The first female warrior attested to historically is Queen Ahhotep I of Egypt (l. c. 1570-1530 BCE) who put down a rebellion by the Hyksos when her son, Ahmose I, was campaigning against the Nubians. In literature, the first mention of women warriors comes from Homer's Iliad (8th century BCE), which references the Amazons.
Whether attested to by historical or literary documents, women warriors are nothing new. According to Greek mythology, Epipole of Carystus disguised herself as a man to fight in the Trojan War, and the Assyrian queen regent Sammu-Ramat (r. 811-806 BCE) is said to have led troops and is also believed to be the inspiration for the legendary warrior queen Semiramis. It is possible that Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt (r. 1479-1458 BCE) did the same long before Sammu-Ramat, but this has been challenged.
Recent criticism claiming that women warriors are somehow an invention of 21st-century revisionist historians is untenable as historical and literary works spanning thousands of years argue otherwise. The following image gallery presents a sample of ancient, medieval, and modern warrior women from around the world.
