We are often accustomed to hearing how utterly oppressed women were in ancient Greece. To a large extent, it is true that the rights of women in ancient Greece were extremely restricted. Nonetheless, the picture we have of women in ancient Greece being totally excluded from any semblance of power is not completely accurate. Although female rulers were certainly very rare in ancient Greece compared to the number of male rulers, there were, in fact, surprisingly many of them overall.
Several of the ancient Greek female rulers on this list, such as Artemisia I and Artemisia II of Karia, are still relatively famous today. Many of the others on this list, such as Kratesipolis of Makedonia, are fairly obscure, but deserve more attention. For the main part of this list, I am confining myself strictly to Greek female rulers who ruled in their own names in Greece or western Asia Minor during the Classical and Hellenistic Periods, although there will be section at the end briefly listing some others who ruled outside of Greece. I am sure there are probably a few others that I have missed as well.
Queen Artemisia I of Karia
Queen Artemisia I of Karia became the Greek queen of the Persian satrapy of Karia in around 484 BC immediately following the death of her husband, the former ruler of Karia. She is written about extensively by the Greek historian Herodotos of Halikarnassos (lived c. 484 – c. 425 BC) in his book The Histories.
As I discuss in this article I wrote in September 2019, Herodotos was born in the city of Halikarnassos, which was, at the time of his birth in around 484 BC, the capital of Karia. Artemisia I would have been the only ruler of Karia Herodotos knew for his entire childhood and early adulthood. Perhaps partly out of patriotic sentiment, Herodotos gives an extremely favorable portrayal of Artemisia and gives her pride of place in his account of the Greco-Persian Wars.
Herodotos tells us in Book Eight of his Histories that Artemisia I fought for the Persians in the Battle of Salamis in September 480 BC. Herodotos tells us that she fought bravely, but, after it became clear that the Persians were going to lose the battle, Artemisia I found her ship being pursued by an Athenian tririme. In response, she ordered her crew to ram one of the Persian ships so the Greeks would think she was on their side. The Athenian ship fell for her ruse, allowing her and her crew to escape the battle.
Herodotos tells us that Xerxes I himself, watching the battle from atop a mountain, saw Artemisia I’s ship ram another ship, but mistook the ship she had rammed for a Greek ship. Herodotos tells us that, according to one legend he had heard, after the men watching with him confirmed that the ship he had seen was indeed Artemisia’s, Xerxes exclaimed, “My men have become women, and my women men!”
Artemisia I seems have reigned until around 460 BC or thereabouts, meaning she ruled about twenty-four years. Her reign seems to have been generally quite prosperous.
ABOVE: Highly imaginative depiction of the Battle of Salamis from 1868 by the German Academic painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach, depicting Artemisia I at the center of the action with her bow at the ready to fire against the enemy sailors
ABOVE: Detail of Artemisia I of Karia from the painting of the Battle of Salamis by Wilhelm von Kaulbach
Queen Artemisia II of Karia
Queen Artemisia II of Karia was another prominent ancient Greek queen of the Persian satrapy of Karia who ruled about a century and a half after the first Artemisia of Karia. Artemisia II became queen of Karia in 353 BC after the death of her husband Mausolos (who was also her brother), the previous ruler of Karia.
Upon Artemisia II’s accession to the throne of Karia, the island of Rhodes revolted against her rule, objecting to being ruled by a woman. The Rhodians sent ships to attack Artemisia II’s capital city of Halikarnassos. Unbeknownst to the Rhodians, however, Artemisia II’s brother and husband Mausolos had constructed a secret, additional harbor. Artemisia II hid all her ships in the secret harbor and invited the Rhodians to land in the main harbor.
Accompanied by the citizens of Halikarnassos, Artemisia II invited the Rhodians into the city. Once the Rhodians had left their ships, however, Artemisia II’s fleet sailed out of the main harbor and captured the empty vessels. The Rhodian soldiers who had left the ships were slaughtered in the marketplace. Then Artemisia II filled the empty Rhodian ships with her own men and sent the ships back to Rhodes. The Rhodians, thinking that their own armies were returning victorious, welcomed the ships into the harbor. Then Artemisia II’s men climbed out of the ships and recaptured Rhodes in the name of their queen.
In memorial of her husband, Artemisia II commissioned the construction of the Mausoleion of Halikarnassos, which later became renowned as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Although the Mausoleion has been largely destroyed, significant portions of it have survived. Some of the ruins are still at Halikarnassos in modern Turkey, but the most impressive pieces were taken by the British and are now on permanent display in the British Museum in London.
ABOVE: Colossal marble sculpture of Queen Artemisia II of Karia, originally from the Mausoleion of Halikarnassos, now on display in the British Museum
ABOVE: Model from the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology of what the Mausoleion of Halikarnassos would have originally looked like
ABOVE: Photograph of some of the remains of the Mausoleion of Halikarnassos at Bodrum, Turkey (ancient Halikarnassos)
Kratesipolis of Makedonia
Another ancient Greek female ruler who is a bit more obscure than the two I have just covered was Kratesipolis of Makedonia. The earliest detailed account of Kratesipolis comes from the Greek historian Diodoros Sikeliotes (lived c. 90 – c. 30 BC) in Books Nineteen through Twenty of his Universal History. Kratesipolis is also described, however, by the Greek biographer Ploutarchos of Chaironeia (lived c. 46 – c. 120 AD) in his Life of Demetrios and by the Greek historian Polyainos (late second century AD) in his Stratagems of War.
Kratesipolis was the wife of Alexandros son of Polyperchon, who was the governor of the northeastern Peloponnesos, which, at that time, was ruled by the kingdom of Makedonia. The king of Makedonia at that time was officially Alexandros IV of Makedonia, the son of Alexander the Great by his Bactrian wife Roxane, but, in reality, the kingdom was ruled by its regent, Kassandros, the son of Alexander the Great’s general Antipatros.
Kratesipolis’s husband Alexandros was killed in 314 BC by a group of Sikyonian rebels. Upon his death, Kratesipolis rallied his forces, with whom she had already ingratiated herself. When the Sikyonian rebels attacked the garrison, hoping to win an easy victory over a mere woman, she led her forces to victory herself against the Sikyonians. She decisively put down the rebellion and crucified thirty of the rebel leaders.
Kratesipolis ruled as governor of the northeastern Peloponnesos under Kassandros until 308 BC, when she betrayed Kassandros and gave her lands over to Ptolemaios I Soter and fled to the region of Achaia, which was outside Kassandros’s territory of control. Kratesipolis was presumably seeking a marriage alliance with Ptolemaios I, but he had his eyes on a bigger prize: Alexander the Great’s own sister Kleopatra, who was willing to marry him. Kratesipolis lived out the rest of her life in Achaia. Diodoros Sikeliotes praises Kratesipolis, declaring, as translated by Russell M. Greer, “She possessed, too, skill in practical matters and more daring than one would expect in a woman.”
Nikaia of Corinth
Nikaia of Corinth married Alexandros of Corinth, the tyrant of Corinth and Euboia, in around 260 BC. After the death of her husband in around 245 BC or thereabouts, she maintained control of Corinth, which she ruled as tyrant. Antigonos II Gonatas offered her an alliance as well as his own son Demetrios II Aitolikos’s hand in marriage. Nikaia agreed to this arrangement, but then Antigonos II double-crossed her and, during the wedding ceremony, launched a surprise attack on the city of Corinth and captured the city. Nikaia’s life after her marriage is unknown.
Olympias II of Epeiros
Olympias II of Epeiros was the daughter of the famous king Pyrrhos of Epeiros. Following the death of her husband Alexandros II of Epeiros (who was also her paternal half-brother) in around 242 BC, she ruled the kingdom of Epeiros as regent on behalf of her sons Pyrrhos II and Ptolemaios.
According to the second-century AD Roman historian Marcus Junianus Justinus Frontinus in his Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, once Pyrrhos II was old enough to rule, she stepped down from power and gave the throne to him. Both he and his brother died soon after, though, and she allegedly died of grief.
The late second-and-third-century AD Greek historian Athenaios of Naukratis, however, states in his Wise Men at Dinner that Pyrrhos II had fallen in love with a Leukadian woman and Olympias II poisoned her, leading him to poison his own mother in return.
ABOVE: Map from Wikimedia Commons depicting the region of Epeiros in antiquity, which Olympias II ruled as regent for several years
Greek female rulers in antiquity who ruled outside of Greece
Here are a few Greek female rulers who ruled outside of Greece during the Hellenistic and Roman Periods:
- Agathokleia Theotropos (ruled parts of northern India 110 – 100 BC as regent for her son Straton I)
- Arsinoë II of Egypt (ruled Ptolemaic Egypt as pharaoh alongside her husband and half-brother Ptolemaios II Philadelphos, whom she married in c. 273)
- Etazeta of Bithynia (ruled the kingdom of Bithynia in northern Asia Minor c. 255 – c. 254 BC, at first as regent for her sons, but later in her own right until she was overthrown by her son Ziaelas)
- Kleopatra VII Philopator of Egypt, commonly known in English as “Cleopatra” (ruled Ptolemaic Egypt 51 – 30 BC)
- Pythodorida Philometor of Pontos (ruled Pontos, the Bosphoran Kingdom, Kilikia, and Kappadokia as a Roman client queen)
Conclusion
Clearly, though female rulers were certainly rare in ancient Greece, there was actually still quite a few of them in total. Obviously, this does not mean that women in general had very much power in ancient Greece, but it does mean that some very determined and ambitious women were able to take power for themselves. As I said before, there are probably others who should be on this list that I have missed or forgotten.
