Enheduanna was not the only Conqueror’s daughter to represent him in his absence. In the Third Intermediate Period, Libyans and Nubians who at last had their revenge for centuries of conflict ruled Egypt, 1065-525 BCE. Daughters, nieces, or sisters of conquerors held a secondary office for women in the Temple of Amun at Karnak in Egypt. The office was designed to assist the pharaoh’s rule in what might be the longest chain of cities in the world––Egypt. They ruled Thebes as their pharaoh brothers were busy at war. Care to guess why the rulers would choose their daughters instead of their sons to share rule?

In the 5 ^th millennium BCE, from Sumer, one of the world’s earliest, most creative civilizations, sprang spiritual and cultural achievements. Among their many “firsts,” they established the first cities, schools, bicameral Congress, tax reduction, irrigation and agricultural techniques. Sumer was cradle of the first writing; moral ideals, proverbs, sayings, hymns and elegies; the first historian; love song; sex symbolism; cosmology; a book of healing; and the first Farmer’s Almanac. When the Babylonians—followed by the vicious Assyrians—conquered, they overcame the lands and people and spread Sumer’s great achievements to the world.

Try as they might, misogynists have, since ancient times, tried to tame the dragon, the monstrous female serpent, forcing it into submission and euphemism. However, what they have really accomplished is to drive it underground to its cave, where it growls, and gnaws, and grinds its teeth in the heart and collective memory of every woman. When it has the least opportunity, it leaps like lightning, lashing its armored tail upon the solid ground of betrayal and abuse, and unleashes its fiery fury on all the minions of the collective Xerxes’s, Jasons, Agamemnons, and Philips of the world.

Imagine that you were born a woman two thousand, three thousand, or even five thousand years ago. Transport yourself through the haze of the millennia, and the experience of the ages, to a life very different from your expectations of the twenty-first century.

Let us pretend that as a girl of marriageable age—thirteen or fourteen—you were given away to a man of thirty or older; to live in his house under his rules with no rights, respect, or consideration from the husband or his family, whom you were expected to serve the rest of your life.

To be sure, writing Power Women has given me perspective. For example, when prison inmates “strike” because of “cruel and unusual treatment” when their color televisions have been taken away or their leisure time working out in the gym has been withheld, I think of what the Romans would say.

I think of how people rotted in dungeons year after year after cruel torture, not just under Roman rule but also under European rule of the Spanish Inquisition–and many, many other periods of time. I think of how tongues were removed, hands cut off, ears and noses sliced away because people did or did not believe in some sort of religion: Christian, pagan, Jewish, Buddhist, Taoist, or animist.

The great libraries at Alexandria, Pergamum, and Ephesus held the treasures of early literacy. Science, philosophy, poetry, and math filled the scrolls and informed scholars––those who could read––or perhaps those who could pay a scribe to read for them.

Few elite women could read and write. Even fewer––if any––walked the halls of the great libraries, spread out the scrolls before them, and absorbed the knowledge locked up to ignorance.

The ancient mantra of an “eye for an eye,” retribution for a crime, an insult, a mistake, is age-old. Ancient literature documents the punishment women suffered for adultery or rape—real or imagined—was public stoning.

The smug satisfaction of a jealous neighbor who accused the young woman, the self-righteous elders who fancied themselves “guardians of the law,” and the zealous athletes whose accurate aim with the handy stones was a source of pride, all gathered to put the accused “in her place” for her transgression.

Today, former First Lady Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure at age ninety-four. From 1981-1989, her tenure as wife of Ronald Reagan, one of the nation’s most respected Presidents, was one of quiet strength, emotional toughness, and support. Through her determination to serve him, her encouragement and influence on the President were monumental. She never sought self-aggrandizement.

Forceful behind the scenes, she was brilliant, charming, and an advisor of last resort. Comforting him during the stressful period of world conflict, attempted assassination, and at last the dreaded Alzheimers that stole his cognizance, she was always there for the President, shielding him from unnecessary criticisms and pressures that only a world leader can know. She brought confidence and peace of mind to a leader under constant stress of global threat.