A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Chelonis
CHELONIS,
Daughter of Leonidas, King of Sparta, B.C. 491, was the wife of Cleombrutus. Her father was deposed by a faction, which placed Cleombrutus on the throne in his stead. Chelonis refused to share her husband's triumph, and retired with her father into a temple in which he had taken sanctuary. Leonidas, some time after, was permitted to retire to Tagea, whither Chelonis accompanied him.
A change occurring in the feelings of the populace, Leonidas was restored, and Cleombrutus obliged to take refuge, in his turn, in the sanctuary. Chelonis now left her father for her husband. Leonidas repaired, with an armed force, to the sanctuary, and bitterly reproached Cleombrutus, who listened in silence, with the injuries he had received from him. The tears of Chelonis, who protested that she could not survive Cleombrutus, softened Leonidas, and he not only gave his son-in-law his life, but allowed him to choose his place of exile. To the entreaties of Leonidas, that Chelonis would remain with him, she returned a resolute refusal; and, placing one of her children in her husband's arms, and taking the other in her own, she went with him into banishment.