On the other hand, Thessalus, a son of Hippocrates, described her in a speech as a cowardly pirate. In his speech, Thessalus said that the King of Persia demanded earth and water from the Coans in 493 BC but they refused, so he gave the island to Artemisia to be wasted. Artemisia led a fleet of ships to the island of Cos to slaughter the Coans, but the gods intervened. After Artemisia's ships were destroyed by lightning and she hallucinated visions of great heroes, she fled Cos. However, she later conquered the island.