Soft, tender, sweet. . .well, not always. Throughout history, women have defended hearth and home alongside brave men. To protect the cave when predators peered into the entrance exploring the wonderful smells of cooking food––or just human flesh––Paleolithic woman grabbed a branch of wood, thrust it into the fire and carried the flaming faggot forward to meet the audacious intruder. As her mate was away hunting the woolly mammoth for food, her responsibility was to protect the dwelling, the child, and the precious fire at all costs. Her challenge was vital. And continuous.
Strength to Kill a King
Judges 9 relates the amazing story of a strong, defensive, unnamed woman who stood at the top of a village wall, faced down the threatening invader, lifted a heavy piece of an upper millstone, and cast it down on his head, crushing his skull. Mortally injured, Abimelech, king of Shechem, begged his armor-bearer to run him through and dare not tell the others that he, a mighty king, died at the hand of a woman. [1] The biblical lesson in Judges shames Abimelech, not for his death at the hands of a mere woman, a strong woman protecting her city of Thebez, but at God’s fury with him for murdering his brothers to gain his kingship. [2]
This story of a woman’s inordinately brave intent was written as a holy Jewish text but was not adopted into the Tanakh. However, the Book of Judith was included in the Christian Old Testament.
Defending walls from invaders was a continuous effort, for as long as there were walls, there were invaders determined to destroy the city within. We have read that in Medieval times, in fifteenth century France, a young Jeanne Hachette also braved invaders from the top of her city’s wall. With other women from her village, she poured boiling water, excrement, and rocks down on those attempting to scale the wall, intent on conquering the city. When the invader reached the top of the ladder, Hachette and others shoved the ladder down to the ground. These acts of heroism were accomplished by ordinary village women, protecting the family, clan, or village as they have always done.
Irony of Assyrian Cruelty
Building empire, the Assyrian army conquered Egypt and much of the Levant. Only the Israelite town of Bethulia resisted. Seeing children dying of hunger and thirst, town elders “gave” God five days to save them before they surrendered to the vicious Assyrians.[3] Judith, a wealthy, pious widow used her beauty and her wits to convince the invading Assyrian general, Holofernes, that she had defected from the Israelites and would help him conquer their stronghold.[4] After three days in his camp, she received his expected invitation to a private drinking party––for two. The purpose of the invitation was a clear invitation to sex. However, Holofernes in his glee and anticipated good fortune, drank too much, passed out, and laid his head down––an easy mark for Judith, who, using his own sword, removed his head. With his head safely in her food bag, Judith and her maid returned to Bethulia[5] and ordered the head to be hung on the city wall; ironically, the same kind of barbarity the Assyrians practiced flaying conquered enemies and stretching their skin on the city wall to terrorize the populace.
When Holofernes’s camp aroused, saw the head of their leader on the wall, they scattered, knowing full well their fate without their powerful leader. The city was saved by the cold steely bravery of a beautiful woman.
One at a Time
War and battle require physical strength. An obscure Greek tale relates that in 1341, a mature woman, a mother, who lived on the island of Caria, opposite Chios, exhibited great valor and strength. Faced by two pirate ships intending to land, she “stretched tight with her stiff bow,” and drove them from the shore by firing arrows at them, picking them off with accuracy. This information, found written on a poetic note by rhetorician Libanius, was slipped between the pages of the writings of the Byzantine monastic theologian, Maximos Lanoudis. The woman is not identified, but her valor, confidence, skill and accuracy with the weapon, made its mark on an ancient observer, who remarked, “What she did was no less than the bravest man would do.”[6]
Slaying the Mighty
Annihilating sailors one by one by a sharp-eyed archer was amazing, but defeating an entire army equipped with strategically agile iron chariots and modern weapons by a troop of tribesmen, equipped with the simplest weapons is unforgettable. According to the Song of Deborah, Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir–son of Manasseh–Zebulon, Issachar, and Naphtali comprised Israel’s defenders. Hebrew Judge, Deborah, led tribes to fight against Canaanite ruler Jabin. Losing the battle at Kedesh, against her rag-tag tribesmen, enemy general Sisera, exhausted from the rain, the heat of battle, and fear of being hunted down and killed, took refuge in the tent of a compatriot, Heber the Kenite
Alone, Heber’s wife, Jael, an Israelite sympathizer, on a show of respect and compassion, invited Sisera into their tent to rest, gave him some milk from their herd, and covered him with a blanket to keep him from being discovered. When he was soundly asleep, Jael, a strong tentmaker with a powerful tent hammer, used her strength and skills bravely to drive a tent spike into the brain of the Canaanite general killing the enemy of the people. [7]
The Medieval world is filled with amazing women warriors: Amalasuntha, Christine de Pizan, Isabella of France, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, Catherine of Valois, Hildegard of Bingen, Isabella of Castile, and many others whose songs have gone unsung.
Throughout history, from Paleolithic to Technological times, women have protected their families, their homes, and their lands. In the American West, women were left for months alone as husbands drove cattle to market. Those women faced fierce indigenous warriors, intent on invading, raping, and burning property, and capturing farm animals and the children inside the house for their tribal use. Ranch women were adept at using their familiar firearms to defend themselves and their property. Sometimes women won with the determined cry, “Over my dead body!” However, overwhelmed by numbers, sometimes they lost. Sometimes, their cry was prophetic. As ranchers returned, they began the hard life on the plains once again. They buried their dead, rebuilt the fences and the burned buildings, restored the herd, and took a new wife who would start a new family and take charge, once again, as the yearly “Mission to the Market” for their profitable butcher-ready herds continued.
Strong Women Can Stand Alone
Millions of widows throughout time, those who lost husbands in war, accidents on grand building projects like the Great Wall and steep rooftops of grandiose temples, decimating plague, and tragic calamity, have endured challenges of traditions as in Confucian China––to survive without the income of a wage earner, obeying the philosopher’s nonsensical edict proscribing widow remarriage. His thought was not to replace the importance of the original husband in the family.
Denied the opportunity to work outside the home, sell wares they made––or even produce or food animals–– chickens, ducks, and pigs, they tended––at the market, widows had no income. Still, widows had mouths to feed, tradition be damned. Many called on their already-large birth-families who had no room for them ––or thankless sons––who forgot their fealty and responsibility to their parent. Poverty-stricken, widows either defied the edict and took a second husband, or begged in the streets and thus perished in the agony of hunger with their little ones. They faced each anguished-filled day bravely, obeying an ignorant philosopher’s idea of an “ideal family.”
Courage is required throughout life. What danger, what agonizing decision, what difficult circumstance have you had to face bravely? Be the “master of your fate.” Be Victorious!
[1] Old Testament, Judges 9:53 and 2 Samuel 11:21.
[2] 2 Samuel 11:21.
[3] Old Testament. Judith 7.
[4] Old Testament. Judith 10.
[5] Old Testament.. Judith 12-13.
[6] tor.com/2017/02.23/five-amazing-warriors-of-the-middle-ages/
[7] Old Testament. Judges 4:18-22.
[8] tor.com/2017/02.23/five-amazing-warriors-of-the-middle-ages/
Dear Fellow History Lover,
I appreciate your response to this blog. Please leave an opinion, input, or question by clicking on the Leave a Comment button, or communicate directly with me at drpd@mac.com .
Grātiās tibi !
Dr. P. D. Sargent,
Ancient Scribe sharing new ideas twice a month
Judith says
May 2, 2023 at 7:45 pmAlways thoughtful, always informative – thank you for all your research!