Women of note in antiquity

When discussing ancient societies, many choose to focus on the men who founded civilization, but what about the women?

Ancient Egypt was home to various female rulers such as Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut.

Cleopatra VII became immortalized in history as the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt. She was the first Ptolemaic ruler to speak the Egyptian language as well as seven other languages.

She leveraged Caesar’s propensity for affairs with noblewomen to gain access to his army and to oust her competitors for the throne. She publicly proclaimed their son Caesarian’s heritage to promote future Roman-Egyptian alliances.

She chose Marc Antony as her partner after Caesar, as he was projected to be the next leader of Rome, but Octavian ousted Antony from power, leading to Cleopatra’s ultimate death.

While she was a strategic ruler and intelligent scholar, Romans painted her as a seductress and sorceress akin to Helen of Troy, so the rest of history regarded her as such. In Ancient Greco-Roman literature, women are often painted as devious and manipulative creatures designed to stop male heroes.

Most literature about women in ancient history is written by men; however, one Grecian author stands out.

The poet Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos and wrote about love and sexual desire between women. She was praised by Plato and was publicly honored with various statues. She remains a queer icon to this day.

In Ancient China, women’s main role were those of wife and mother, but some did break from this mold and became famous rulers, artists, historians and more.

Ban Zhao was a famous author and scholar. Her most famous work, “Nuje” or “Instructions for Women,” discussed the benefits of women educating themselves.

While the work still touted the importance of subservience to their husbands, the text was recited by women for centuries to come.