ing to do. He commended Artemisia, therefore, and sent her away
to conduct his sons to Ephesus, for there were certain sons of his who
accompanied him."

This time Xerxes took the advice of Artemisia, and left Mardonius with
three hundred thousand men to carry on the campaign, while he himself,
with the greater part of his forces which had survived, retired to
Persia. Artemisia, having won great glory by her valor and wisdom
returned to her own dominions, and we know nothing authentic as to her
later life. So queenly a woman, however, could not escape the Greek
fondness for manufacturing marvellous stories concerning the great; and
Ptolemy Hephaestion, a writer who mingles little fact with much fancy in
his works, preserves a tradition that Artemisia came to her end in a
most romantic manner. During her later years, she conceived a violent
attachment for Dardanus, a beautiful youth of Abydos. As her passion was
not returned, she avenged herself by putting out his eyes while he
slept. This excited the anger of the gods, and in obedience to an oracle
she, like the traditional Sappho, threw herself down from the Lover's
Leap of Leucate.

The second Artemisia is immortalized by her attachment to her husband
Mausolus, King of Caria, in memory of whom she built the celebrated and
stately tomb, considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world. This imposing structure, four hundred and forty feet in circuit,
and one hundred and forty feet high, built by the most renowned
architects of the time, embellished with sculptures from the hands of
Scopas and his associates, and rendered gorgeous by the use of the most
varied colors, gave the name of _mausoleum_ to all succeeding sepulchres
built on a colossal scale. No expense was spared by the devoted queen to
make it expressive of her love for her husband and brother; for this
species of marriage, so common later in Egypt, was sanctioned by the
customs of the country.

She furthermore invited the most noted writers of the day to attend a
literary contest, and offered the richest prizes to the one who should
excel in composing a panegyric to her husband's virtue. Notwithstanding
the interest she took in these memorials to her departed lord, she
continued to be a prey to the deepest affliction. The story is told
that she visited the place where her husband's ashes were deposited,
and, mixing them with water, drank them off, for the purpose of
becoming, as she said, the