When the class entered the Danger Shop today, they would see that they were standing on what appeared to be the deck of a ship. In the distance, there looked to be a fierce sea battle going on. When everyone had arrived, Annja smiled.

"It's Friday, it's Homecoming weekend and I know that most of you would rather be elsewhere right now than in class. So, we have a short lecture, today." She gestured at the sea battle. "The Battle of Salamis. Not many have heard of it because it gets caught up and lost when discussed with a great battle that happened around the same time, the Battle of Thermopylae. The Persians wanted Greece, Greece had a strong opinion on that. It is from this war that the legend of the 300 Spartans has risen."

She tilted her head. "This, however, is not Sparta. This is Fandom and today I wanted to tell you about a little known queen named Artemesia. Artemisia was the queen of Halicarnassus, and commander of the Carian contingent for the Persian side. In essence, she was the first female naval commander. In 480 BCE, when the Persian king, Xerxes, invaded Greece, queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, commanded five ships from her small state. She appears to have behaved bravely during the naval battle off Artemisium, and advised against the naval engagement at Salamis. When this battle did take place and the Persian fleet was already defeated, her ship, trying to escape from a Greek captain named Ameinias of Pallene, rammed the ship of Xerxes' ally, King Damasitheos, who did not survive this attack. According to Herodotus, Xerxes had not seen how this happened and was unaware that the sinking ship was one of his own, and therefore praised Artemisia's courage by saying My men have become women and my women men."

Annja leaned against the railing of the ship. "After the battle, she advised Xerxes not to stay in Greece, but to return to Asia. He agreed with her counsel, but he probably had his own reasons for following her advise. It is later said of her that she escorted Xerxes' sons safely from Greece to Ephesus. Nothing much is known of her after that and it is assumed that she returned to her country and ruled well until her death."