One hope remains for the beleaguered Greeks.
Themistocles had persuaded the Athenians to evacuate women and children to the Peloponnese and, in the last resort, to retire to Salamis.
If the Persians attack this island citadel, a battle in the narrow sound might yet give a chance to the Greeks, with their armored marines and heavier ships, against the better sailing ships commanded by the Persians.
Persuading the Peloponnesians to join the Athenian fleet, Themistocles then lures Xerxes by a false message, suggesting that he himself is ready to change sides, into ordering an all-out attack on September 29, 480 BCE.
The fleets advance in lines and attempt to cripple their opponents with the rams mounted on their prows; sailors use grappling hooks to board enemy vessels.
Aeschylus fights at Salamis, as does Aristides, recalled to Athens in the face of the invasion, who makes significant contributions to the battle.
The island of Aegina sides with Athens, setting aside the longstanding enmity between the two powers.
The Greeks, outnumbered in their ships by a factor of two to one, envelop the head of the Phoenician column as it emerges from the narrowest part of the strait and destroy it; and though most of the other Asian contingents in the rear escape, Xerxes has lost for good the command of the sea.
Queen Artemisia, the native tyrant of Halicarnassus in Caria and of the nearby island of Cos, shares in the Persian defeat at Salamis, despite her able command of five ships.
Herodotus claims that Xerxes is acting on Artemisia's advice when he decides to retreat from Greece at once rather than to risk another engagement.
Deprived of his seaborne supplies, Xerxes retreats hastily to Persia with about half his forces, leaving Mardonius in command of a land army to subdue Greece.
