priestesses throughout the Mediter-
ranean world. Also, stories about Ama-
zon mastectomies are likely owed to
Hellenistic stage tradition rather than
actual practice: Hellenistic actors tradi-
tionally bared their right breasts to
show that they were playing unmarried
females.
396 B.C. A Spartan princess named
Kyniska becomes the first woman to
win the chariot-racing events at Olym-
pia. While Plutarch wrote that Kyniska
personally drove the winning chariot,
most other ancient sources suggest that
she was the owner of those horses
rather than their driver.
About 330 B.C. Etruscan bronze
statuettes show men wrestling with
women. While the men were naked, the
women wore thigh-length, pleated tu-
nics. Accordingly, the art was probably
allegorical rather than erotic.
About 322 B.C. Greek writers describe the female bodyguard of a
north Indian prince named Chandragupta.
First century A.D. A Chinese annalist named Zhao Yi writes about a
woman who was a great swordsman. She said the key to success was con-
stant practice without the supervision of a master; after a while, she said,
she just understood everything there was to know. But as immediately af-
ter saying this she accepted the job as swordsmanship instructor for the
Kingdom of Yue, perhaps this description is lacking some verisimilitude.
After all, if one needed no teacher save oneself to become a sword master,
there seems no reason why she herself would become one.
18–27 A peasant rebellion rocks Shandong province and leads to the
collapse of the Xin dynasty and the creation of the Later Han dynasty. This
unrest (called the Red Eyebrow Rebellion after its members’ practice of
painting their eyebrows blood red) was led by a woman who claimed to
speak with the voice of the local gods. Strictly speaking, this was a case of
spirit-possession rather than shamanism.
About 41 Later Han soldiers under the command of the Shensi aris-
tocrat Ma Yuan kill a Vietnamese feudal lord living near Tonkin and pub-
licly rape his wife and sister-in-law. These rapes may have been official acts,
as, from the Han perspective, they would have demonstrated the superior-
Women in the Martial Arts 665Engraving of the
French national
heroine Joan of Arc
holding a sword.
(Bettmann/ Corbis)