Postcolonial Amazons : female masculinity and courage in ancient Greek and Sanskrit literature / Walter Duvall Penrose, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Penrose, Walter Duvall, Jr., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Amazons.

Amazons in literature.

Greek literature--History and criticism.

Greek literature.

Physical Description:

x, 317 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

Scholars have long been divided on the question of whether the Amazons of Greek legend actually existed. Notably, Soviet archaeologists' discoveries of the bodies of women warriors appeared to directly contradict western classicists' denials of the veracity of the Amazon myth in the 1980s, and there have been few concessions between the two schools of thought since. Postcolonial Amazons offers a ground-breaking re-evaluation of the place of martial women in the ancient world, bridging the gap between myth and historical reality and expanding our conception of the Amazon archetype. By shifting the center of debate to the periphery of the world known to the Greeks, the startling conclusion emerges that the ancient Athenian conception of women as weak and fearful was not at all typical of the region of that time, even within Greece. Surrounding the Athenians were numerous peoples who held that women could be courageous, able, clever, and daring, suggesting that although Greek stories of Amazons may be exaggerations, they were based upon a real historical understanding of women who fought. While re-examining the sources of the Amazon myth, this compelling volume also resituates the Amazons in the broader context from which they have been extracted, illustrating that although they were the quintessential example of female masculinity in ancient Greek thought, they were not the only instance of this phenomenon: masculine women were masqueraded on the Greek stage, described in the Hippocratic corpus, took part in the struggle to control Alexander the Great's empire after his death, and served as bodyguards in ancient India. Against the backdrop of the ongoing debates surrounding gender norms and fluidity, Postcolonial .Amazons breaks new ground is an ancient history of female masculinity and demonstrates that these ideas have a month longer and more durable heritage than we may have supposed. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Female masculinity and courage in ancient Greek thought 23

2 Orientalized Amazons: from imagined to historical warrior women 67

3 Postcolonial Amazons: decentering Athenian perspectives to rethink warrior women and matriarchy 118

4 Greek and Persian warrior queens: Herodotus' Artemisia in ethnic perspective 152

5 Hellenistic warrior queens: from the battlefield to the throne 184

6 Civilized "Amazons": women bodyguards and hunters in ancient India and Persia 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0199533377

9780199533374

OCLC:

964290003

Publisher Number:

99970225586