Legendary Women

LEGENDARY WOMEN THROUGH MYTHS & HISTORY ROHINI



I HATSHEPSUT c. 1473-1458 BCE Female pharaoh of Egypt. She started off her reign as a conventional regent queen, but eventually she and her stepson became co-rulers. Her reign was a relatively peaceful one, her foreign policy being based on trade rather than war. Scenes on the walls of her temple show her seaborne trading expedition to Punt, a trading cen- tre which has vanished since on the east African coast: gold, ebony, animal skins, and baboons were found, and myrrh trees were brought back to Egypt to be planted in the gardens of her temple. Restoration and building were important royal duties, and her supreme achieve- ment was the Dayr Al-Bahrï Temple, designed as a fu- nerary monument for Hatshepsut. Her formal portraits showe her with a male body, wearing traditional regalia of kilt, crown or head-cloth, as well as a false beard. Af- ter ruling for nearly 22 years, she passed away due to bone cancer. By the end of her stepson’s rule, an attempt was made to remove all traces of Hatshepsut’s rule: her statues were torn down, monuments were defaced, and her name was removed from the official king list. Hatshepsut sank into obscurity until 1822, when the decoding of hieroglyphic script allowed archeologists to read the inscriptions at the Dayr Al-Bahrï Temple.



II MA DURGA c. 500 CE Hindu goddess of victory, fierce form of mother goddess. She is depicted in the Hindu pantheon as a goddess rid- ing a lion or a tiger, with eight to ten arms, each carrying a weapon or symbol, defeating Mahishasura (buffalo de- mon). Durga Pujo is a 9-day festival that is celebrated by making special colorful idols of Durga out of clay, while prayers and revelry take place, after which the idols are taken in procession with singing and dancing to be im- mersed in water, usually a river which is considered sa- cred, like the Ganga. It is believed by Bengalis that Ma Durga lives on Mount Kailash with her husband, Shiva, for most of the year, and comes home to the plains with her four children (Ganesh, Karthik, Saraswati, and Lakshmi) once every year for five days during Navrati, eating and celebrating. Bengali brides often mimic this tradition and visit their home with their children during this time of the year. The prominence of the Durga Pujo increased during the British Raj in Bengal, after Hindu reformists identified Durga with India, she became a symbol for the Indian in- dependence struggle; the belief of Durga as a mother and protector to Indians is quite secular and empowering.



III AGNODICE c. 300 BCE A legendary figure credited as the first female midwife or physician in ancient Athens. She is generally not believed to be a historical figure, but her story has been frequently deployed as a precedent for women practising midwifery or medicine. Before Agnodice was born, women had somewhat of a monopoly on female medi- cal treatment: childbirth was overseen by close female relatives or friends, and women who had a knack for this position came to be known as maia or midwives. But in a world where anxiety over lin- eage and heirs dominated much of the culture, men started to feel intimidated by the amount of sexual independence offered to wom- en by midwives and the wealth of reproductive knowledge available. By the end of 400 BCE, Hippocrates, known today as the “father of medicine,” barred women from his teaching facilities and midwife- ry became punishable by death. Agnodice, appalled by high mor- tality rates of infants and mothers during childbirth, disguised her- self as a man to study and practice medicine. Eventually, she started helping women give birth, still in disguise. Agnodice was presented in front of a jury due to suspicion, where she revealed her disguise and was sentenced to death for going against the law. However, a massive group of women stormed the assembly, demanding justice for Agnodice. The law was changed so that women could legally study and practice medicine, as long as they treated female patients.



IV HÉLOÏSE C. 1100-1164 Was a French nun, writer, scholar, and abbess. She was known to have a love affair and correspondence with Peter Abélard. She is given an important place in French literary history and in the development of feminist representation. Her few surviv- ing letters have been considered a foundational “monument” of French literature from the 13th century onwards. By the time she became a student for Abélard, she was already a reput- ed scholar. There are a total of seven letters between the couple that remain today. Beyond the love story her letters reveal, she plainly writes of her disdain for marriage and even “feminine” life, stating in her first letter, “I preferred love to wedlock, free- dom to a bond.” She goes on to define marriage as the ultimate form of prostitution, a brash statement for a 12th-century nun.



V TOMOE GOZEN c. 1157-1247 A female samurai warrior from Japan, known for her bravery and strength. She was a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordsman she was “a warrior worth a thousand.” She married Minamoto no Yoshinaka and served him in the Genpei War. Some exerpts describing Tomeo Gozen include, “When- ever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an over- sized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valour than any of his other warriors.” and “At this point, Yoshinaka orders Tomoe to leave the bat- tlefield, as he claimed it would be shameful for him to die with a woman, a reminder that it was still a man’s world out there. Reluctantly, Tomoe obeys his command, not before behead- ing another one of the enemy’s warriors. After this, Tomoe dis- appears from history, and her fate has been speculated since.”



VI BRUNHILD c. 1200 A powerful figure from Germanic heroic legends. In Norse myth, Brunhild is a shield-maiden or valkyrie, sometimes re- ferred to as the daughter of Norse god, Odin. There are sev- eral versions of this character and stories surrounding her, all varying slightly but maintaining a melodramatic flair.



VII SCHEHERAZADE c. 1400 A character and storyteller in One Thousand And One Nights, which is a collection of Persian, Indian and Arabic folktales. She was a well-read young woman, having studied philosophy, the sci- ences and the arts, and knowing countless stories and poems by heart. She often recounted stories to her younger sister, Dunyazade. The story goes that the king of the kingdom, enraged by an un- faithful wife, decided to marry a new woman every night and behead the previous night’s wife so they wouldn’t even get the chance to be unfaithful to him. Scheherazade volunteered to be the king’s wife, and would recount stories to the king ev- ery night until he’d be so engrossed that he’d let her live an- other night so he would know how the story ended. This went on for 1,001 nights until the king fell in love with Schehe- razade, marrying her and stopping the beheadings for good.



VIII JOAN OF ARC c. 1412-1431 A national heroine of France, a peasant girl who was act- ing under an apparent divine guidance, led the French army in momentous victories that repulsed English at- tempts to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War. She became the spirit of France, and possessed many attributes that were characteristic of female vi- sionaries noted at the time, including extreme piety and a claim to direct communication with the saints. Joan was raised in a pious household in the village of Dom- rémy. At thirteen, she began to hear voices of saints and saw her first visions. The archangel Michael appeared of- ten, as well as a divine command to help in the French fight against the English. On May 4, Joan sprang up from resting, announcing that she must go and attack the En- glish. The following days, she stormed several English forts and caught them off-guard, securing swift victories. These victories continue until her failure to reclaim Par- is, which makes the Dauphin lose faith in her, ending in the English capture of Joan. They burned her at the stake, and almost 400 years later, Joan was made a saint in 1920.



IX LA MALINCHE c.1496-1501/29) Dona Marina, considered a controversial char- acter in Spanish history, was instrumental in the conquest of the Aztecs through her control over the conquering leader, Cortes, whose in- terpreter and mistress she was. Though coming from an aristocratic family, she was sold to slav- ery early on and made her way to Cortes’ inner circle through her mastery of two languages, and earned his trust. Though they were never married, she bore him a son, and was his con- fidante and advisor in state matters. Despite her children trying to keep up a positive image of her, she still comes across as opportunistic fallen woman who betrayed her own people in Mexico.



X QUEEN ELIZABETH II c. 1533-1603 Was queen of England during a time when England asserted it- self vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce and the arts. She was the last monarch from the house of Tudor, and last to rule before England’s unification with Scotland. She was a virgin queen who saw herself wedded to her country, and brought almost half a century of stability after the turmoil of her siblings’ reigns. When Elizabeth became queen after her half-sis- ter Mary’s short reign, speculations about a suitable match for her were brought to the forefront. Elizabeth was the only English queen to have not taken a husband, but kept marriage negotiations going on for months, even years, since she carefully considered the political weight of alliances and was skilled at manipulating factions. Her passion for dress was politically charged and aware- ness about her public image: she controlled the royal portraits that circulated widely in England and abroad, and her appearanc- es in public were dazzling displays of wealth and magnificence.



XI HANGBE c. 1700 A woman ruler of a small principality called Dahomey in West Af- rica said to have inherited the position on the death of her broth- er and other successors being too young to take over. Her rule is disputed in African history and is said to be anywhere between 3 months to 3 years. She could have been instrumental in the cre- ation of the Dahomey Amazon army, consisting entirely of women.



xii QUEEN RANAVALONA 1778-1861 Reigned between 1828 and 1861 when she took the throne on the death of her young husband. She is widely known as a “mad” queen of Mada- gascar who brought back slavery, and undertook controversial practices in dealing with her oppo- sition, who were Europeans trying to establish their dominance in the country. However, she also brought in self-sufficiency for the country in defense matters of weaponry and gunpowder. She was especially hateful of Christianity and employed many questionable methods of pun- ishing Christians. She systematically eliminat- ed her rivals to stay in power, and was generally considered a mad and ruthless ruler. However, this was mostly from an European point of view who wanted control of the country and after her death till today, it remains a French influenced country, which paints her as a major villain.



XIII SACAGAWEA c. 1788-1884(?) Separating fact from legend is difficult: histo- rians have been disagreeing on details ranging from the dates of her birth to even her name. Sacagawea belonged to the Lehmi Shoshone In- dians. The Hidatsa Indians were long time en- emies of the Shoshones, and they captured Sa- cagawea when she was 12 years old. She was then purchased by a French-Canadian trader, Charbonneau, and became one of his wives. Once “explorers” Lewis and Clark arrived at the Hidatsa villages, Sacagawea was the only woman to join them in a expedition made up of 32 male members, travelling 10,000km with her infant son. She acted as a translator and had a lot of territorial knowledge and skills. After the expe- dition, Sacagawea bore another child to Char- bonneau, and the details of her death are murky.



XIV RANI LAKSHMIBAI 1815-1858 Rani Lakhsmibai of Jhansi was an Indian queen who rebelled against British imperialism as part of the Sepoy mutiny of 1857. She was trained in martial arts, sword fighting and riding. She was deposed as queen when the British viceroy refused to acknowl- edge the adopted son of the maharaja as the rightful heir to the throne of Jhansi. She fought annexation by the British with her army, and later joined forces with the other leaders of the mutiny, Tantia Tope, and rescued Gwalior from the colonialists. She died heroically in combat and to this day remains a leg- end in the history of the freedom struggle of India.



XV MARY ELIZABETH BOWSER 1846-1867 A former slave, she worked as a union spy during the American Civil War. From a position as a servant to Jef- ferson Davis’ family in the confederate white house, Mary served an important role in the spy ring organized by Elizabeth van Lew. Mary gave at least two lectures in the north in 1865 about her education, travel to Liberia and wartime exploits, protecting her identity with the use of pseudonyms in the lectures. More mentions of her lec- tures may be found in 19th century Black newspapers. Un- der the name Mary J. Richards, she founded a freedmen’s school in Georgia, all the students being taught by her.



XVI CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1865-1943 A French sculptor who died in relative obscurity, her work is still not known by many today. She was the co-worker and lover of fellow sculptor Auguste Rodin. As a teenager, Claudel was already a gifted sculptor and read widely in her father’s library. Her mother de- tested her for not being a male child, and never agreed with Claudel’s involvement in the arts. In 1892, after an abortion, Claudel ended the intimate aspect of her re- lationship with Rodin, and within a year she was living and working alone, though she saw Rodin often. Her mental health deteriorated after this point, due to dis- tancebetween her brother Paul, whoshe was quite close to. Ultimately, she passed awat at an asylum in 1943.



XVII MADAM C.J WALKER 1867-1919 Born Sara Breedlove, she was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist and political and social activist. Known as the first fe- male self-made millionaire in the US, she became one of the wealth- iest African American women and business owners ever. After suf- fering from a scalp ailment that resulted in hair loss, she invented a life of hair care products in 1905. First in her family born under freedom after the emancipation proclamation was signed, she was or- phaned at the age of seven. She adopted her second husband’s name of Walker to coin her name as Madame C.J Walker. She learned the hair care trade from her brothers who were barbers, and was a com- mission agent for Annie Malone, an American hair care business owner who later became her biggest rival. She used her knowledge to develop her own products and marketed herself as an indepen- dent hairdresser. Her husband helped her with product promotion and advertising. She marketed her products door-to-door, teaching Black women how to style their hair. Through these endeavours, she taught Black women to become independent with their finances and build their own businesses. She built a factory, hair salon, and beauty school to train her sales agents, and many of her staff were women. In 1917, she established the National Beauty Culturists and Associa- tion of Madam C.J Walker agents – one of the first of its kind to bring together women entrepreneurs to discuss business and commerce. She bequeathed large amounts in charity from her future net profits. .



XVIII HEDY LAMARR 1914-2000 Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vien- na. After a brief film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial Ecstasy (1933), she fled from her husband and secretly moved to Paris. She became a film star from the later 1930s to the 50s. She worked on various hobbies and inven- tions in her spare time, though she lacked formal training. During WWII, Lamarr learned that radio-controlled tor- pedoes, an emergent naval war technology, could easily be jammed and set off course. She came up with frequency-hop- ping signals that could not be tracked or jammed, and took the help of composer George Antheil to help develop a device for this purpose. The principles of this work are incorporat- ed into bluetooth technology and Wi-Fi. This work led to her induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.



XIX THE MIRABEL SISTERS c. 1924-1960 Were four sisters in the Dominican Republic who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and were involved in clandestine activities against his regime. Three of the four sisters, Patria, Minerva and Maria Therese, were assassinated on 25 Novem- ber 1960, while the last sister, Dedé, died of natural causes. The assissinations turned the sisters into “symbols of both popular and feminist resistance.” 1950s Dominican Republic was head- ed by totalitarian dictator Trujillo. Trujillo employed scores of “beauty scouts” to scour the countryside for young girls for him to romance, kidnap or rape. On one such mission, he forced the Mirabels to come to one of his parties, where soon Minerva real- ized she was one of his targets. When he didn’t accept her polite rejections, she slapped him in the face, and gathered her family, to leave the situation. Thereafter, Minerva struggled as Trujillo toyed with her life: despite her brilliance, she was barred from classes, and was denied her license to practice law after grad- uating summa cum laude. Her parents weren’t spared either, her father facing imprisonment shortly before his death. Grad- ually, the sisters and their husbands turned into activists after the damage Trujillo had caused. When Trujillo’s politics went south, he blamed the Mirabel sisters for his problems, ordering that they be killed. The assassinations were a brutal affair which served as a catalyst for overthrowing Trujillo six months later.



XX SELENA 1971-1995 Mexican-American, known as the “Tejano-madonna” for her fash- ion sense, she was an iconic Tejano singer who went into a male dominated genre of music and created significant celebrity status for herself. She was initially rejected in this male bastion but became accepted when she won the best female vocalist in the Tejano music festival in 1987 7 consecutive times. She was murdered at the age of 23 by her close friend and business associate, Yolanda Saldivar, in 1995 and her death became as famous as that of Lennon, Elvis and even JFK. Her recordings expressed “love and pain, as well as strength and passion,” and she also recorded female-empowerment themes compositions which centred around “inappropriate” relationships and recovery from domestic violence. Selena became a household name in the United States and Mexico, and Tejano music’s populari- ty peaked with her when she brought it to mainstream pop culture.

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