[3] She fought as an ally of Xerxes I, King of Persia against the independent Greek city states during the second Persian invasion of Greece.

Artemisia's father was the satrap of Halicarnassus, Lygdamis I (Λύγδαμις Α') [6][7][8] and her mother was from the island of Crete.

[11][12] Artemisia's grandson, Lygdamis II (Λύγδαμις Β'), was the satrap of Halicarnassus when Herodotus was exiled from there and the poet Panyasis (Πανύασις) was sentenced to death, after the unsuccessful uprising against him.

According to Thessalus, the King of Persia demanded earth and water from the Coans in 493 BC but they refused, and so he gave the island to Artemisia to be wasted.

[17] If Xerxes chose not to rush into a naval encounter, but instead kept his ships close to the shore and either stayed there or moved them towards the Peloponnese, victory would be his.

They will leave for their cities, because they don't have food in store on this island, as I have learned, and when our army will march against the Peloponnese they who have come from there will become worried and they will not stay here to fight to defend Athens.

[22] Her involvement in the campaign was described by Herodotus: Artemisia, who moves me to marvel greatly that a woman should have gone with the armament against Hellas; for her husband being dead, she herself had his sovereignty and a young son withal, and followed the host under no stress of necessity, but of mere high-hearted valour.

Artemisia was her name; she was daughter to Lygdamis, on her father's side of Halicarnassian lineage, and a Cretan on her mother's.

She decided to charge against a friendly ship manned by people of Calyndos and on which the king of the Calyndians Damasithymos (Δαμασίθυμος) was located.

[29][30] Herodotus believed that Ameinias did not know that Artemisia was on the ship, because otherwise he would not have ceased his pursuit until either he had captured her or had been captured himself, because "orders had been given to the Athenian captains, and moreover a prize was offered of ten thousand drachmas for the man who should take her alive; since they thought it intolerable that a woman should make an expedition against Athens.

[32] While Xerxes was overseeing the battle from his throne, which was at the foot of Mount Aigaleo, he observed the incident and he and the others who were present thought that Artemisia had attacked and sunk a Greek ship.

[33] According to Polyaenus, when Xerxes saw her sink the ship, he said: "O Zeus, surely you have formed women out of man's materials, and men out of woman's.

[35] Plutarch, in his work Parallel Lives (Greek: Βίοι Παράλληλοι) at the part which mentions Themistocles, says that it was Artemisia who recognised the body of Ariamenes (Ἀριαμένης) (Herodotus says that his name was Ariabignes), brother of Xerxes and admiral of the Persian navy, floating amongst the shipwrecks, and brought the body back to Xerxes.

[36]After the battle, according to Polyaenus, Xerxes acknowledged her to have excelled above all the officers in the fleet and sent her a complete suit of Greek armour; he also presented the captain of her ship with a distaff and spindle.

[40][41] According to Herodotus, after the defeat, Xerxes presented Artemisia with two possible courses of action and asked her which she recommended.

[44] On the other hand, Plutarch mocks Herodotus' writing, since he thinks that Xerxes would have brought women with him from Susa, in case his son needed female attendants.

The previous name of the Greek ferryboat, Panagia Skiadeni, was Artemisia (ex-Star A, Orient Star and Ferry Tachibana).

In Vidal's depiction, she had a long relationship with the Persian general Mardonius, who at some periods lived in Halicarnassus and acted unofficially as her consort – but that she refused to marry him, determined to preserve her independence.

In the 2014 film, 300: Rise of an Empire, Artemisia is featured as commander of the invading navy that the Greeks must fight, and serves as the main antagonist.

[59][60] The historian Dr. Roy Casagranda wrote a historical fiction novel about Artemsia entitled The Blood Throne of Caria.