Plutarch, Über die Tapferkeit von Frauen (Moralia 245C-E):

Telesilla von Argos war eine Dichterin des 5. Jhdts. v.u.Z.

Of all the deeds performed by women for the community none is more famous than the struggle against Cleomenes for Argos, which the women carried out at the instigation of Telesilla the poetess. She, as they say, was the daughter of a famous house but sickly in body, and so she sent to the god to ask about health; and when an oracle was given to her to cultivate the Muses, she followed the god’s advice, and by devoting herself to poetry and music she was quickly re-lieved of her trouble, and was greatly admired by the women for her poetic art.

But when Cleomenes king of the Spartans, having slain many Argives (but not by any means seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven (1), as some fabulous narratives have it) proceeded against the city, an impulsive daring, divinely inspired [ὁρμὴ καὶ τόλμα δαιμόνιος], came to the younger women to try, for their country’s sake, to hold off the enemy. Under the lead of Telesilla they took up arms, and, taking their stand by the battlements, manned the walls all round, so that the enemy were amazed.

The result was that Cleomenes they repulsed with great loss, and the other king, Demaratus, who managed to get inside, as Socrates (2) says, and gained possession of the Pamphyliacum, they drove out. In this way the city was saved.

[i][Plutarch, Moralia III. Ed. by Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge (Mass.)/London ⁷2004, pp. 488-491]

(1) 6000 gemäß Herodot VII 148
(2) Sokrates der Argiver