The role of women in ancient warfare differed from culture to culture. There have been various historical accounts of females participating in battle.
This article lists instances of women recorded as participating in ancient warfare, from the beginning of written records to approximately 500 CE. Contemporary archaeological research regularly provides better insight into the accuracy of ancient historical accounts.
Women active in direct warfare, such as warriors and spies, are included in this list. Also included are women who commanded armies, but did not fight.
Timeline of women in ancient warfare worldwide
16th century BC 16th century BC – Ahhotep I is credited with a stela at Karnak for "having pulled Egypt together, having cared for its army, having guarded it, having brought back those who fled, gathering up its deserters, having quieted the South, subduing those who defy her". Ahhotep II is buried with a dagger and axe, as well as three golden fly pendants, which were given as rewards for military valor. However, it is debated as to whether or not they actually belong to her.
15th century BC 1479–1458 BCGender in Pre-Hispanic America, edited by Cecelia F. Klein, 2001 p. 309 – Reign of Hatshepsut. It is possible that she led military campaigns against Nubia and Canaan.
13th century BC
13th century BC – Estimated time of the Trojan War. According to ancient sources, several women participate in battle (see :Category:Women of the Trojan war). Epipole of Carystus is one of the first women who are reported to have fought in a war. 13th century BC – Lady Fu Hao, consort of the Chinese emperor Wu Ding, led 3,000 troops into battle during the Shang dynasty. Fu Hao had entered the royal household by marriage and took advantage of the semi-matriarchal slave society to rise through the ranks. Fu Hao is known to modern scholars mainly from inscriptions on Shang dynasty oracle bone artifacts unearthed at Yinxu. In these inscriptions she is shown to have led numerous military campaigns. The Tu fought against the Shang for generations until they finally were defeated by Fu Hao in a single decisive battle. Further campaigns against the neighbouring Yi, Qiang, and Ba followed, the latter is particularly remembered as the earliest recorded large-scale ambush in Chinese history. With up to 13,000 troops and the important generals Zhi and Hou Gao serving under her, she was the most powerful military leader of her time. This highly unusual status is confirmed by the many weapons, including great battle-axes, unearthed from her tomb. One of Wu Ding's other wives, Fu Jing, also participated in military expeditions. Vedic period (1200–1000 BC) roughly – The Rigveda (RV 1 and RV 10) hymns mention a female warrior named Vishpala, who lost a leg in battle, had an iron prosthesis made, and returned to warfare.
12th century BC Mid-12th century BC – Deborah believed to have been appointed judge and defeated the army of King Jabin of Canaan, according to the Book of Judges.
11th century BC 11th century BC – According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Queen Gwendolen fought her husband, Locrinus, in battle for the throne of Britain. She defeated him and became the monarch. However, Geoffrey of Monmouth is not considered a reliable historical source.Princes in Exile By Richard Denning, p. 302 11th century BC – 4th century CE – Approximate time for the burial of a Kangju woman in modern Kazakhstan who was buried with a sword and a dagger.
10th century BC 10th century BCThings Can Only Get Feta: Two Journalists and Their Crazy Dog Living Through the Greek Crisis By Marjory McGinn – According to Greek legendary history, Messene conquered a territory and founded a city at roughly this time.Scholia on Euripides, Orestes, 932Pausanias, Description of Greece, 4. 1. 1–2Pausanias, Description of Greece, 4. 3. 9Pausanias, Description of Greece, 4. 31. 11
9th century BC Late 9th century–8th century BC – Shammuramat (Semiramis) ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire.Reilly, Jim (2000) "Contestants for Syrian Domination" in "Chapter 3: Assyrian & Hittite Synchronisms" The Genealogy of Ashakhet ; She was the first woman to rule an empire without a man ruling with her. She is believed to have been the inspiration for the legendary warrior queen Semiramis. Late 9th– 8th century BCShakespeare the Thinker By Anthony David Nuttall p. 300 – According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Queen Cordelia, on whom the character in Shakespeare's King Lear is based, battled her nephews for control of her kingdom. However, Geoffrey of Monmouth is not considered a reliable historical source.
8th century BCE 8th to 6th centuries BCE – Early Armenian period. A woman is buried in the Armenian highlands at this time. Her skeleton indicates strong muscles and a healed wound to her skeleton contained an iron arrowhead. Other injuries suggest that she was a warrior. 732 BCE – Approximate time of the reign of Samsi, an Arabian queen who may have been the successor of Zabibe. She revolted against the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III.
7th century BCE 660 BCE – Lady Xu Mu is credited with saving the state of Wey from military invasion with her appeals for aid. The Wey people remembered her for bringing supplies, getting military aid and rebuilding the state. She is also the first recorded female poet in Chinese history. 654 BCE – Lampsacus is founded by the Greeks.The Companion Guide to Istanbul and Around the Marmara By John Freely, p. 346 According to Greek legendary history, written centuries later, a Bebryces woman named Lampsace informed the Greeks of a plot against them by the Bebryces, and thus enabled them to conquer the area and found the city, which was named in her honor. She was deified and worshipped as a goddess.Plutarch, On the Virtues of Women, 18 Polyaenus, Stratagems of War, 8. 37 Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Lampsakos: "Lampsacus, a city in Propontis, [named] after Lampsace, a local girl" A Scythian warrior girl, aged approximately 13, is buried Saryg-Bulun in Central Tuva, Russia. The remains, discovered in 1988, were originally assumed to be male, but DNA sequencing in 2020 determines the mummy to be female.
6th century BCE 6th through 4th centuries BCE – Women are buried with weapons as well as jewelry on the Kazakhstan-Russia border at roughly this time. 6th century BCE – Pheretima (Cyrenaean queen) leads a military force.Herodotus, The Histories, Book 4Morkot, R., The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece, Penguin Books, The Bath Press – Avon, Great Britain, 1996
580 BCE – Massagetae Queen Tomyris led an army that defeated a Persian army under Cyrus the Great. Tomyris would be known forever after as "the killer of Cyrus", although the actual soldier who slew Cyrus is unknown.F. Altheim und R. Stiehl, Geschichte Mittelasiens im Altertum (Berlin, 1970), pp. 127–128Karasulas, Antony. Mounted Archers Of The Steppe 600 BC–AD 1300 (Elite). Osprey Publishing, 2004, , p. 7.Grousset, René. The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press, 1989, , p. 547. 539 BCE – Pantea Arteshbod participate in the Battle of Opis as a Lieutenant Commander in the army of Cyrus the Great. 514–496 BCE – During the Warring States period of China, Sun Tzu wrote a contemporary report of how Ho Lu, King of Wu (ruled in 514–496) tested his skill by ordering him to train an army of 180 women. 510 BCE – Greek poet Telesilla defended the city of Argos from the Spartans.Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Telesilla". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
506 BCE – Cloelia, a Roman girl who was given as a hostage to the Etruscans, escaped her captors and led several others to safety.
5th century BCE 5th century BCE – The Lady of Yue trained the soldiers of the army of King Goujian of Yue.
480 BCE – Artemisia I of Caria, Queen of Halicarnassus, was a naval commander and advisor to Xerxes at the Battle of Salamis.Polyaenus: Stratagems – Book 8, 53.5 "Artemisia, queen of Caria, fought as an ally of Xerxes against the Greeks."Herodotus Book 8: Urania, 68 "...which have been fought near Euboea and have displayed deeds not inferior to those of others, speak to him thus:..." 480 BCEUnited States Naval Institute Proceedings, Volume 68, 1942, p. 662 – Greek diver Hydna and her father sabotaged enemy ships before a critical battle, thus causing the Greeks to win.A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography Mythology and Geography, By Sir William Smith, Charles Anthony LLD, 1878 p. 792 460–425 BCE The History of Herodotus: A New English Version, Volume 3, edited by George Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, p. 345 – Greek historian Herodotus described Scythian Amazons.Herodotus, Book 4: Melpomene, verses 110–117 Herodotus' in The Histories recorded that queen Tomyris of the Massagetae fought and defeated Cyrus the Great. He also records the Zaueces people of Ancient Libya, whom he describes as having their women drive their chariots to war, as well as the festival of Athena Tritogenia among the Ausean people, whose young women are divided into two groups and fight each other with stones and sticks.Herodotus: Volume 2: Herodotus and the World, By Rosaria Vignolo Munson p. 230 This festival, taking place in Ancient Libya, describes the girls from the Machlyans and Auseans tribes fighting each other, and those who died were labeled false virgins.Herodotus. Histories, 4.180. 460–370 BCE – Approximate lifetime of Hippocrates, who wrote of the Sauromatae, Scythian women fighting battles. Late 400s:Ctesias' 'History of Persia': Tales of the Orient By Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, James Robson Ctesias records the story of Zarinaea, a Sacae woman who participated in battle.
4th century BCE 4th century BCE – Onomaris is estimated to have lived around this time period. According to Tractatus De Mulieribus, she led her people in migration to a new land and conquered the local inhabitants.Gera, Deborah (1997). Warrior Women: The Anonymous Tractatus De Mulieribus. E.J. Brill, Leiden, the Netherlands. pp. 10–11. . 4th century BCE – Cynane, a half-sister to Alexander the Great, accompanied her father on a military campaign and killed an Illyrian leader named Caeria in hand-to-hand combat, and defeated the Illyrian army.Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri, i. 5 ; Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. 92 ; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, xiii. 5 ; Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, xix. 52; Polyaenus, Stratagemata, viii. 60 ; Aelian, Varia Historia, xiii. 36 4th century BCEThe Philosophers of the Ancient World: An A–Z Guide By Trevor Curnow. p. 273 – Pythagorean philosopher, Timycha, was captured by Sicilian soldiers during a battle. She and her husband were the only survivors. She is admired for her defiance after capture, because while being questioned by the Sicilian tyrant, she bit off her tongue and spat it at his feet.On the Pythagorean Life By Iamblichus pp. 82–84, translation with notes by Gillian Clark, 1989 4th century BCE – Chinese statesman Shang Yang wrote The Book of Lord Shang, in which he recommended dividing the members of an army into three categories; strong men, strong women, and the weak and old of both sexes. He recommended that the strong men serve as the first line of defence, that the strong women defend the forts and build traps, and that the weak and elderly of both sexes control the supply chain. He also recommended that these three groups not be intermingled, on the basis that doing so would be detrimental to morale. 4th century BCE – Artemisia II of Caria led a fleet and played a role in the military-political affairs of the Aegean after the decline in Athenian naval superiority. 350 BCE – According to Heracleides of Cyme, Achaemenid kings employed a 300-woman entourage of concubines who served also as bodyguards.