Editing Sparta (section)

===Historic women===
Many women played a significant role in the [[history of Sparta]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Gorgo and Spartan Women |url=http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7849/spwomen.html |access-date=10 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027062542/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7849/spwomen.html |archive-date=27 October 2009 |date=27 October 2009}}</ref> [[Gorgo, Queen of Sparta|Queen Gorgo]], heiress to the throne and the wife of [[Leonidas I]], was an influential and well-documented figure.  Herodotus records that as a small girl she advised her father [[Cleomenes I|Cleomenes]] to resist a bribe. She was later said to be responsible for decoding a warning that the Persian forces were about to invade Greece; after Spartan generals could not decode a wooden tablet covered in wax, she ordered them to clear the wax, revealing the warning.<ref>{{cite web|author=Helena Schrader |url=http://www.elysiumgates.com/~helena/Women.html |title=Sparta Reconsidered—Spartan Women |publisher=Elysiumgates.com |date=11 July 2010 |access-date=10 August 2011}}</ref>  Plutarch's ''[[Moralia]]'' contains a collection of "Sayings of Spartan Women", including a laconic quip attributed to Gorgo: when asked by a woman from [[Attica]] why Spartan women were the only women in the world who could rule men, she replied "Because we are the only women who are mothers of men".{{sfn|Plutarch|2004|p=457}} In 396, [[Cynisca]], sister of the Eurypontid king Agesilaos II, became the first woman in Greece to win an Olympic chariot race. She won again in 392, and dedicated two monuments to commemorate her victory, these being an inscription in Sparta and a set of bronze equestrian statues at the Olympic temple of Zeus.<ref>Pausanias, 6.1.6</ref><ref>Millender, Ellen G., "Spartan Women" p. 500-525. In ''A Companion to Sparta,'' edited by Anton Powell, Volume 1 of ''A Companion to Sparta.'' Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2018.</ref>