, but she also had enemies.
7. She advised Xerxes AGAINST going into a sea battle with the Hellenes at Salamis because the Athenian fleet was STRONGER than the Persian fleet, even though the Persian land forces were significantly stronger than the Greeks. And, Xerxes entered the battle of Salamis against her advice.
8. As depicted in the film, Xerxes watched the battle of Salamis from a nearby mountain where he had a clear view of all the action.
When Herodotus brings Artemisia back into the spotlight, the battle of Salamis is raging.
I cannot speak of certainty about the rest of them, how each specific group of barbarians and Hellenes performed in the fighting, but this is what happened to Artemisia, which resulted in her winning still higher esteem from the King. The King’s fleet had reached a state of mass confusion and it was during this crisis that Artemisia’s ship was pursued by one from Attica. She was unable to escape it because there were so many other friendly ships in front of her, and sincerer own sip as closest to those of the enemy, she made a decision which turned out to be very much to her advantage. While she as still being chased but the Attic ship, she rammed at full speed a friendly ship manned by Kalyndians and the king of the Kalyndians himself, Damasithymos. Now I cannot say if there was some quarrel she had with him that had arisen while they were still near the Hellespont, or even whether, when she ran into the Kalyndian ship, the deed was premeditate or accidental. But when she rammed it, the good she accomplished for herself was twofold. For when the trierarch of the Attic ship saw that she was ramming a ship of the barbarians, he assumed that Artemisia’s vessel was either a Greek ship or one that was deserting from the barbarians and now fighting for the Hellenes, so he turned away from her ship to attach others.
That was one result to her advantage: she escaped and was not destroyed. But another outcome was that, even though she was doing harm to her own side, she one the highest possible praise from Xerxes. For it is said that as the King was watching, he noticed the one ship ramming the other, and one of the men with him said,” My lord, do you see how well Artemisia is fighting, and how she has snuck and enemy ship?” Xerxes inquired if it was truly Artemisia who had accomplished this feat, and they confirmed that it was, clearly recognizing the ensign of her vessel, and believing that the one she had destroyed belonged to the enemy. So all that, as I have explained, bought her good fortune. And in addition, no one from the Kalyndian ship survived to become her accuser. In response to what he had heard, Xerxes is reported to have said, “My men have become women, and my women men.”
This passage brings out some of the most interesting possibilities about Artemisia’s personality.
9. Knowingly or unknowingly, she rams and sinks one of her ally’s ships in order to avoid capture by an Athenian ship in pursuit. As a result, two really good things happen for her. (I think she knew exactly what she was doing.)
10. Xerxes praises her success in the battle, because he doesn’t know that the ship she sunk was a part of the Persian fleet. So her profile gets raised even higher.
11. The Athenian manning the ship that was pursuing her knows that the ship she sunk was Persian, so he backs off thinking that she is acting as an Athenian ally. (We find out a little later in the Histories that there was a huge bounty on Artemisia’s head, and that he never would have backed off if he had known it was she.)
Except for one or two off-hand references, the only other time Herodotus mentions Artemisia in the Histories is when Xerxes is debating what to do after his defeat at Salamis.
When Artemisia arrived, Xerxes sent away all the others, his counselors as well as his body guards, and said to her, “Mardonios bids me to stay and make an attempt to the Peloponnese, claiming that the Persians–the land army, that is–are not to blame for the disaster, and that they want to display proof of that. In any case, he bids me to do that, or if not, he wants to pick out 300,000 troop from the army and completely enslave Hellas, and bids me to lead the rest of the army back to my homeland. Well, then, since you counseled me well by trying to prevent me from wagon the naal battle that has taken place, please tell me now how I can prosper through your good advice.”
Thus he requested her advice, and this is what she told him: “Sire, it is difficult for me to give the best advice to you, as you are seeking the best possible course of action, but in view of th epresent situation, it seems to me that you should go back home, an dif Mardonios wants and promises to do what he has suggested, leave him behind here with the men of his choice. For if he does subjugate this land as he claims he would like to do and thus succeeds in this plan, the success will be yours, by lord, since the conquest will be performed by your slaves. On the other hand, if the outcome is the opposite of what Mardonios thinks will happen, it will be no great misfortune, since you will survive and so will your power in Asia as far as your own house is concerned. And if you and your house survive, the Hellenes will have to run many races for their lives. Besides, if something happens to Mardonios, it is of no great consequence. And even if the Hllenes win, they will not win anything substantial by destroying your slave, while you will march home after you have burned Athens, and thus will have achieved the goal of your expedition.”
Xerxes was delighted with this advice, for she had succeeded in telling him exactly what he was thinking himself. But I suppose that even if all the men and women in the world had advised him to stay, he would not have done so, such was his state of utter terror.
So, this brings us to the final facts about Aremisia that we can glean from Herodotus’s account.
12. After his naval defeat in the battle of Salamis, Xerxes continues to hold Artemisia’s advice in the highest possible esteem.
13. Artemisia advises Xerxes to retreat from Greece after Salamis. Given that his goal was to burn Athens, she tells him, basically, to declare victory and move on.
And that’s it! That’s the historical Artemisia. She wasn’t a witchy dark villain driven by the emotional scars of a terrible childhood. She wasn’t responsible for Xerxes ascent to the throne or his return to Greece to avenge his father’s loss at Marathon. And she didn’t rendezvous with Themistocles.
But, she was amazing, and Frank Miller was brilliant to push her to the forefront of his movie. She broke all the gender rules of the day to wield political and military power. She worked her way into the court of Xerxes by displaying her great wisdom and remarkable accomplishments. And, if you believe with me that she knew exactly what she was doing in the battle of Salamis, she showed amazing tactical brilliance and ruthlessness by making a thoroughly unconventional move that saved her life and raised her profile with Xerxes (even if it was at the expense of a shipload of her allies).
