Hoplites!

[quislibet]

http://www.hoplites.co.uk/
Work-safe.

A reenactment group.

I'm a little dubious about some of the argumentation in the little PDF essay about Scythian warrior women, although I'm prepared to accept that they existed. But there comes a time when it's just better to let the 21st-century reenactors of either sex put on the armor and go at it without the tedious justifications.

Comments

My geeky contribution

[ex-cayetana730.livejournal.com]

I'm a little dubious about some of the argumentation in the little PDF essay about Scythian warrior women

I've done more research on the Scythians than I care to recall, and I'm dubious too. I'm sure women warriors existed, but not in full force and not in an organized or acknowleged way. It's not something to make a big deal out of anyway. Since the only evidence is from Herodotus.
Also, the bibliography has pretty crummy sources.

Re: My geeky contribution

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

Yesterday evening before I'd heard of the abovementioned I was trying to track down information on the anonymous Tractatus de mulieribus claris in bello, an obscure and brief Greek "Treatise about women famous in war." To find out more (specifically, its date) I'm just going to have to go into Mugar today or some other time and check out the recent book (http://www.brill.nl/m_catalogue_sub6_id2748.htm) about it, it seems; the web is not much help.

But in any case: while seeking the web for "warrior women," one finds rather interesting things. (The first hit on Google is, unsurprisingly, House Ironrose.) Not as much women-with-swords porn as I was fearing, but lots of sad "scholarship." The author of one website I found last night seems, for its bibliography, to have searched the (appropriately named, come to think of it) amazon.com for the phrase "warrior women" and pasted in everything they found without asking him/herself, "Is this book likely to be helpful to people studying ancient warrior chicks?" -- including a book on finding your inner goddess and another about breast-cancer survivors.