Classical stories about women who wield power, from the Amazons to Dido to Cleopatra

In this fascinating anthology, ancient women threaten male power by stepping into the roles traditionally held by men. They command armies, exercise sexual autonomy, speak in public, issue laws and subject others (even masculine heroes and citizen men) to their control. All of these stories were written by men and none of them can be read as affirmations or celebrations of women in power. Instead, their sexist attitudes continue to justify women’s exclusion from power.

Yet despite the fear and suspicion the male authors direct toward these women, we can find much to admire in their tales, from the coordinated action of the women of Aristophanes’s Assemblywomen, to the righteous anger of Boudicca against sexual violence by men in power, to the successful resistance of Amanirenas against Rome’s colonial expansion. Read differently, these tales testify to the long history of women in power and suggest new paths for female empowerment.