The Admiral: Artemisia I

Here we are at the end of our Ancient Greek series and today we're ditching the dudes and talking about the Greek Queen dubbed 'more man than men'. I can't wait for you all to meet Artemisia of Caria, one of my favourite women in antiquity! As promised, ⁠the Hot History Substack⁠ https://substack.com/@hothistoryclub is also now live! If you'd like to support us there, you'd be very welcome! Shout out to our incredible researcher Grace McCamish for helping to pull this together, and if you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here! Til next week, Ainslie x

• 0:02Speaker 00

  The action's on the court and as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Michelob Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats, merch and more. Visit michelobultra.com/courtside to enter. Michelob Ultra Courtside, 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to US residents 21+ Begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  When fall comes back around, there's a sense of a reset. And new pieces from Lululemon's Fall Drop are an inspiration to push your goals and elevate your routines. As your calendar fills, easy-to-layer styles meet the demands of your day. And as you challenge yourself to try even more, versatile sets transition with you. The Lululemon Fall Lineup brings new levels of comfort and confidence, whether you're starting something fresh or starting something over. Check out the latest arrivals in store and on lululemon.com now.

• 1:00Speaker 02

  Hello my divas. I am coming to you before we dig into this last episode on the ancient Greek world to remind you that our Substack has launched. You can go and subscribe there for free or for a paid subscription as part of the free offering every single Monday. I am going to drop into your inbox in the morning before you've even woken up, before a single bothersome work email has come. A newsletter on what happened this week in history, okay? From Monday to Sunday, we are going to look at one specific event that happened on each day throughout the week. So if you guys have got a Pilates class, right? Or a whip or a dinner date that night, you can spare a thought for Marilyn, right?

• 1:44Speaker 02

  Who got a big break on that day or Audrey Hepburn, who, you know, decided she wasn't going to be a ballerina. You guys can just get it straight into your email every single Monday morning if you subscribe. There is also then a fortnightly kind of think piece for our paid subscribers. Plus, you can access the pod and other kind of community notes and things there. So if you would like to head over and subscribe on Substack, I will leave a link in the show notes. Otherwise, just head over to Substack and look up Hot History Club. Thanks, guys. Let's get into it.

• 2:28Speaker 02

  Hi guys and welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian, ready to chat today. We're gonna keep it going, alright, with Ancient Greece. I said I was gonna be doing it for all of July, but I'm tapping out a week early. This is gonna be our last episode on Ancient Greece, because to be fair, I'm over it, guys. I've had enough. I've stayed in one place for too long. But unlike the last few weeks, we are ditching the men, okay? Odysseus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, goodbye. Instead, we are talking about possibly one of the most fascinating women in antiquity. Alright, she is so incredible, so much so

• 3:09Speaker 02

  that she's described by the OG historian himself, Herodotus, as Andrea, which literally translates to manliness for her bravery, strength and determination over other men. Yep, obsessed. This is the story of Artemisia of Halicarnassus. She's a queen. She's a naval commander. She's an expert strategist and deceiver. And she is, like I said, incredible, so I cannot wait for you all to meet her. Let's get into it by rewinding it all the way back to 520 BCE to the city of Halicarnassus, situated on the southwestern coast of Anatolia, which is now modern-day Bodrum in Turkey. FYI, if you're watching on video and you haven't met him, this is Governor, my little doggy. If not, then you guys have seen pictures

• 3:53Speaker 02

  of him before. Anyway, let me tell you, divas, about Halicarnassus. It is a beautiful city, okay? There's a port town, so you're right near the sea. There's a bustling city with trade and commerce. The weather is gorgeous and really is quite advanced for its age. So like this gorgeous place to grow up in, right? Which is exactly what Artemisia, daughter of King Lytemus of Caria and an unknown Cretan mother, did. Here, amongst the port and the palace, young Artemisia thrived, living a very different life than her aristocratic counterparts throughout Greece and really, if we're being honest, throughout history. She was incredibly well-educated, training in disciplines from administrative and diplomatic arts to medicine and battle strategy.

• 4:38Speaker 02

  And amongst all of that, found time for fun, hanging out along the merchant docks where she extensively spoke with sailors and traders alike, learning how to sail and crew a ship. So again, very different in this regard. She's like quite an active, like a free-range outdoor girly, you know? Something which was really important and it was kind of central to who she goes on to be because it shows her really early on the importance of trust, teamwork, and also the relationship between politics and commerce as she engaged, like I said, with these traders and merchants, which was really important because at this point, guys, Caria, right? Like the kind of wider nation is in a bit of a precarious

• 5:21Speaker 02

  state geopolitically. You see, 20 years before Artemisia is born, so around 540 BCE, Caria was conquered by Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great, making the region a satrapi, aka province, of the wider Persian Empire, which basically means that Caria and Artemisia as its heir had to submit to the Persians while still fighting for increased independence and, you know, like Carian cultural values. So it's really a sticky position, which became all the more precarious around 480 BCE, when one of the most ambitious military expeditions the ancient world had ever seen kicked into gear. Led by Persian Emperor Xerxes I, his new and improved Persian army was the largest

• 6:06Speaker 02

  force ever seen on the Greek peninsula to date, guys. Absolutely huge, with ancient scholars estimating there were millions of Persian land army soldiers, although that is likely exaggerated with modern estimates saying it was around 200,000. But like either way, guys, a huge, huge force and one which Artemisia soon had to contend with. But after her father's death in mid 480 BCE, so like this same, this same kind of time, she became Caria's sole ruler and most importantly, the one who had to deal with Xerxes.

• 6:45Speaker 00

  The action's on the court and as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Michelob Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats, merch and more. Visit michelobultra.com/courtside to enter. Michelob Ultra Courtside, 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to US residents 21+ Begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details.

• 7:13Speaker 03

  Whenever fall comes back around, it always feels like a fresh start. This year, I've been layering in some styles from the new Lululemon Fall Drop because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready for the entire day and not just one part of it. Lululemon's Fall Line has some really versatile transitional pieces, so I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at lululemon.com.

• 7:44Speaker 02

  Now, for those of my divas who are well-versed in your movie and history knowledge, you will know Xerxes as the guy who defeated King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae. If you don't, don't you sweat it for a single moment, guys. Zero shame here, but I will say, quick little tidbit, alright? If you are into, even remotely, sweaty sexy men with swords and sandals, then you should go and put 300 into your search bar at your own risk, okay, guys? Lots of sexy sexy men with very defined abs and like little leather sandal things on. You can take me later. And to be fair, we will actually talk about 300 and its sequel a bit here, but we will

• 8:29Speaker 02

  get back to Xerxes in the meantime, right? So as we said, he was an empire builder, right? And he wanted to control all of Greece, not just a few of the states. He wanted it all, the very heartland. And as such, he decided to wage full-blown war against the various city-states, one of which was Sparta. Now, knowing that the Persians were about to attack, a council of Greek states was held. And while the Peloponnesians, a regional people of Greece, generally wanted their army to fall back, Leonidas, king of Sparta, stood firm on his wish to remain as Greece's primary defence and as such, took 7,000 troops, including

• 9:09Speaker 02

  300 of his finest men, to meet the invading Persians off the Greek coast at Thermopylae. Okay, so we have Xerxes gearing up for a huge invasion, right? Most of the Greeks not wanting to meet him head-on and the Spartans gearing up as the frontline defence. So where does our girl Artemisia slot into all of this? Well, even though Artemisia was culturally Greek and her priority above all else, of course, was to Caria and her people, she was firmly on the Persian side, understanding above all else, and remember, I said she's so smart, right? Understanding above all else how very fragile the balance of power could be. So when Xerxes comes knocking at the doors of Halicarnassus for troops to fight in this

• 9:54Speaker 02

  invasion, she answered, but not with infantrymen, but a navy. Yes, you see, as a port city, Halicarnassus was full of skilled sailors and traders whose whole lives revolved around the sea, something which Artemisia fostered even further for when she became the ruler. She pushed for this, you know, kind of greater trade programme that strengthened Halicarnassus's position as the major maritime power at the time, alongside really, you know, becoming involved in the everyday lives of her people. She became a patron of the arts, she funded widespread education and she basically turned Halicarnassus into Halicarnasas. Yes, I have been waiting for all episode to make that joke, divas.

• 10:38Speaker 02

  You are welcome. It's giving like that episode of Queer Eye, they all came to Australia and went to Yas inspo.

• 10:46Speaker 02

  Her true triumph, however, as we said, was in diplomacy. And so she offered up Carian ships and naval officers to the Persian efforts alongside herself. That's right, you see, there is one teeny tiny little detail that I've left out about our girl. For all her diplomacy, intellect and commercial skills, Artemisia was above all else, a fearsome warrior. With her name actually derived from the goddess Artemis, who we spoke to a little while ago, right? Patron deity of hunters. So she is incredibly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and naval skills from an early age. So when the Persian war calls sounded, she responded not only with her fleet, but with herself as their leader, which I want to make very clear here, guys.

• 11:29Speaker 02

  While Caria like absolutely had to send troops, Artemisia as its queen did not have to lead them. This was really extraordinary for the time and definitely speaks to like the leader and the level of skill that this woman had, you know, she was never going to ask anybody to do anything that she herself would not. So as I said, right, she's a proper badass here and someone who really earned the affection of her crew, co-commanders and Herodotus, who wrote, quote, "I pass over all the other officers of the Persians because there is no need for me to mention them, except for Artemisia, because I find it particularly remarkable that a woman should have taken part in the expedition against Greece", which, you know, for the time was a fair statement, this wasn't common for kings, let alone queens.

• 12:14Speaker 02

  And so the Carian navy set off to link up with the Persians for their big offensive against the Greeks, which is when we come back to Leonidas and his three hundred on the Greek shoreline at Thermopylae. Now, as we already said, right, the whole point of this battle was that the Greeks tried to halt the Persians' progress at Thermopylae, which they ultimately needed to get through in order to access the rest of Greece, including Athens. Okay, the very heartland of Greek culture and history. So like this is a super duper high stakes, important mission here. So how on earth are Leonidas and his seven thousand men going to face off against this huge Persian force here?

• 12:53Speaker 02

  Like surely this is just, you know, at this point, a suicide mission and you are not wrong, in many ways it was. But Thermopylae was advantageous and peaked specifically for its geographically strategic position, as it had this really big, um, like mountainous wall, basically, which allowed the Greeks to form a line which blocked the entry. So when Xerxes got to the pass of Thermopylae, he found it really difficult to pass, even sending in his immortals, a ten thousand man elite corps, who were all butchered by the Spartans. Again, if you watch Three Hundred, you know what I'm talking about. The Spartans were deeply militaristic, like incredible.

• 13:36Speaker 02

  So this is insane, right? Like on any other day, this would have looked like a total disaster for the Greeks, but they defended themselves for two whole days using a tightly packed phalanx formation and huge bronze shields to both defend while also faking retreats and using their superior attack training to absolutely batter the huge Persian army while suffering barely any losses themselves. Again, this is three hundred men versus an estimate of like two hundred thousand. So this is insane. But they could not hold out forever, especially my Davis, when there is a snitch about.

• 14:20Speaker 02

  Of course, there is a nasty little dibba-doba in the mix. Where isn't there, right? And his name was Aphelites, a local Greek trader who told Xerxes about a path that went around Thermopylae, which basically rendered the Greeks' line useless and ultimately resulted in the deaths of Leonidas and his three hundred last remaining Spartans, opening a pathway for Xerxes and the Persians to head right into southern Greece. Now, you may be thinking, well, okay, but kind of snores, like we're not here for the men, right? We're here for our hottie naval commander, but do not worry, because she is cracking on with a fight at sea against several Greek vessels.

• 15:04Speaker 02

  And let me tell you, here she really shows just how smart she is. So seeing the Greek ships approach, she basically tells her men, like, put down your arrows, right? Put down the flamethrowers, just hold on to whatever you can, because instead of going on the offence here, she just basically starts like ramming into several Greek vessels to make way for the larger Persian fleet behind her. So basically the equivalent of like a big old body slam, but you know, obviously it's seeing the ships. Now, as we said already, the battle against the Spartans was over in three days, after which the triumphant Persians and Artemisia travelled to Athens to reconvene. So the Persians are in Greece, right?

• 15:49Speaker 02

  The Spartans have been defeated, Artemisia has kind of shown her acumen, and this is really a moment of great triumph. But when Artemisia arrives at Athens, she comes face to face with the city of ancient thought and culture, but instead finds a burning heap of rubble. Raised by Xerxes' commander Mardonius, the Persians hunted down any remaining Athenians before setting fire to the Acropolis, temple of Athena and the Parthenon. To Artemisia, who valued art, culture and history, this was a great loss that significantly lowered her opinion of Mardonius, which kind of explains what happened next, guys. Absolute ancient tea. Are we ready? So, having demonstrated such success and bravery in battle,

• 16:34Speaker 02

  Artemisia earned herself a seat on Xerxes' war council, again, very uncommon for any woman at this time, which she ultimately used to her greatest advantage by showing Mardonius as the fool he is, which, you know, of course, I'm a huge fan of, right? So what does she do? Well, it all started when Xerxes asked his commanders and generals what their next point of attack should be after all. You know, they'd kind of steamed through southern Greece and had now reached Athens. So what's to do next? You know, where do we pillage now? Well, Mardonius, to the surprise of no one here, recommended a huge forward assault on the Greek navy, crushing what remained of the Greek defence in one foul swoop.

• 17:14Speaker 02

  Several of the other men present agreed, however, Artemisia had a different point of view, which Herodotus is kind enough to recount for us, saying, quote, "The unanimous view was that Xerxes should engage the enemy at sea with only a singular dissenter, Artemisia, who stood up in defiance of all at the table and said, 'Master, it is only right that I should tell you what is, in my honest opinion, the best course of action for you. So here is my advice, do not commit the fleet to battle. The Greeks do not have the resources to hold out against you for any length of time. You will scatter them and they will retreat to their various towns and cities.' The result after this was silence.

• 17:56Speaker 02

  With her defiance of their plans and the insolence of her, a woman, speaking at all in such company, enraging the other generals, including of course, Mardonius, who expected Xerxes to give her a big old bloody nose for the offence. However, not a drop of the Carian queen's blood was spilled. In fact, Xerxes was delighted by this, guys. He loves it. And Herodotus tells us he had already, quote, "rated her highly before, but she went up even further in his estimation after." So this is a big old middle finger to Mardonius and his barbarian friends. And if this were made into a period drama war epic kind of thing today,

• 18:41Speaker 02

  this would be the scene clipped up and reshared across TikTok a million times, guys, but you know, it isn't. Although I did say we would talk about the sequel to Three Hundred, so it is Three Hundred: Rise of an Empire, and it does actually feature Artemisia very loosely, who was played by Eva Green. So again, if you guys are like into the sweaty hot men and women, then go ahead and watch that. Although, fair warning here, it's pretty gory. So if that's not for you, then you can just watch this pod on Spotify, you know, and you can see the pictures on the screen, like this, hot. But anyway, back to Xerxes' war council, right? So Artemisia's had her say. But what now? How will Xerxes proceed? Well, because he is a man and more than that, because he is an egotistical ancient emperor,

• 19:26Speaker 02

  restraint and patience was never an option here. So blood and battle it would be, with the fleet and army making their way to Solamis, where they would face off against the remaining Greek force in a head-on naval assault. Now, I want to be clear here about Artemisia, okay? Because despite her desire to besiege versus go to battle, she had no intention of taking a backseat role here, all right? She goes into this showing no sign of fear, no sign of weakness, and really prepared herself and her crew for the ongoing onslaught. But she did so in a particularly savvy way. Again, remember, she's a smart and brutal queen here.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  So unlike the men in her company, she fights with what's between her ears, not between her legs. So what's the strategy then? Well, Artemisia saw the value in, how shall we say it? A, um, certain brand or kind of deception, maybe? You know, she's, she's nifty. She's not lying. She's just recycling. For when she rammed those earlier Greek ships off Thermopylae, Artemisia, again, never one to let a good thing go to waste, kind of spots some Greek flags floating around in the sea and you know, she's going.

• 20:48Speaker 02

  Vintage, you know, let me hold on to them for safekeeping, which is important in what's about to happen next. So the Persians show up to Salamis to face off against the hilariously outnumbered and outgunned Greek navy. And everyone's like, you know, this is going to be easy. But guess what, divas? It was in fact not easy for the Greeks, obviously aware of the terrain here, like this is their home, drive the Persians into the notorious straits. Now it is impossibly narrow here, guys. It's dangerously shallow and all in all impossible to maneuver unless you're Jack Sparrow in that fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie with like Javier Baldem, you know, where he does the big turn thing, right? But none of these people are.

• 21:32Speaker 02

  So the straits trap the larger Persian vessels who go in full steam ahead with all these sorts of like armour and supplies on board. So it's really heavy their ships are, while the lighter Greek ships are able to kind of, you know, hop, skip and bounce around um to launch their assault against the Persians. So the Persians fell for some easy, low hanging rage bait here. But guess who is not falling for this? Of course, our gal, Artemisia. She's not going on unnecessary ocean voyages and instead holds her crew back from entering the strait completely, watching the onslaught before her from the mouth of the strait, which is when she pulls out, right?

• 22:17Speaker 02

  Her vintage recycled Greek flag, which she rises up the mast, fooling the Greeks with an abracadabra for the ages. Basically, she's using this like friendly disguise to again, go back to her OG tactic, ramming, right? So she's not fighting, she's just like coming at you and she's ramming these Greek ships, which tried to come out of the strait, inflicting maximum casualties on her enemies, while her crew remained relatively unharmed. So she's kind of like the cap on this bottle, right? She's like, anyone trying to come up? I don't think so. Now, this was super effective from afar, but unfortunately the ruse could not be maintained up close. And when it became apparent that the Greeks were closing in and defeat was all but certain

• 23:02Speaker 02

  for the Persians, she knew the only thing to do was cut and run. With Xerxes watching the disaster unfold from the high shores above, Artemisia raised the Greek flag even higher, turned her ship towards the sea and rammed her way free, sending both Greek and Persian ships splintering to their doom. It was a genius, albeit treacherous act, that achieved three key things here, all right? First, it allowed for her and the carrion crew to escape the doomed battle. So the Persians still had at least one seafaring vessel, like these guys were really fucked at this point. Second, it deceived the Greeks into thinking she was one of their own, which ensured she wasn't followed.

• 23:47Speaker 02

  So she could kind of, you know, actually go out to sea. And third, it proved to Xerxes that she was made of both brawn and brains, himself saying, quote, "My men have become women and my women, men." If only he'd actually listened to that woman from the get go, but he didn't. And so the battle was lost and Xerxes is now left in a rather precarious situation here, guys. You see, he is typical man here, so confident of an easy victory in Greece, that he'd bought his most precious treasures on earth along for the trip, his two sons.

• 24:26Speaker 02

  And now here he was staring down at the majority of his hamada sinking and fizzing beneath the waves. And there was a real possibility at this point of his and his heirs' deaths. So in undoubtedly the greatest sign of respect and trust he tasked Artemisia with their protection back to carrier for safekeeping. Not Mardonius or any other general who wanted to, you know, run headfirst into the strait, but Artemisia, making her the most trusted person in the Persian world. So she sets off, right? Having avoided the Greek onslaught and after several weeks at sea with one of the most

• 25:06Speaker 02

  skilled crews in the Mediterranean, Artemisia, the boys and her men all arrived safely back in Halicarnassus, where they were showered with ceremony from the city's adoring citizens, who genuinely did love their queen, guys. Like she was a really great woman, like a true woman of the people here. But the real price, however, came from Xerxes several months later, who showered Artemisia with treasures, gold and something no other satirpy of the Persian empire achieved under Xerxes, extensive independence, which would not have been possible without their queen's intense bravery and skill. So she's a queen, right? She's an admiral, she's a war hero and a stateswoman of the ages.

• 25:51Speaker 02

  And now back in Halicarnassus, she's kind of, you know, free to do as she pleases. So what does she do there? Well, as far as history is concerned, she pretty much did nothing. Yeah, that's right, guys. There is almost no mention of the great commander after she returned home to Halicarnassus, with the sources we do have varying so greatly that it's almost impossible to meet a middle ground, which literally is just testament to the, you know, state of women's history here. Like this woman is so incredible and we know.

• 26:26Speaker 00

  The action's on the court and as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Michelob Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats, merch and more. Visit michelobultra.com/courtside to enter. Michelob Ultra Courtside, 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to US residents 21 plus. Begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details.

• 26:54Speaker 03

  Whenever fall comes back around, it always feels like a fresh start. This year I've been layering in some styles from the new Lululemon fall drop because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready for the entire day and not just one part of it. Lululemon's fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces, so I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at lululemon.com.

• 27:23Speaker 02

  Barely anything about her, it's insane. So what do the sources say then? Well, some of the later carrion sources believe that she died sometime around 460 BCE, while others say she died shortly after the war. But to be honest, it doesn't really matter when it comes to looking at the historiography because the one thing that everyone gets hot and heavy over here is her method of death. Thanks to the poet Sappho. So who is this person? Well, she was actually a woman and an incredibly fascinating one at that, living around the sixth to seventh centuries BCE on the Greek island of Lesbos. Now she definitely, guys, deserves her own deep dive one day, so I'll add her to my

• 28:08Speaker 02

  ever growing list of subject matter, which FYI, thank you guys so much for sending through suggestions and ideas. It does really help me when putting these episodes together. But back to Zappo. So amongst being one of the most famous Greek poets of all time, she is most well known in pop culture today because of her connection to the queer community. Writing her love poetry to women, the origins of the word lesbian are derived from the Greek island of Lesbos where she lived and sapphic itself referring to women who were attracted to other women, obviously, you know, inspired by her name. So she's a proper diva here, right? But the historical record has not been kind to her, with legend suggesting that Sappho

• 28:48Speaker 02

  killed herself by jumping off the Locadian cliffs after a ferryman named Phaon didn't return her affection.

• 28:57Speaker 02

  Which I gotta say, ding dinging on my BS radar big time, guys. Seriously? You want me to believe that this queen, this queer queen, right? According to many historians and literary interpretations, everybody believes that she was queer, killed herself for some random boatman?

• 29:20Speaker 02

  I don't think so, divas. This sounds to me like some good old fashioned sexist historical bias, which is exactly what happens with Artemisia. Honestly, like I can't even say it with a straight face. It's so ridiculous when you even think about it, but we're going to get through it, all right? A male Byzantine scholar named Fatias claims that after Artemisia, the great naval commander and stateswoman, right? Returns to carrier, she um threw herself off a cliff to try to get the attention of a man. Yeah, that same woman. Seriously? You want me to actually believe that the woman who faced war and death killed herself over a man?

• 30:05Speaker 02

  A scene which, like, almost detail for detail is the exact same thing that happened to Sappho, which, again, there is no historical evidence in either of these cases. Especially because Phataeus, who was writing in the ninth century, is like hundreds of years after Artemisia is dead. Right? No, guys. You see, this is yet another example of how male history writers viewed women at the time. If they weren't sinking ships or reforming nations, they were little more than hopeless romantics who killed themselves and rejected. Ugh, yuck, vomit. Like, it's just such a fucking joke. And honestly, it is so transparent

• 30:45Speaker 02

  and generally just such a deep injustice with the rejection of these two feminist icons to pitiful desperate women whose lives only had value in the context of a man just absolutely being, one, incorrect and, two, diabolical. Right? So what actually happened? Well, like I said, there is no historical evidence of Artemisia's life after Xerxes retrieved his sons. For someone to be this influential, have, have had such an impact in both Persian and Greek history to just disappear is insane. So I'm gonna do something controversial, guys. I hope that you'll, um, follow me on the journey, right? I'm just gonna make it up.

• 31:29Speaker 02

  I mean, after all, if, you know, Phataeus can do it, then why not us? I know it's, it's very un, non-historically, like, legitimate, but if he's doing it, so am I, yeah? So after negotiating ongoing independence for Caria, which allowed it to flourish, Artemisia focused on raising her son, Pizdelis, who succeeded her as ruler. Again, facty. This freed up the queen's plate, and so she retired, spending her days advising, learning, and doing basically whatever the hell she wanted. We know she was an admirer of art and culture. Again, fact. So perhaps she upped her patronage or even experimented herself. But she lived her final years in the city she loved. Fact. Then, around 460 BCE, she died.

• 32:12Speaker 02

  No pomp, no ceremony, no Greek enemies, no man. She just died. Passing into time and legend as the hero of Halicarnassus, something which would inspire her grandson, who took Artemisia's love of history and culture and erected the famed Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Yeah, that's right, my divas. If you've been thinking this whole episode, Halicarnassus, where have I heard that before? Well, there is a chance that you've heard of the seven ancient wonders, of which the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus erected by Artemisia's grandson in reference to the warrior queen is one. Again, guys, all truth here. My version is stacking up, right?

• 32:52Speaker 02

  You can even see a Akamenev vase that King Xerxes gifted to Artemisia in the British Museum today after it was uncovered from Halicarnassus. So, you know, I'm liking my version. It's, it feels like more historically accurate than Phataeus. Like, we're both just making shit up at this point. Except mine is awesome and his is fucked. But before we wrap this all up around Artemisia, right? I do wanna spend a minute on the Mausoleum because I love me an ancient wonder. And to be honest, this is gonna be a really short episode because we don't have that much to talk about when it comes to Artemisia because we don't know anything. So let's spend a minute here before we part for another week.

• 33:31Speaker 02

  So, as we said, this was constructed by Artemisia's grandson, Mausolus, in the fourth century BCE, and he didn't skimp, guys. Spending eye-watering amounts of money on the expansion of the new capital city at Halicarnassus, which included everything from defensive walls to theatres and temples, plus his own great tomb, which his own wife, Artemisia II, took over construction of when Mausolus died, bringing in some of the most talented Greek artists to help bring the vision to life. But time was the enemy here, and the tomb was unfinished when Artemisia herself died only two years later. But don't worry, it was eventually finished. And my word, what a sight.

• 34:12Speaker 02

  Now, the best description of the Mausoleum we have around the period of Halicarnassus's height comes from Pliny the Elder, dating to the first century AD. And according to him, the Mausoleum had a high rectangular base on which there was an inner courtyard surrounded by a colonnade, formed by thirty-six columns and supporting a twenty-four-step pyramid, which modern historians today estimate to be about forty-three meters high. At the top of this pyramid sat a sculpture of a four-horse chariot, which was driven by Mausolus and Artemisia, which was, again, like stunningly decorated, right? There was sculptures, there's bar reliefs, though most of these have not survived, but we kind of know from these earlier accounts what it looked like in its heyday.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  So why is this then an ancient wonder? Well, aside from the fact it's, of course, beautiful and technologically advanced, it really does come down to what the Mausoleum survived. Having stuck around through both Alexander the Great in 334 BCE and the pirate attacks of sixty-two and fifty-eight BCE, the Mausoleum then became a tourist attraction in the later part of the second century AD and was still spic and span come the eleventh century, according to the commentary of Eustatius of Thessalonica. But sometime in the fifteenth century, it fell into obscurity, with historians believing, based on accounts and the actual archaeology, that it slowly fell to decay rather than being kind of, you know, slashed apart by bandits or destroyed in an earthquake or something,

• 35:41Speaker 02

  which means it had remains. We love this, right? A bit of archaeological site to actually go and get some proper info in, if only there was something like this for Artemisia.

• 35:52Speaker 02

  We love it, but there's another group of people who also love it, and that is the British. Yeah, so much so, they took the major surviving bits out of Turkey and placed them in the British Museum, where they remain today, which then obviously led to a big drama, one of which was back in 2012, where the Turkish were trying to appeal to international human rights laws to get the kind of remains of the Mausoleum back. But guess where they still are? Yeah, room twenty-one of the British Museum, as does Artemisia's vase I spoke about before.

• 36:24Speaker 02

  Which does, guys, bring us to the end of another episode of Hot History. I kind of feel like this is a bit of a true crime one where it's like solved or unsolved. I wish I could give you like a definitive answer about what happened to Artemisia, but we do not know. I am glad that I was kind of able to introduce you to her, and I hope I've been able to, you know, give this woman who was more man than men, you know, back into the historical record as a warrior and a queen and a mother and a stateswoman, someone more than a kind of sad damsel who threw herself over a cliff because of a man, like, fucking snooze. It's, eh, no, no, no, no. I do hope I've given you enough this July to kind of wet the whistle in the ancient Greek world,

• 37:08Speaker 02

  but I am keen to move on. I'm tired of this, grandpa. That's literally how I felt putting these back-to-back episodes together. Next week, we are coming well forward. We are going back to the world of the Romanovas because we are talking about the Faberge X. As always, guys, if you are looking for some more hot history before then, you can follow us on Instagram at Hot History Club and on TikTok at hot dot history, plus a sub stack, guys, hot history there. It has been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you as always, and I will speak to you all shortly. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.

• 37:43Speaker 01

  When fall comes back around, there's a sense of a reset. And new pieces from Lululemon's fall drop are an inspiration to push your goals and elevate your routines. As your calendar fills, easy-to-layer styles meet the demands of your day. And as you challenge yourself to try even more, versatile sets transition with you. The Lululemon fall lineup brings new levels of comfort and confidence, whether you're starting something fresh or starting something over. Check out the latest arrivals in store and on lululemon.com now.

• 38:13Speaker 04

  This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Football has a play for just about everything. You can go deep, keep it on the ground, or draw up something nobody sees coming. And whether you wanna run a flea flicker or the tush push, you need a plan to fit your unique situation. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you, so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Now that's a solid game plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.