Queen Of Ancient Sparta-Gorgo

Gorgo was the queen of the city-state of Sparta, she was also the daughter of King Cleomenes (520-490 BC), the wife of King Leonidas (490-480 BC), and the mother of King Pleistarchus (480-458 BC). Since the dates of birth and death were not considered as important for the women of the period as for the men, it is not known exactly.

It is generally believed, based on the information given by Herodotus (484-425/413 BC), that his birth date was between 518 or 508 BC, that she married King Leonidas in 490 and that she continued to live after her husband's death in 480. She probably lived on during the reign of her son, King Pleistarchus, but his power and role in her son's court is unknown.

Gorgo was an important figure for her wisdom, intelligence, and presumed authority over the people around him. Both her father and husband listened to her advice, and she is one of the few women named in Herodotus' History of Herodotus.

 As a Spartan girl from a noble family, Gorgo probably should have received singing, dancing, literature, and especially physical training at court. While Athenian women were viewed as inferior to men and confined to homes, Spartan women could get an education, own land, get divorced, and (within reason) go wherever they wanted. So the presumed situation is that there were many important women like Gorgo, but their lives and achievements were probably not recorded.

 Herodotus' first mention of Gorgo occurs when Gorgo is eight or nine years old (but she may be older). This corresponds to the period when the Ionian city-states revolted against the Persian government (499-493 BC). It is assumed that the uprisings were sparked by a Miletus tyrant, Aristagoras, supported by Athens. When the uprising fails, Aristagoras comes first to Greek lands and then to the Peloponnese to seek support so that Sparta can drive the Persians out of Ionia.

 Although King Cleomenes rejects this offer and sends Aristagoras, Aristagoras continues to offer bribes to Cleomenes by returning. The interesting thing is that according to Herodotus, Gorgo was present in the room while this conversation was taking place, and that Cleomenes would be present with his daughter when Aristagoras demanded that the child be sent out.

Aristagoras offered the king a large sum of money, but was refused, so he continually offered the king more money, until Gorgo told her father, "Father, if your guest does not go, you will be deemed corrupt" (Herodotus, 5.51). Cleomenes, following Gorgo's advice, refuses Aristagoras' bribe.

 When Cleomenes died in 490 BC, he left no male heirs, so his half-brother Leonidas became king. Leonidas and Gorgo were already married at this time, so Gorgo also ascended to the throne as queen of Sparta. Another event that Herodotus tells about Gorgo coincides with this period. The Persians under King Darius I attacked Greece because of the Athenian support of the Ionian Greeks in 490, but were defeated at the Battle of Marathon.

When Dais died, his son Xerxes the Great swore to finish what his father had started and gathered the largest possible army. While Xerxes was preparing this weapon of war, a man named Demartus was living in the Persian city of Susa. Demartes, while co-ruling Sparta with Cleomenes, was exiled in 491 due to a political controversy.

Demartus became aware of Xerxes' military campaign against Greece and wanted to inform the Spartans, but he did not know how. Susa was a region in the interior of the Persian empire, and any message that could be sent to Greece would likely end up in Persian hands before it reached the border.

 When the tablet reached Sparta and was brought before the king, no one knew what to do. They could not understand why Demartus had sent a blank tablet and what it meant, but Gorgo believed that a message had been sent that needed to be deciphered. He offered to remove the wax, and when they did, they got the original message about the Persian invasion. They sent word to Athens and other city-states, and as a result, the Greeks could prepare for a possible war.

If Gorgo had not guessed that there was a real message under the tablet, the Persians would probably have caught the Greeks off guard, and the Greeks would not have had time to prepare. Leonidas also deserves praise, for even in Sparta he might not have taken a woman's advice. It is not known how the course of the event would have changed had the message been sent to Athens, not Sparta.

Leonidas is undoubtedly quite famous for his last stand in 480 BC with 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.