Introducing: Gorgo Forum
Conveying my thoughts about whatever. Topics may be relevant to you or not, but all are important IMO from the perspective of a female baby boomer.
A sculpture believed to show Gorgo. Credit: Helena P. Schrader, CC BY-SA 4.0
https://www.ancientpages.com/2019/08/05/gorgo-queen-of-sparta
To start, let me explain the name I’ve given to this initiative. I recalled “Gorgo,” from my studies of ancient history. While Gorgo is the name applied to a fictional Godzilla-type monster in B movies first shown in 1961, it is also the name of an actual woman of historic significance who is documented to have lived in Greece before the birth of Christ and who, I believe, aligns with the intent of my forum.
Gorgo was the high-born daughter of King Cleomenes of Sparta and the holder of her father’s inheritance who is believed to have been born in 508 BCE. Gorgo became a queen of ancient Sparta and the wife of Leonidas I, the Spartan King who led 300 Spartan soldiers to fight and die at the crucial battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE. This battle is considered pivotal in holding off Persian invaders long enough to give Greek armies time to unite their forces to repel invasion and save Greek society from obliteration. Leonidas I, who was her father’s younger half-brother, became her husband about 490 BCE when she was in her late teens. Gorgo and Leonidas had one son named Pleistarchus, who became king after the death of Leonidas at Thermopylae.
Gorgo is one of very few women cited by name multiple times in the Greek histories written in the fifth century by Herodotus[1], a Greek historian who chronicled the rise of the Persian empire and its war with the Greek city-states. She was well-educated and described as sharper, smarter, and wiser than other Spartans, especially the men in authority. Her intelligence, along with her agency as the daughter and wife of Kings, gave her the ability to speak her mind in the public sphere, unlike other Greek women at a time when Greek males believed women should be seen but not heard. Based on her intellect and position of influence, Gorgo can be considered one of the world’s first “liberated” women. Her name, Gorgo, which was derived from the Gorgon legend of Medusa, is very fitting given her strength, position, and outspoken nature.[2]
Despite her independence of mind, according to The Medusa Archive, “Gorgo stands as an example of the dutiful Spartan wife as, even as Leonidas departed to his death at the hands of the Persians, she remained true to her assertive nature as she told him to be worthy of Sparta and promised to marry a brave man and bear strapping children after his departure.”[3] Though Gorgo was clearly self-actuated, she also respected the norms of her society and continued to function within its constraints as demonstrated by the fact that her son became king following his father’s death.
Why name my blog “Gorgo” when I’m not Greek, nor an historian. The reason is because I love it that historians identified Gorgo as a smart, outspoken woman at a time when women were not typically allowed to speak publicly. As a person who was too early in today’s women’s liberation game to fully realize positive impacts, I truly respect a woman who had the courage to speak out and go against the grain when the social order of her day frowned on such behavior. I am old enough to remember how it was for women prior to the mid-1970’s when female career options were typically limited to being a secretary, teacher or nurse.[4] Consequently, it is my hope that the Gorgo Forum, published by me, the daughter of hillbilly farmers from West Virginia, will do her name proud.
[1] The Landmark Herodotus, The Histories, Edited by Robert B Strassler, Pantheon Books, 2007
[2] The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece, Paul Cartledge, Vintage Books, 2004, pages 122-126
[3] The Medusa Archive, medusaarchive.omeka.net, 2018
[4] Given how far women have come today, it’s hard to believe the extent of the chauvinism I experienced when I was in school. To give you just two examples, my advanced math teacher in high school told me that I could take his class, but girls typically don’t do well because “girls can’t do math.” On the first day of chemistry class at Penn State University, my professor told me that I was most assuredly in the wrong room when I entered his classroom. This class was comprised of about one hundred young men, one other young woman, and me.