6:30they see that the town has been,•6:33for the most part, evacuated.•6:34That the Athenians, when they saw•6:36that the Persians were coming,•6:38they went to Salamis right over here.•6:42So even though Athens was sacked and destroyed,•6:44the Athenian people were not destroyed.•6:47Now simultaneous with Thermopylae,•6:51you had a naval battle happen in the Straight of Artemisium.•6:57And once again, even though there was about•6:58600 Persian ships that were in this battle,•7:02there was on the order of about 200 or 300 Greek ships,•7:05so the Greeks were once again outnumbered,•7:07and they were able to slow down the Persians,•7:09but not stop them.
All the information we get about the battles and even the effects like Athenians being able to evacuate often only come from the lens of the men and actual military force. They don’t include how specifically the Athenians evacuated and who helped them escape. According to The World History Encyclopedia, “ Herodotus, the high priestess of Athens had the people evacuate the city just prior to the Battle of Salamis …telling them that the serpent Erichthonius, and therefore Athena, had already fled the Acropolis and they should follow suit (Histories, VIII, 41).” But that gets overlooked and instead just focuses on the war itself and the soldiers and generals overlooking the “smaller players” that are often women or elders, showcasing the focus and priorities of displaying a certain kind of history that places men in a position of power and completely overlooks anybody else.
Mark, Joshua J. “The Women of Athena’s Cult.” World History Encyclopedia, https://www.worldhistory.org#organization, 5 July 2021, www.worldhistory.org/article/74/the-women-of-athenas-cult/#:~:text=When%20the%20Persians%20invaded%20Greece,Histories%2C%20VIII%2C%2041).