Artemi'sia
（
*)Artemisi/a).
1. A queen of Halicarnassus, Cos, Nisyros, and Calydna, who ruled over these places as a vassal of the Persian empire in the reign of Xerxes I.
She was a daughter of Lygdamis, and on the death of her husband, she succeeded him as queen. When Xerxes invaded Greece, she voluntarily joined his fleet with five beautiful ships, and in the battle of Salamis (B. C. 480) she distinguished herself by her prudence, courage, and perseverance, for which she was afterwards highly honoured by the Persian king. (
Hdt. 7.99,
8.68,
87, &c., 93, 101, &c.;
Polyaen. 8.53;
Paus. 3.11.3.)
According to a tradition preserved in Photius (
Bibl. p. 153a, ed. Bekker), she put an end to her life in a romantic manner.
She was in love, it is said, with Dardanus, a youth of Abydos, and as her passion was not returned, she avenged herself by putting his eyes out while he was asleep.
This excited the anger of the gods, and an oracle commanded her to go to Leucas, where she threw herself from the rock into the sea.
She was succeeded by her son Pisindelis. Respecting the import of the phrase in regard to lovers, "to leap from the Leucadian rock," see SAPPHO.
