{"id":13762,"date":"2019-04-08T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T15:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sylumclan.com\/sylumblog\/?p=13762"},"modified":"2019-03-23T19:30:53","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T02:30:53","slug":"sylum-inspiration-gorgo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sylumclan.com\/sylumblog\/sylum-inspiration-gorgo\/","title":{"rendered":"Sylum Inspiration: Gorgo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sanguen Vitae: Council Member<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gorgo<\/a> was the daughter and the only known child of Cleomenes I, King of Sparta (r. 520\u2013490 BC) during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. She was the wife of King Leonidas I, Cleomenes\u2019 half-brother, who fought and died in the Battle of Thermopylae. Gorgo is noted as one of the few female historical figures actually named by Herodotus, and was known for her political judgement and wisdom. She is notable for being the daughter of a King of Sparta, the wife of another king of Sparta, and the mother of a third king of Sparta.<\/p>\n

Her father Cleomenes was the eldest-born son of the previous Agiad king, Anaxandridas II, and succeeded his father at his death; however, he had three paternal half-brothers, of whom the second, Dorieus, would cause him some trouble. The other two half-brothers were Leonidas I and Cleombrotus. All four were sons of Anaxandridas II, one of the dual kings of Sparta of the Agiad house.<\/p>\n

According to one version, Gorgo\u2019s grandfather Anaxandridas II was long married without children, and was advised to remarry (i.e. take a second wife) which he did. His second wife gave birth to the future Cleomenes I who was thus his eldest son; however, his first wife subsequently became pregnant, and eventually gave birth to three sons, including Leonidas I. This version is however not supported by other sources, which imply that Cleomenes was either born by the king\u2019s first marriage or by a non-marital alliance. In either case, there appears to have been some tension between the eldest son and his half-brothers, resolved only by the former\u2019s death (or murder) and the accession of Leonidas I (at once his half-brother and his son-in-law).<\/p>\n

Gorgo\u2019s mother is unknown, but she was certainly Spartan since she was Leonidas\u2019 Queen. Little about Gorgo\u2019s childhood is known, although she was probably raised like other Spartan girls of noble family, well fed, encouraged in daily physical exercise, and educated, including literacy and numeracy. She would have learned to ride and drive chariots and have taken part in Sparta\u2019s many festivals, dancing and singing in chorus.<\/p>\n

According to Herodotus\u2019s Histories, at about the age of eight to nine years old, she advised her father Cleomenes not to trust Aristagoras of Miletus, a foreign diplomat trying to induce Cleomenes to support an Ionian revolt against Persians. \u201cFather, you had better have this man go away, or the stranger will corrupt you.\u201d Cleomenes followed her advice. Scholars have suggested, however, that Herodotus intentionally reduced Gorgo\u2019s age at the time of this incident to make her father look particularly foolish. More likely, Herodotus underestimated her age simply because in other Greek cities girls were married at age 12 or 13 and so rarely in their father\u2019s household as teenagers or adults. It is more probable, that Gorgo was closer to 18 or 19 at the time of this incident.
\nPresumably, after Cleomenes\u2019s death, his only surviving child Gorgo became his sole heiress. She was apparently already married by 490 (in her early teens) to her half-uncle Leonidas I. \u00a0Leonidas and Gorgo would have at least one child, a son, Pleistarchus, co-King of Sparta from 480 BC to his death in 459 BC\/458 BC.<\/p>\n

Arguably, Gorgo\u2019s most significant role occurred prior to the Persian invasion of 480 BC. According to Herodotus\u2019s Histories, Demaratus, then in exile at the Persian court, sent a warning to Sparta about Xerxes\u2019s pending invasion. In order to prevent the message from being intercepted by the Persians or their vassal states, the message was written on a wooden tablet and then covered with wax. \u201cThe Spartans\u201d, presumably the ephors, Gerousia or the kings, did not know what to do with the seemingly blank wax-tablet, until Queen Gorgo advised them to clear the wax off the tablet. She is described by David Kahn in his book The Codebreakers as one of the first female cryptanalysts whose name has been recorded.<\/p>\n

There are also indications that Gorgo travelled outside of Sparta, specifically to Athens. Virtually all of Leonidas\u2019 reign was dominated by his efforts to form a coalition of Greek states willing to resist the impending Persian invasion. This entailed close coordination with the other main opponent of Persia, Athens. It is likely, therefore, that Leonidas travelled to Athens more than once. That Gorgo accompanied can be inferred from two quotes attributed to her by Plutarch. First, he records that \u201ca stranger in a finely embroidered robe\u201d made advances to Gorgo earning the rebuke that \u201che couldn\u2019t even play a female role\u201d. While a stranger might have been in Sparta, it is not very likely that he would risk making advances to a Spartan Queen in the midst of her highly armed and notoriously proud subjects. More to the point, however, Gorgo could only make a reference to the theater (playing a female role), if she had experienced it. Sparta is not believed to have had theater at this time, whereas it was already very popular in Athens. Even more explicit is the fact that Gorgo\u2019s most famous quip about only Spartan women giving birth to men was, according to Plutarch, made in answer to \u201ca woman from Attica\u201d. Since women from Attica were not supposed to leave the women\u2019s quarters of their own homes, it is inconceivable that a woman from Attica would have travelled to Sparta. Spartan women, on the other hand, drove chariots and travelled around Lacedaemon on their own, making it perfectly plausible that Gorgo travelled with her husband (and his bodyguard) on one or more of his trips to other Greek cities.<\/p>\n

According to Plutarch, before the Battle of Thermopylae, knowing that her husband\u2019s death in battle was inevitable, she asked him what to do. Leonidas replied \u201cmarry a good man who will treat you well, bear him children, and live a good life\u201d.<\/p>\n

For More Information Contact Vampire Council Library<\/a><\/p>\n

When Dilios returned to tell the story of what happened, he ended up ostracized from Sparta. Later he returned, finding Gorgo to tell her the story of her husband. She asked what was different about him, he told him the gods had given him a gift to continue the story of Sparta.<\/p>\n

She requested the same gift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sanguen Vitae: Council Member   Gorgo was the daughter and the only known child of Cleomenes I, King of Sparta (r. 520\u2013490 BC) during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. She was the wife of King Leonidas I, Cleomenes\u2019 half-brother, who fought and died in the Battle of Thermopylae. Gorgo …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[454,486],"tags":[447,487],"class_list":["post-13762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character-introduction","category-sanguen-clan","tag-inspiration-block","tag-sanguen-vitae-clan"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Da1M-3zY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17141,"url":"https:\/\/www.sylumclan.com\/sylumblog\/sylum-inspiraiton-gorgo\/","url_meta":{"origin":13762,"position":0},"title":"Sylum INspiraiton: Gorgo","author":"Nicolaus Meridius","date":"November 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Sanguen: Council Member Note: You might notice a change in how the bios look on the wiki.\u00a0 We haven't quite figured out what exactly happened, but when they updated wordpress, the tabs got screwed up and stopped working.\u00a0 So we changed themes ... will it worked slightly.\u00a0 Tabs now only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Character Introduction"","block_context":{"text":"Character Introduction","link":"https:\/\/www.sylumclan.com\/sylumblog\/category\/character-introduction\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sylumclan.com\/sylumblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sylum_gorgo-without-name.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17145,"url":"https:\/\/www.sylumclan.com\/sylumblog\/sylum-inspiration-cynisca\/","url_meta":{"origin":13762,"position":1},"title":"Sylum Inspiration: Cynisca","author":"Nicolaus Meridius","date":"November 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Sanguen: Member Cynisca was born in the ancient Greek city of Sparta and was the daughter of the Eurypontid king of Sparta, Archidamus II, and Eupoleia. 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