Artemisia of Halicarnassus was born in the city currently known as Bodrum (Turkey), and was the tyrant of the region of Caria (Asia Minor). She commanded a small fleet of five ships with which she joined the Persian army of the Great King Xerxes I in his expedition against the Greeks in the Second Persian invasion of Greece. She fought at the head of her troops and led them in the battles of Artemisium and Salamis.

Read the excerpt about Artemisia of Halicarnassus and answer the questions

Albert Schlögl, in his work Herodotus (Madrid, 2000, Alderabán Ediciones, pp. 22-23), gives us this vision of Artemisia:

A woman and mother at the forefront of an elite troop!

He comments that this fact would still be, even in our time, a headline in the pages of the yellow and sensationalist press: It must have impressed the ancient Greeks, who paid obeisance to an uncompromising patriarchy.

It is important to know that in ancient Greece the world of men, their activities, occupations and interests was seen as absolutely opposite to that of women. The female citizens of the Greek póleis lived locked up at home (there was a part of the house destined only for them: the gynaecium), were excluded from social and political activities, and celebrated their own religious festivities which were forbidden to men.

How shocking Artemisia's attitude must have been in such a context!