⇒ PDF The s Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World Adrienne Mayor 9780691147208 Books

The s Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World Adrienne Mayor 9780691147208 Books

Download As PDF : The s Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World Adrienne Mayor 9780691147208 Books

The s Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World Adrienne Mayor 9780691147208 Books

One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. I am totally fascinated by it, and so sad that we have lost so much history about these amazing warrior women. It's an academic book, but it doesn't read like one. I wish I had more time to sit and read the whole thing - right now I'm reading bits of it as I wait to pick up my kids from school and it's hard to put it down again!

I have the electronic version of it, but this is one that I wished I had bought as a hard copy so that the pictures would be in the right spots and because I would love to mark it up by hand and put notes in the margins (not quite the same on a Kindle).

I didn't realize how much I never knew about these women until I got this book. If you love history or are interested in Amazons - definitely check this one out.


Tags : The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World [Adrienne Mayor] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Amazons―fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world―were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens,Adrienne Mayor,The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World,Princeton University Press,0691147205,Ancient - General,Folklore & Mythology,Women's Studies - General,Amazons,Amazons in literature,Amazons in literature.,Amazons.,Mythology, Greek,Mythology, Greek.,Women soldiers - History,Women, Prehistoric,Women, Prehistoric - Social conditions,ANCIENT WORLD HISTORY,Ancient history: to c 500 CE,Ancient religions & mythologies,Archaeology,Gender studies: women,General Adult,HISTORY Ancient General,History,History - General History,HistoryMilitary - General,HistoryWorld,History: World,Non-Fiction,SOCIAL SCIENCE Archaeology,SOCIAL SCIENCE Folklore & Mythology,SOCIAL SCIENCE Women's Studies,SOCIOLOGY OF WOMEN,Social ScienceArchaeology,Social ScienceFolklore & Mythology,Social ScienceWomen's Studies,UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States,Women soldiers - History,Women's Studies,Women's Studies - General,Women, Prehistoric,Women, Prehistoric - Social conditions,HISTORY Ancient General,HistoryMilitary - General,SOCIAL SCIENCE Archaeology,SOCIAL SCIENCE Folklore & Mythology,SOCIAL SCIENCE Women's Studies,Social ScienceArchaeology,Social ScienceFolklore & Mythology,Social ScienceWomen's Studies,History - General History,Ancient World History,Sociology Of Women,History,History: World,Ancient history: to c 500 CE,Ancient religions & mythologies,Archaeology,Gender studies: women

The s Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World Adrienne Mayor 9780691147208 Books Reviews

Adrienne Mayor’s research on the myths and realities of ancient women warriors is important and fascinating. She presents archeological evidence from numerous sites all around thousands of square miles of Asia’s central plains from the Ukraine to China, a region of nomadic horse cultures once called Scythia. She explains how scientific evidence indicates that the horse and the bow were crucial equalizing elements in the emergence and success of ancient women warriors. Mayor describes the weapons and other equipment found in the graves of hundreds of women warriors and notes that sometimes the remains of horses sacrificed to honor great women soldiers were present. She also analyzes the unique ecological and sociological conditions that contributed to the development of the far more gender equalitarian Scythian societies that the ancient Greeks and other bordering patriarchal cultures found shocking and threatening.
Ancient Greek art depicting s wearing caps with earmuffs characteristic of nomadic Scythian horse warriors is some of the most startling evidence of the true identity of the people the Greeks called s. Another fascinating piece of information is Mayor’s description of how ancient Greeks believed that women warriors invented trousers, obviously very useful attire for people who travel and fight on horseback. But the ancient Greeks considered trousers effeminate. Some ancient Greek vases shown in the book portray almost nude Greek men fighting clothed s.
Mayor’s book also describes stories of women warriors in historical contexts that popular representations of these events have often omitted. One of the most interesting is the account of warriors fighting on the side of Troy.
This is a fine study on a heretofore neglected subject. Meticulously researched, the author brings to light a lost world that may very well have had greater influence upon western civilization than previously supposed.
I enjoyed this book. It took me back in time to the steppes and the s in a way that usually only fiction can. It is well-researched and well-written and about darn time we had a book that takes Dr. Jeanine Davis-Kimball's work a step (no pun intended!) further.
Adrienne Mayor takes on every stereotype and myth about the s and methodically grinds them to dust, from "man-hating" to "single-breasted" to Wonder Woman. Instead of "proving" s existed from a Greek mythological viewpoint, Mayor's use of archaeological evidence and sources outside the Hellenic world paints a realistic world of women warriors in the Eurasian Steppes. Women who were full, rounded people they lived a warrior's life as well as loving men, having and raising children, and were in no way the wild cardboard cutouts of abnormal femaleness the myths would have us believe.

I have read and re-read this book since I got it, taking notes and cross-referencing other volumes of mythology and non-fiction about women warriors in the ancient world. Mayor's is the most comprehensive and detailed of all I've personally found, and on top of that it's a fun read. NO chapter feels like a college class chore to chew through the stories she's collected are absolutely intriguing. That warrior horsewomen tales appear in non-Greek histories and myths only reinforces that the real-life basis for the "" existed and thrived for centuries.

What struck me most is her assertion (backed by scientific and archaeological evidence) that the "" (in reality, the tribal horsewomen warriors of various tribes on the Steppes) wasn't merely a Greek foil for "proper womanhood", but that warrior women not only existed in the same world as the Greeks and Persians, but still lived their nomadic warrior lives through to the early 1900's in the Caucuses. If the earliest myths indicate s lived in the time of the Trojan war and before, and tribes still existed in the 1900's, the Scythian (and other) tribes who valued gender equality and tough women actually lasted longer than any empire in the ancient world. How fantastic and inspiring, to know that these were not peoples relegated to some ancient history, but lived, loved, and fought in the world only a century ago.
Great book. I've used this so much for research papers im doing for school. Best book ive bought in a long time.
Fascinating book about the legends of the s and the possible inspiration for their stories - the warrior women of the steppes!
As an avid reader, this is one of the best books i have read in a while. We have been lied to about the history of women...and this book exposes that - it takes us back to a time before the patriarchy took over and gives a glimpse of the feminine before she was disempowered and dishonored...i cried throughout the entire book hearing the stories of women who led their own lives instead of being supporting characters to men. Thank you adrienne for helping us remember.
One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. I am totally fascinated by it, and so sad that we have lost so much history about these amazing warrior women. It's an academic book, but it doesn't read like one. I wish I had more time to sit and read the whole thing - right now I'm reading bits of it as I wait to pick up my kids from school and it's hard to put it down again!

I have the electronic version of it, but this is one that I wished I had bought as a hard copy so that the pictures would be in the right spots and because I would love to mark it up by hand and put notes in the margins (not quite the same on a ).

I didn't realize how much I never knew about these women until I got this book. If you love history or are interested in s - definitely check this one out.