Amazons feature in almost every account of ancient war, both mythical and historical, from the plains of Troy to the Athenian Areopagus, from the Trojan Aeneas’s struggle to conquer Italy and found Rome to Alexander the Great’s farthest eastern campaigns. Scarcely a classical temple did not feature a sculpted scene of battling Amazons, dressed in patterned leggings and felt caps with ear-flaps. These mythological warrior women were also among the most omnipresent figures in the art and literature of the ancient Greeks and Romans. As a warrior woman, skilled in archery and equestrianism, who rejects patriarchy and lives free from male control, the Amazonian archetype has inspired and provided a point of comparison with countless powerful or unconventional females, from Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great to Wonder Woman and Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. The Amazon of classical mythology retains a powerful presence in contemporary culture. Princeton University Press, 536pp, £19.95 The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World
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