Telesilla

Family: Argive · Role: poetess · First appears: Book 2 · Chapter 20

Life events

Telesilla armed women to defend Argos, and the Lacedæmonians yielded to them.(Book 2 · Chapter 20 · 📍 Argos)
- With: Cleomenes (son of Anaxandrides)
- “Then it was that Telesilla manned the walls with all the slaves who through youth or age were reckoned unfit to carry arms, and herself getting together all the arms which were left in the houses or the temples, and mustering all the women in the prime of life, armed them, and drew them up in battle array where she knew the enemy would approach. And when the Lacedæmonians came up, and the women so far from being dismayed at their war cry received their attack stoutly, then the Lacedæmonians considering that if they killed all the women their victory would be discreditable, and if they themselves were beaten their reverse would be disgraceful, yielded to the women.”

enemies with Cleomenes (son of Anaxandrides) “For when upon the Argives fell disaster untold at the hands of Cleomenes (the son of Anaxandrides) and the Lacedæmonians, and most of them perished in the battle”

with Artemis (Telesilla mentioned Artemis's temple in a poem.) “And on the top of the mountain Coryphon is the temple of Artemis, which Telesilla has mentioned in a poem.”

Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.