Gorgon (Sparta)

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Gorgo ( Greek Γοργώ) was the daughter, wife and mother of Spartan kings at the turn of the 6th to the 5th century BC. Chr.

She was the only child of King Cleomenes I of the house of the Agiads , her mother is unknown. According to tradition, Herodotus warned her father as a nine-year-old child against soliciting the corrupt Aristagoras to participate in the Ionian rebellion . Based on this anecdote, it would have been around the year 510 BC. Born in BC.

After her father died under unclear circumstances, Gorgo married her uncle and new king Leonidas I ; their son was the future king Pleistarchus . It should have been thanks to their cleverness that the Hellenes could be warned of the impending attack of the Persian great king Xerxes I. The former king Damaratus , who lived at the court of the great king, had scratched the news of the attack on a wooden board, but made it unrecognizable with wax and sent it to his hometown. But only Gorgon recognized the ruse and removed the wax. Her husband was killed in the battle of Thermopylae against the Persians. For her minor son took Cleombrotus the regency.

According to an anecdote by the Greek biographer Plutarch , Gorgo answered an Athenian woman's question as to why the women of Sparta rule their men, because only they could give birth to real men.

reception

In the American film The Lion of Sparta (Original title: The 300 Spartans , 1960) the role of the Gorgon was played by the Greek actress Anna Synodinou. British actress Lena Headey took on this role in the comic adaptations 300 (2007) and 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) .

In the turn-based strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization VI from the Sid Meier's Civilization series, Gorgo is the leader of Sparta .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Herodotus V 51
  2. ↑ Herodotus VII 239
  3. ↑ Plutarch, Lykurgos 14.15
personal data
SURNAME Gorgon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Γοργώ (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of the Spartan King Leonidas I.
DATE OF BIRTH around 510 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC Chr.