Artemisia I of Caria - Family and Name

Family and Name

The name Artemisia (Anāhitā) derives from Artemis (n, f.; Roman equivalent: Diana). According to Jablonski, the name is also Phrygian and could be "compared with the royal appellation Artemas of Xenophon. However according to Charles Anthon the primitive root of the name is probably of Persian origin from arta*, art*, arte*,... all meaning great, excellent, holy,... thus Artemis (i.e. Diana) "becomes identical with the great mother of Nature, even as she was worshipped at Ephesus". According to Herodotus (Histories, Books 7 and 8), Artemisia was Halicarnassian on her father Lygdamis' side and Cretan on her mother's.