Artemisia II of Caria

Artemisia II of Caria (Greek: Ἀρτεμισία; died 351 BC ) was a naval strategist, commander and the sister (and later spouse) and successor of Mausolus, ruler of Caria. Mausolus was a satrap of the Achaemenid Empire, yet enjoyed the status of king or dynast of the Hecatomnid dynasty. After the death of her brother/husband, Artemisia reigned for two years, from 353 to 351 BCE. Her ascension to the throne prompted a revolt in some of the island and coastal cities under her command due to their objection to a female ruler. Her administration was conducted on the same principles as that of her husband; in particular, she supported the oligarchical party on the island of Rhodes.

Because of Artemisia's grief for her brother-husband, and the extravagant and bizarre forms it took, she became to later ages "a lasting example of chaste widowhood and of the purest and rarest kind of love", in the words of Giovanni Boccaccio. In art, she was usually shown in the process of consuming his ashes, mixed in a drink.

Life Colossal statues of a man and a woman from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, traditionally identified as Artemisia II and Mausolos, around 350 BCE, British Museum. While Artemisia's father is known to have been Hekatomnos, the identity of her mother is less clear. There is a possibility that her mother might have been Aba, daughter of Hyssaldomos and a sister of Hekatomnos. This view however is challenged by scholars who believe that the sibling marriages of the Hecatomnids were purely symbolic in nature and that while Ada was attested as his consort, it is not known if she was the mother of Hekatomnos‘ children.

Artemisia is renowned in history for her extraordinary grief at the death of her husband (and brother) Mausolus. She is said to have mixed his ashes in her daily drink, and to have gradually pined away during the two years that she survived him. She induced the most eminent Greek rhetoricians to proclaim his praise in their oratory; and to perpetuate his memory she built at Halicarnassus the celebrated Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and whose name subsequently became the generic term for any splendid sepulchral monument.

Artemisia is known for commanding a fleet and played a role in the military-political affairs of the Aegean after the decline in Athenian naval superiority. which was about seven stades distant from the city. When the inhabitants of Latmus came out to see the magnificent procession, the soldiers entered the city and took possession of it. Scale model of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Miniatürk, Istanbul.

Other monuments Another celebrated monument was erected by Artemisia in Rhodes to commemorate her conquest of the island. The Rhodians, after regaining their liberty, made it inaccessible, whence it was called in later times the Abaton (άβατον) which means "Do not tread" or "inaccessible". This bronze statue portrays Artemisia in the act of branding the personification of the island of Rhodes, potentially represented by the goddess Rhodos.

In later art Artemisia drinking her husband's ashes was a subject in painting from the Renaissance onwards, especially enjoying a vogue in Dutch Golden Age painting around the middle of the 17th century, being painted by Rembrandt (Prado) among others. This was probably stimulated by the publication in 1614 of a Dutch translation of the collection of anecdotes of Valerius Maximus, who was active in the reign of Tiberius. Rembrandt for one can be shown to have read and used this book.

Artemisia is always shown with a cup or urn, either alone or with a group of attendants offering or helping to mix the drink. The subject is therefore very similar to Sophonisba taking poison, and the Rembrandt, and a Donato Creti in the National Gallery, are examples of works where the intended subject remains uncertain between the two.

Other cultural references

Artemisia received a full and friendly biography in the De mulieribus claris ("On Famous Women"), a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, written by 1374. Boccaccio completely omits reference to her husband being her brother ("... knowledge of her parents or native country has not reached us ..."), and praised her: "to posterity she is a lasting example of chaste widowhood and of the purest and rarest kind of love".

Representations of Artemisia in art