Women as Warriors, from Antiquity through the Renaissance

Prof. Jones-Bley (Indo-European Studies, UCLA), gives us a rather different look at the history of women as warriors than other recent books on the subject. Her main point, well made, is that women who fought in the ranks or who were strategists, or led nations in war, or commanded armies in the field, were rather numerous.

Jones-Bley opens with a very valuable introduction reviewing stereotypes and traditions about women and war and then explains the methodology she used in researching and writing this book.

There follow three chapters on women warriors in mythology and legend, including goddesses and heroic literature. She notes differences in how war goddesses and legendary women warriors were portrayed in various cultures, some of whom often combining traditional female roles and atypical warrior attributes.

There follows a chapter examining the surprisingly rich archaeological evidence for women warriors and what we can learn from it.

The final two chapters address historical evidence for women warriors. One covers the ancient world, from Sumer through the fall of Rome, revealing differences among the various cultures of women as warriors and war leaders, in some instances rather numerous (e.g. the Steppe peoples), and in others rather rare (e.g., the Romans). The final chapter deals with women from late Antiquity though the late fifteenth century, from India to Europe, where, with evidence rather abundant, we find more women as soldiers, strategists, and army commanders.

This is an excellent look at the role of women in warfare through the end of the fifteenth century. One can nitpick (e.g. Atalanta the Huntress, who sailed with the Argonauts, is missed), but that’s because the study of women and war is a rather new branch of history, and much work still needs to be done. The role of women in war clearly varied greatly among different societies, and it’s easy to envision each of the cultures Jones-Bley surveys meriting an entire volume or more.

Women and Warfare in the Ancient World is an important read for anyone interested in the history of war.

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