When courage is in short supply, we look outside ourselves to find it. Sometimes a good book or film will rouse it, or a quiet place, or the example of another person. Hushpuppy, the six-year-old heroine of the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild, is one such inspiration. When her father, to help her face an uncertain future, challenges “WHO da man?!,” her tiny self has learned to respond (and believe) “I’M da man!” In that tradition, we offer a short list of women warriors—some good, some not so—who didn’t back down.
Boudicca: Brutal As Any Man
Years of taxation, ill-treatment, and enslavement had worn down the Celtic tribes of East Anglia. They didn’t need much rallying to rebel against the Romans. Shortly after her husband died, the queen of the Iceni, Boudicca, was stripped of her possessions, flogged, forced to see her young daughters raped and tortured. She didn’t want to take it any longer and gathered the troops. Before she died, she and her troops razed the towns of Camulodunum (Colchester), the capital of Roman Britain; Verulamium (St. Albans); and Londinium (London).
The time was the early 15th century, the place France. Caught in the seemingly endless French and English skirmishes over territory and succession to the French crown, Joan (who was a farm girl) felt compelled to act. Relying upon her faith in God and the guidance of long-dead saints, she took her courage in hand and led French troops in many battles, notably to victory in Orléans. After her capture, she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake. This trial was movingly rendered by the film director Carl Theodor Dreyer in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).
Cleopatra: Age Cannot Wither Her
A warrior of a different sort was Cleopatra. To be sure, she won wars, but not for her the battlefield: her soldiers did the work. She preferred to conquer men in other ways. As Shakespeare put it: The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne, Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed that The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes.
Amazons: Penthesilea and Her Ilk
The Amazons of Greek mythology present the original portrait of woman warriors. They were a society of women who forswore the society of men—except to mate with them for the purpose of increasing their all-female tribe. Many are the stories of their bravery in battle, though Greek writers seem to have made use of them simply as valiant enemies to be defeated in Amazonomachies ("Amazon-battles"). One of their bravest leaders was “[t]he ferocious Penthesilea, gold belt fastened beneath her exposed breast…a warrioress [bellatrix], a maiden who dares to fight with men.” (Virgil)
Susan B. Anthony: Resistance to Tyranny is Obedience to God
These words of Thomas Jefferson were quoted by suffragist Susan B. Anthony at her trial in 1873 for voting. She was fined $100 for her act of civil disobedience. Though she didn’t literally take up arms, no one can deny that, with Elizabeth Cady Stantonand others, she fought the good fight for woman suffrage and helped pave the way for the passage—14 years after her death in 1906—of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which extended the right to vote to women.
Rosa Parks: Tired After a Long Day’s Work
The mother of the U.S. civil rights movement, Rosa Parks, knew that someone eventually had to say "No, I’m not moving to the back of the bus." Turned out that she was that someone. With her refusal to give in, shehelped launch the Montgomery bus boycott and changed American civil rights history.
Harriet Tubman: I Can’t Die but Once
One of the more courageous American heroines was abolitionistHarriet Tubman. She proved to be one of the most effectiveconductors on the Underground Railroad. "Conducting" was an unsettling and dangerous job for anyone, let alone a female former slave.But her motto was simple: "I can’t die but once."
Athena (Latin: Minerva) is the goddess of wisdom, war strategy, and arts and crafts. Often shown bearing a shield depicting the gorgon Medusa (Aegis) given to her by her father Zeus. Athena is an armed warrior goddess, and appears in Greek mythology as a helper of many heroes, including Heracles, Jason, and Odysseus.
The name Bellatrix derives from a Latin word meaning “female warrior.” Its Arabic name, Al Najīd, means “the leader,” because it is the first of the constellation's bright stars to rise in the sky. In Arab legends, the star is also called a roaring lion.
Among ancient China's most famous female warriors was Lady Fu Hao of the Shang dynasty. One of 64 wives of the king Wu Ding, she became a leading general commanding thousands of soldiers. When she died, she was buried with her own battle axes.
Boudicca is known for being a warrior queen of the Iceni people, who lived in what is now East Anglia, England. In 60–61 CE she led the Iceni and other peoples in a revolt against Roman rule. Although her forces massacred some 70,000 Romans and their supporters, they were ultimately defeated.
Lagertha. Thanks to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, we know of a legendary female Viking known as either Lagertha or Ladgerda. This incredible woman was part of a larger group of female warriors who volunteered to help renowned hero Ragnar Lothbrok avenge his grandfather's death.
1. Elizabeth Bathory. The Guinness World Records considers Countess Elizabeth Bathory to be the most prolific female serial killer. She was accused of torturing, mutilating and killing around 650 women between 1585 and 1610.
Who were the most feared women in the ancient world? Buddug - known to the Romans as Boudicca - was definitely feared by the Romans and romanised Britons when she rebelled against Roman rule in 61 CE and led a huge army that razed three major Roman cities to the ground, killing thousands.
However, the only female military leader in the bible is Deborah… a Warrior's-Warrior. Deborah was a judge and a prophet (Judges 4:4). During that time, the Israelites were under the barbarous rule of Jabin, a Canaanite king (4:1-3).
If you're looking for profiles in courage, look no further than some of the powerful examples of strong women in the Bible. From Esther to Ruth and Mary, the actions of female Bible heroes offer timeless examples of what it truly means to love God and love others.
If Ruth were to have lacked in any of these areas, she would not have received her faithful and loving husband, Boaz. She exhibited great faithfulness, loyalty, compassion, and obedience and became a “mighty woman of valor.” The only other woman described in this way in scripture is the woman of Proverbs 31.
Deborah. Deborah was a prophetess and judge in Israel during the time that the Canaanites were oppressing the country. She called on Barak, a military leader, to lead an army against the Canaanites. Barak refused to go without her, so Deborah went with him and prayed for their success.
Rahab feared the Lord more than her own king. Rahab had faith. In Hebrews 11:31, it says that Rahab did not perish with the disobedient because of what she did by faith. Her heart melted in fear of the Lord, but by faith, it was re-built strong again.
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