Overpowered by a Single Woman: The Spartans vs. The Courage of Telesilla

Name: Michele Marullo Tarchaniota Date: 1330 – 1408 CE Region:   Constantinople [modern Turkey] / Volterra [modern Italy] Citation:  Epith. Telesillae; Contantinopalitani Epigrammaton,  Book 4

 If you ask where she’s from,

Her homeland was Argos.

If you ask what her name was

Her noble name was Telesilla.

If you want to know her skillset or her courage

I’m embarrassed to tell you.

The Muse can tell you about her skills,

The Spartans can tell you about her courage.

For it’s embarrassing to say that Sparta

Was overcome by  single woman

Even though it’s Spartan custom

To always tell the truth.  

Si patriam, patria est Argos. Si nomina quaeris

Scire, Telesillae nobile nomen erat,

At si artes animosque, vetat pudor hiscere de me.

Musa sed has dicent hos lacedaemonii.

Nam quis pudeat Sparten cessisse puellae

Vera tamen fari mos Lacedaemoniis.

 

Michele Marullo Tarcaniota [1458 – 1500 CE, Constantinople, modern Turkey / Volterra, modern Italy] was a famous scholar and author known for his Greco-Roman mythology-themed poetry.

Women Saving their City: Polyaenus, Strat. 8.33

After killing 7,777 Argive men in battle, the Spartan King Cleomenes headed for the city of Argos to take it by force. The musician Telesilla led the Argive women in battle; these women stood armed at the ramparts, overlooking the walls around the city, and they fended off Cleomenes. They also fended off the other Spartan King Demaratus’ attack, and saved their city from danger. Even today, the Argives still celebrate the women’s strategy; during this holiday, women wear men’s tunics and men wear women’s dresses.

 --Polyaenus, Strategematon 8.33, Translated into Latin by Justus Vulteio (1691)

Telesilla  

Cleomenes Spartiatarum rex, interfectis in prelio Argivis viris ad septem millia septingentos, septuaginta septem, inter Argos direxit, ut per vim urbem caperet. Telesilla musica Argivas armatas ad pugnam eduxit: quae armatae in propugnaculis stantes, circumcirca muros tuentes, Cleomenem repulerunt. Demaratum vero alterum regem etiam expulerunt, urbemque a periculo vindicarunt. Et hoc mulierum stratagema usque in hodiernum diem Argivi celebrant numenia cuiusque mensis, mulieres virilibus tunicis & Chlamydibus, viros autem peplis muliebribus amicientes.

 

Women Are Capable of Achieving Perfection: Clement of Alexandria, Misc. 4.19

That Both Women and Men are Capable of Achieving Perfection, Which Is Also Seen In Examples from Non-Christian Sources

…Didn’t the Athenian woman Leaena bravely endure torment? She revealed nothing at all about the plot of Harmodius & Aristogiton had planned against Hipparchus, even when she was brutally tortured.

They say that the Argive women, under the poet Telesilla’s leadership, were the only ones who were able to rout the excessively warlike Spartans who had leveled their spears against them? Telesilla was able to make them fearless; they were not even afraid of death. 

The author of the Danai says something similar: “Rapidly, the Danai girls took up arms / upon the banks of the beautiful Nile,” etc.

Other poets sing of Atalanta’s speed in hunting, and Anticlea’s outstanding friendship, Alcestis’ love for her husband, the bravery of Maeaeria and Hyacinthides.

  

 --Clement of Alexandria, Stromatum lib.4 cap.19 translated into Latin by D. Nicolae le Nourry (1856)

Tam mulieres quam viros esse perfectionis obtinendae capaces, quod et heroinarum apud exemplis confirmat

...Annon enim tormenta quoque tulit fortiter Leaena Attica, quae cum esset conscia insidiarum quae ab Harmodio et Aristogitone parabantur in Hipparchum, nihil omnino est elocuta, etsi valde cruciaretur? Aiunt autem Argolicas quoque, Telesilla poetria duce, Spartanos, qui magna erant virtute in rebus bellicis, solo instituito prodeuntes fugasse, et effecisse ut illae mortem nihil extimescerent. De filiabus quoque Danai dicit similia Danaidis auctor: "Tumque cito Danai sumpserunt arma puellae / in ripis pulchro labentis flumine Nili;" et quae sequuntur. Canunt autem reliqui poetae velocitatem Atalantae in venatione, et egregiam Anticleae amicitiam ,et Alcestidis in maritum amorem, et Maeaeriae et Hyacinthidum fortitudinem...

 

Honoring Women Veterans: Telesilla of Argos, Plutarch, Virtutes Mulierum 245c-d

Challenging Gender Roles: Telesilla, Warrior Poet

Name:    Plutarch Date:      46 – 119 CE Region:    Chaeronea [modern Greece]   Citation:     The Valor of Women, 245c – e

There is no better example of women working on behalf of their community than what they did in defense of Argos against Cleomenes’ assault, under the leadership of the poet Telesilla.

They say that Telesilla was born from a noble family, but was sent to the temple of the gods to cure her ill health. There she received a prophecy to worship the Muses, and so she obeyed the god’s command and studied poetry and song. She was healed of her illness and her art was the object of wonder among women.

When Cleomenes, the King of Sparta, killed a large amount of Argive soldiers—but not, as the rumor holds, 7,777 of them—he marched against the city with death on his mind. A bold wave of courage beset the young women, hoping to fight against the enemy in defense of their homeland. At the head of this counteroffensive was Telesilla,  who took up weapons and, standing on the town’s battlements,  manned completely the circuit of defensive walls, and completely shocked the enemy by this sight.

They fended off Cleomenes’ attack, taking down many of his soldiers in the process. The other Spartan king, Demaratus, who according to Socates was able to broach the city walls and gain possession of the Pamphyliacum, was also routed.  And so they saved their city. The women who fell in battle were buried on the road into town, and the women veterans were granted a monument to Ares in honor of their valor.

οὐδενὸς δ᾽ ἧττον ἔνδοξόν ἐστι τῶν κοινῇ διαπεπραγμένων γυναιξὶν ἔργων ὁ πρὸς Κλεομένη περὶ Ἄργους ἀγών, ὃν ἠγωνίσαντο, Τελεσίλλης τῆς ποιητρίας προτρεψαμένης. ταύτην δέ φασιν οἰκίας οὖσαν ἐνδόξου τῷ δὲ σώματι νοσηματικὴν εἰς θεοῦ πέμψαι περὶ ὑγιείας: καὶ χρησθὲν αὐτῇ Μούσας θεραπεύειν, πειθομένην τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἐπιθεμένην ἐν ᾠδῇ καὶ ἁρμονίᾳ τοῦ τε πάθους ἀπαλλαγῆναι ταχὺ καὶ θαυμάζεσθαι διὰ ποιητικὴν ὑπὸ τῶν γυναικῶν. ἐπεὶ δὲ Κλεομένης ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Σπαρτιατῶν πολλοὺς ἀποκτείνας οὐ μήν, ὡς ἔνιοι μυθολογοῦσιν, ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ ἑπτακοσίους πρὸς ἑπτακισχιλίοις ἐβάδιζε πρὸς τὴν πόλιν, ὁρμὴ καὶ τόλμα δαιμόνιος παρέστη ταῖς ἀκμαζούσαις τῶν γυναικῶν ἀμύνεσθαι τοὺς πολεμίους ὑπὲρ τῆς πατρίδος. ἡγουμένης δὲ τῆς Τελεσίλλης, ὅπλα λαμβάνουσι καὶ παρ᾽ ἔπαλξιν ἱστάμεναι κύκλῳ τὰτείχη περιέστεψαν, ὥστε θαυμάζειν τοὺς πολεμίους.  τὸν μὲν οὖν Κλεομένη πολλῶν πεσόντων ἀπεκρούσαντο: τὸν δ᾽ ἕτερον βασιλέα Δημάρατον, ὡς Σωκράτης φησίν, ἐντὸς γενόμενον καὶ κατασχόντα τὸ Παμφυλιακὸν ἐξέωσαν, οὕτω δὲ τῆς πόλεως περιγενομένης, τὰς μὲν πεσούσας ἐν τῇ μάχῃ τῶν γυναικῶν ἐπὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ τῆς Ἀργείας ἔθαψαν, ταῖς δὲ σωθείσαις ὑπόμνημα τῆς ἀριστείας ἔδοσαν ἱδρύσασθαι τὸν Ἐνυάλιον.

Inter res a feminis communiter gestas nulla nobiliior praelio est cum Cleomene ad Argos ab eis commisso Telesilla conciente poetria. Hanc ferunt illustri natam domo, cum valetudinaria esset deos de recipienda sanitate consuluisse: responso dato, ut Musas coleret, eae consilium secutam carminibus se et harmoniae dedisse: ita morbo cito levatam, et ob artem poeticam apud mulieres in honore fuisse. Cum autem Lacedaemoniorum rex Cleomenes multis necatis, non tamen, ut quidam fabulantur, septem millibus septingentis septuaginta septem, infestis signis urbem peteret: ardor & audacia incessit feminas aetate florentes incredibilis, ut adversus hostem pro patria propugnarent. Duce Telesilla arma capiunt, in pinnaculisque, stantes muros corona cingunt attonitis miraculo hostibus. Cleomenem multis amissis repellunt. Alterum regem, ut tradit Socrates, qui iam urbem evaserat, tenebatque, Pamphyliacum, Demaratum expellunt. Hac ratione cu mconservata urbs esset: mulieres, quae pugnantes ceciderant, via Argiva humaverunt. Incolumibus concessum, ut virtutis monimentum Marti signum ponerent.  Translated into Latin by Hermann Cruserius

Plutarch [46 – 119 CE, modern Greece] was a Greek author from Chaeronea, and Roman citizen who lived during the 1st century CE. He had minor governmental and religious administrative roles during his lifetime, but he is best known for his writings. He has numerous philosophical and historical works still extant, including the Parallel Lives, in which he compares the lives of a Roman and Greek statesman for moralistic purposes.

Challenging Gender Roles: The Warrior Poet Telesilla Saves the Day, Pausanias, Desc. Graec.2.20.8-9

By the theater is a shrine to Venus, and in front of that is a column that depicts the poet Telesilla. [In the portrait,] there are books of her poetry at her feet; she is staring at a helmet in her hands as she is about to put it on. Telesilla was a famous woman revered for her poetry. There was a time when the Argives were overcome by a loss of unimaginable magnitude by Anaxandrides’ son Cleomenes and his Lacedaemonian troops. Some Argives fell in battle; the remaining retreated to a glade in Argos. Of these, some were killed as they surrendered under the premise of negotiating peace; when the others recognized that they had been betrayed, they set the glade on fire and burned themselves to death. Cleomenes then marched his Lacedaemonian troops against the now defenseless Argos.

Telesilla assembled along the city walls the slaves and citizens too old or too young to bear arms, and armed them with weapons from their homes and from the temples. She also armed the strongest of the women, and stationed them where she reckoned the Lacedaemonians would attack. These women held their own against the Lacedaemonians and fought bravely against them; the Lacedaemonians, thinking that a victory against women would be shameful, and a loss against women would be even more so, retreated. 

Supra theatrum Veneris fanum: in cuius fronte e pavimento columna surgit, cui insistit Telesilla quae cantica fecit. Ad pedes eius carminum volumina iacent: ipsa galea aspicit, quam capiti iam ipositura manu tenet. Fuit Telesilla haec, & aliis de causis inter feminas illustris & honorem praecipuum ex poetica meruit. Haec illa Telesilla est quae tale virtutis muliebris documentum dedit. Quo tempore Argivi maiore quam dicendo explicari possit clade a Cleomene Anaxandridae filio Lacedaemoniorum rege afflicti sunt, aliis in prelio caesis, ii qui supplices in Argi lucum confugerant, parti ad pacis conditiones evocati, nihilo minus violati sunt; partim vero ubi se dolo circumvento  senserunt, seipsos & lucum simul cremarunt. Quare Cleomenes consumta Argivorum militari aetate & robore, ad Argos oppugnandum confestim Lacedaemoniorum copias duxit. Ibi Telesilla ad murorum praesidia servitiis, & iis omnibus qui per aetatem arma ferre non possent, armandatis, e domibus & templis aris, quae reliqua fortuna belli fecerat, refixis, omnes quae integra aetate erant feminas obarmavit, & ibi eas collocavit, qua ad oppidum Lacedaemonios accessuros exploratum habebat. neque vero illae hoste approprinquante bellico clamore exterritae sunt: quin fortiter & praesenti animo pugnantes, hostium impressionem sustinuerunt. At Lacedaemonii quum cogitare coepissent, si feminas violassent, invidiosam fore eam victoriam: sin victi essent, se turpissime discessuros, omnem ab illis belli ira abstinuerunt. 

ὑπὲρ δὲ τὸ θέατρον Ἀφροδίτης ἐστὶν ἱερόν, ἔμπροσθεν δὲ τοῦ ἕδους Τελέσιλλα ἡ ποιήσασα τὰ ᾁσματα ἐπείργασται στήλῃ: καὶ βιβλία μὲν ἐκεῖνα ἔρριπταί οἱ πρὸς τοῖς ποσίν, αὐτὴ δὲ ἐς κράνος ὁρᾷ κατέχουσα τῇ χειρὶ καὶ ἐπιτίθεσθαι τῇ κεφαλῇ μέλλουσα. ἦν δὲ ἡ Τελέσιλλα καὶ ἄλλως ἐν ταῖς γυναιξὶν εὐδόκιμος καὶ μᾶλλον ἐτιμᾶτο ἔτι ἐπὶ τῇ ποιήσει. συμβάντος δὲ Ἀργείοις ἀτυχῆσαι λόγου μειζόνως πρὸς Κλεομένην τὸν Ἀναξανδρίδου καὶ Λακεδαιμονίους, καὶ τῶν μὲν ἐν αὐτῇ πεπτωκότων τῇ μάχῃ, ὅσοι δὲ ἐς τὸ ἄλσος τοῦ Ἄργου κατέφευγον διαφθαρέντων καὶ τούτων, τὰ μὲν πρῶτα ἐξιόντων κατὰ ὁμολογίαν, ὡς δὲ ἔγνωσαν ἀπατώμενοι συγκατακαυθέντων τῷ ἄλσει τῶν λοιπῶν, οὕτω τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους Κλεομένης ἦγεν ἐπὶ ἔρημον ἀνδρῶν τὸ Ἄργος. [9] Τελέσιλλα δὲ οἰκέτας μὲν καὶ ὅσοι διὰ νεότητα ἢ γῆρας ὅπλα ἀδύνατοι φέρειν ἦσαν, τούτους μὲν πάντας ἀνεβίβασεν ἐπὶ τὸ τεῖχος, αὐτὴ δὲ ὁπόσα ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις ὑπελείπετο καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῶν ἱερῶν ὅπλα ἀθροίσασα τὰς ἀκμαζούσας ἡλικίᾳ τῶν γυναικῶν ὥπλιζεν, ὁπλίσασα δὲ ἔτασσε κατὰ τοῦτο ᾗ τοὺς πολεμίους προσιόντας ἠπίστατο. ὡς δὲ ἐγγὺς ἐγίνοντο οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες οὔτε τῷ ἀλαλαγμῷ κατεπλάγησαν δεξάμεναί τε ἐμάχοντο ἐρρωμένως, ἐνταῦθα οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι, φρονήσαντες ὡς καὶ διαφθείρασί σφισι τὰς γυναῖκας ἐπιφθόνως τὸ κατόρθωμα ἕξει καὶ σφαλεῖσι μετὰ ὀνειδῶν γενήσοιτο ἡ συμφορά, ὑπείκουσι ταῖς γυναιξί. 

--Pausanias, Descriptio Graeciae, 2.20.8-9; Translated into Latin by Romulus Amaseus (1696)

 Pausanias was a Greek writer who lived during the era of the “Five Good Emperors.” His work, the Description of Greece, is an important source for geographical, historical, archaeological, and cultural information about ancient Greece. 

The 9 Earthly Muses: Sappho and Her Sisters, Greek Anthology 9.26

Sappho and the Earthly Muses

Name:  Antipater of Sidon Date:    2nd – 1st century BCE Region:     Sidon [modern Lebanon] Citation:     Greek Anthology 9.26

Helicon and the Pierian mountains have nourished the following divinely-inspired women with song:

·                      Praxilla

·                     Myrus

·                     Anyte, the female Homer

·                     Sappho, the glory of pretty-haired Lesbia

·                     Erinna

·                     Famous Telesilla

·                     And you,Corinna!, who celebrates Athena’s raging spear in song,

·                     Woman-tongued Nossis

·                      Sweet-tongued Myrtis.  

All these women’s words will outlast the ages.

Great Heaven has nine Muses,

But earth has created nine of its own,

Women who will bring eternal joy to mankind.   

τάσδε θεογλώσσους Ἑλικὼν ἔθρεψε γυναῖκας ὕμνοις, καὶ Μακεδὼν Πιερίας σκόπελος, Πρήξιλλαν, Μοιρώ, Ἀνύτης στόμα, θῆλυν Ὅμηρον, Λεσβιάδων Σαπφὼ κόσμον ἐυπλοκάμων, Ἤρινναν, Τελέσιλλαν ἀγακλέα, καὶ σέ, Κόριννα, θοῦριν Ἀθηναίης ἀσπίδα μελψαμέναν, Νοσσίδα θηλύγλωσσον, ἰδὲ γλυκυαχέα Μύρτιν, πάσας ἀενάων ἐργάτιδας σελίδων. ἐννέα μὲν Μούσας μέγας Οὐρανός, ἐννέα δ᾽ αὐτὰς γαῖα τέκεν, θνατοῖς ἄφθιτον εὐφροσύναν.

Sunt enim doctae, muliebria nomina, vates quas Helicon aluit Pieriumque iugum. Praxilla et Myro facundaque gloria Lesbi [Sappho], et quae vix Anyte cedit, Homere, tibi. Est Erinna etiam Telesillaque, tuque Corinna, Quae docta clypeum Palladis arte canis: Et Myrtis placida et versu quoque femina Nossis, Omnes perpetui carminis artifices. Aetheris aequavit tellus fecunda labores, Ille novem Musas protulit, ista novem. Translated into Latin by Hugo Grotius

Antipater of Sidon [2nd – 1st century BCE, modern Lebanon] was a Greek poet who lived under Roman rule during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. Dozens of his poems were preserved in the Greek Anthology.

Challenging Gender Roles: Telesilla, Suidas in Telesilla T.260

The Suda’s Account of Telesilla

Name:    The Suda Date:      10th century CE      Region:    Unknown   Citation:     T.260

Telesilla the Poet: She is depicted with a helmet on her head and with books scattered at her feet. For when the Lacedaemonians had killed those who had fled to the temple in Argos, and had marched against the city to capture it,  Telesilla armed the women capable of battle and went out to meet the enemy. When the Lacedaemonians saw them, they retreated, thinking it would be inappropriate to fight against women, since they would earn no glory if they won, but great shame if they lost.

Τελέσιλλα ποιήτρια ἐπὶ στήλης τὰ μὲν βιβλία ἀπέρριπται κράνος δὲ τῇ κεφαλῇ περιέθηκε. καὶ γὰρ ὅτε Λακεδαιμόνιοι τοὺς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ τοῦ Ἀργους καταφυγόντας διέφθειρον, καὶ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν ᾔεσαν ὡς αἱρήσοντες τότε Τελέσιλλα τὰς ἐν ἡλικίᾳ γυναῖκας ὁπλίσασα ὑπήντησεν οἱ προςῄεσαν. ὅπερ ἰδόντες οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι εἰς τουπίσω ὑπέστρεψαν, αἰσχρὸν νομίσαντες γυναιξὶ πολεμεῖν, ἃς καὶ τὸ νικᾶν ἄδοξον καὶ ἡττᾶσθαι μέγα ὄνειδος.

Telesilla poetria. Huic statua posita est, ad cuius pedes libri iacent: galea vero capiti eius imposita est. Etenim cum Lacedaemonii, interfectis iis, qui in templum Argorum confugerant, ad urbem capiendum irent, Telesilla mulieres, quae per aetatem arma ferre poterant, armavit, et sic hostibus obviam processit. Quod conspicati Lacedaemonii retro cesserunt, turpe ducentes cum mulieribus pugnare, quas et vincere nulla sit gloria, et a quibus vinci, magnum sit dedecus. Translated into Latin by Christian Wolff

The Suda is a literary encyclopedia created in the 10th century CE by an anonymous Byzantine scholar.