She challenges Penelope, the loyal wife of Odysseus, for the role of faithful companion. Some ancient texts claim she drank the ashes of her cremated husband in tribute. In history, Artemisia is known for creating a palatial monument for her husband Mausolus, and establishing the name of mausoleum  to honour his name for eternity.

She was married to her brother, the time honoured tradition of keeping royal blood in the family. No history seems to remain about their children, but they were married at least twenty years. When Artemisia lost her brother in 351 B.C.E, she continued to build the regal tomb. She survived him by two years before she followed him to this palatial resting place.

It was grand;  overlooking the human engineered   harbour of Halicarnassus, it stood on a hilltop. The best Greek sculptors were brought to the Eastern outpost under the Persian Empire to carve a magnificent monument to Mausolus and Artemisia; this magnificent structure would command the name of mausoleum for the rest of history.
Surrounded by a courtyard, their mausoleum was a masterpiece that incorporated both ziggurat and pyramid with the craft of Grecian sculpture. Lions adorned the stairway and knights on horses guarded the gates. Wife and husband would stand elegant in their four horse chariot atop the pyramid roof adorning the marble statue, column rich architectural triumph. It could be seen as a temple on a man made mountaintop. Ironically the bodies of the patrons of the Mausoleum might have been buried beneath the imposing structure- only to be looted almost two-thousand years later.
A rebellion of Rhodes challenged Atemisia’s singular power. Her soldiers defeated the Rhodesian aggressors- outwitted by her navy. Taking the banner of the Rhodesian ships, her soldiers conquered Rhodes. She erected at least one statue in triumph to her success: a statue of Athena and one of her own likeness. After the Rhodesians gained their independence, the space around the statues was considered Abaton, or the space was in accessible.

Claimed as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world by Antipater of Sidon, it was written about by historical notables such as Pausanias, Strabo, Vitruvius, Satyrus, Phytheus, valerius Maximus and Pliny the Elder. Alexander the Great claimed the land as his own, being a nephew of Artemisia and Mausolus.
Artemisia’s face, is lost to history, but their love will ever live on in the name of Mausolus, or mausoleum- the building that will honour the resting place of the dead.