History Meme
Tommaso Dorigo has tagged me with the history meme, but my charity towards pyramid schemes only extends to rules 1 and 2, and I omit links to other blogs in the post. Besides, I don't actually know enough people to pester. So then, seven weird and/or random things about an historical figure...
The idea of a favourite never really makes sense to me. How does one compare the merits of a Marie Curie to a Cyrus the Great? Anyway, I settled on the warrior Artemisia, the Queen of Halicarnassus:
1. most famous for deceptively ramming a friendly Persian ship, which sunk along with its crew, in order to escape after the Persian defeat at Salamis, where Artemisia commanded 5 ships
2. thinking that the sunken ship was Greek, Xerxes remarked: my men fought like women and my women fought like men
3. she supposedly fought in the previous Persian victory near Cape Artemisium, at the same time as the Persian victory on land at Thermopylae, at which point the Greek situation wasn't looking good
4. it was Artemisia that advised Xerxes to return to Asia, and it was her that had warned Xerxes of the Greek strength at sea
5. she is said to have put out the eyes of her beloved but neglectful Dardanus
6. as punishment she died by taking the lover's leap
7. the later namesake, Queen Artemisia II, built a great tomb for her brother (and husband) Mausolus, who died in 353 BC (this is where the word mausoleum comes from)
The idea of a favourite never really makes sense to me. How does one compare the merits of a Marie Curie to a Cyrus the Great? Anyway, I settled on the warrior Artemisia, the Queen of Halicarnassus:
1. most famous for deceptively ramming a friendly Persian ship, which sunk along with its crew, in order to escape after the Persian defeat at Salamis, where Artemisia commanded 5 ships
2. thinking that the sunken ship was Greek, Xerxes remarked: my men fought like women and my women fought like men
3. she supposedly fought in the previous Persian victory near Cape Artemisium, at the same time as the Persian victory on land at Thermopylae, at which point the Greek situation wasn't looking good
4. it was Artemisia that advised Xerxes to return to Asia, and it was her that had warned Xerxes of the Greek strength at sea
5. she is said to have put out the eyes of her beloved but neglectful Dardanus
6. as punishment she died by taking the lover's leap
7. the later namesake, Queen Artemisia II, built a great tomb for her brother (and husband) Mausolus, who died in 353 BC (this is where the word mausoleum comes from)
posted by Kea | 5:33 PM
3 Comments:
Hello all,
I don't wish to be rude an interject here, but I have no way of contacting the owner of this blog (kea), and I would like to point out that I've commented on some discussion of my work at the of the post "M-Theory Lesson 153". I encourage those interested to read that comment.
Sorry again to interject, but there were some things I needed to clear up. It is a short post.
-drl
Hi Kea,
well, what were you bitching about! You came out with a great if concise post. I knew nothing about her - now I am going to ask for more info from my wife (who teaches latin and greek and is versed in ancient history).
No forward tags huh ? I guess I was right in finding eight myself then... You might end up being the bonus branch :)
Cheers,
T.
You are very welcome, drl. Apologies for being difficult to contact. Here is a link to your comment.
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