Gorgo was the Spartan queen who was the daughter of King Cleomenes I and wife of Leonidas I. Her family connected her to both major Spartan royal houses through marriage and parentage.
Herodotus presents Gorgo as an intelligent participant in political affairs. In one famous episode, she reportedly recognized that a message from Demaratus contained a warning beneath its wax coating. The story illustrates how ancient authors used her character to represent Spartan sharpness and loyalty.
Gorgo’s historical biography is known mainly through Herodotus, so details should be separated from later popular embellishments. She was not Leonidas’s mother; she was his wife. Herodotus also records that she was the mother of Pleistarchus, who later became king after Leonidas’s death.