Women at War in the Classical World

330 Pages·2017·10.22 MB·English

by  Paul Chrystal

Women at War in the Classical World
Dedication
For the women and girls inside Syria and those who have fled the conflict for
safety in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Many have been subject to sexual
and gender-based violence, coerced into early marriages, overwhelmed by
economic strife, and psychologically scarred by loss in a war that seemingly has
no end. Women and girls affected by conflict must be regarded as more than
victims of brutality; they are agents of change who, if given the opportunity, can
transform their societies.
Ambassador Melanne Verveer
Executive Director
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security
https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/resource-file/IRC_WomenInSyria_Report_WEB.pdf
Women at War in the Classical
World
Paul Chrystal
Contents
List of Plates
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Women and War in Earlier Ancient Civilisations
Part One: Greece
1. Goddesses and War in Greek Mythology
2. Warlike Women in Homer
3. Teichoskopeia: A Woman’s View from the Walls
4. The Amazons
5. Women and War in Greek Tragedy
6. Women and War in Greek Comedy
7. Women and War in Greek History and Philosophy
8. Women Warriors Catalogued
9. Spartan Women: Vital Cogs in a Well-Oiled War Machine
10. Macedonian Women at War: Pawns and Power-Players
Part Two: Women as Victims of War
11. War Rape and Other Atrocities in the Classical World
Part Three: Rome
12. Military Women in Roman Legend
13. Military Women in Roman History
14. Foreign Women Fighters
15. Women and War in Roman Epic
16. Women and War and Militia Amoris
17. Military Tendencies in Women in Seneca’s Troades
Part Four: Warrior Women in the Arts and Entertainment
18. Military Women in the Visual Arts
19. Women as Gladiators
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
List of Plates
The skeleton of a young woman from Cemetery 2, Kurgan 8, Burial 4 at
Pokrova, Russia.
Andromache, Astyanax and Hector in a touching scene from the Iliad, Apulian
red-figure column-crater, c.370–360 BCE.
Menelaus goes to strike Helen, but stunned by her beauty, he drops his sword,
detail of an Attic red-figure crater, c.450–440 BCE.
A scene showing Achilles fighting with the Amazon Penthesilea; on a
sarcophagus dated c.250 CE.
Papyrus fragment with a drawing of the abduction of Briseis by Talthybius and
Eurybates in the Iliad (Book 1, lines 330–48), fourth century BCE.
Amazonomachy marble, sarcophagus panel, c. 160–70 CE.
Amazon mosaic from Paphos found in the Orpheus House, 3rd century CE.
Amazonomachy scene on a lekythos, c. 420 BCE.
Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799.
Jean Jacques François Lebarbier, A Spartan Woman Giving a Shield to Her Son,
1805. (© The Portland Art Museum, Ohio) The rampart walk on the East Wall in
Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock in the background. (Thanks to Professor
Tod Bolen at Bibleplaces.com, Santa Clarita, CA) Woodcut illustration of
Veturia and Volumnia confronting Coriolanus, from an incunable German
translation by Heinrich Steinhöwel of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De mulieribus
claris, c. 1474.
A detail from the frieze of the Basilica Aemilia depicting the punishment of
Tarpeia, c. 14 BCE.
Vincenzo Camuccini, Roman Women Offering their Jewellery in Defence of the