List of women warriors in folklore

Lady with a Dagger (by Ilya Repin)

This list of woman warriors in mythology and folklore offers figures studied in fields such as literature, sociology, psychology, anthropology, film studies, mass communication, cultural studies, and women's studies. A mythological figure does not mean a fictional one, but rather, someone of whom stories have been told that have entered the cultural heritage of a people. Some women warriors are documented in the written record and as such form part of history (e.g. the Ancient Briton queen Boudica, who led the Iceni into battle against the Romans); others exist as goddesses such as Artemis, the hunter of Ancient Greece.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Africa

Berber history

• Kahina or al-Kāhina (Classical Arabic for "female seer"; modern Maghreb Arabic l-Kahna, commonly romanised as Kah(i)na, also known as Dihya or Kahya) was a 7th century female Berber religious and military leader, who led indigenous resistance to Arab expansion in Northwest Africa, the region then known as Numidia, known as the Maghreb today. She was born in the early 7th century and died around the end of the 7th century probably in modern day Algeria.

Ghana (then Gold Coast)

• Yaa Asantewaa was the Queen Mother of Ejisu (Asante Confederacy)—now part of modern-day Ghana. In 1900 she led the Ashanti rebellion known as the War of the Golden Stool against British colonialism.

Nigerian history

• Amina Sukhera (also called Aminatu) was a Muslim princess of the royal family of Zazzau (now Zaria), in what is now northeast Nigeria, who lived c. 1533 - 1610. Her military achievements brought her great wealth and power; she was responsible for conquering many of the cities in the area surrounding Zazzau.

Yoruba mythology

• Oya is the Undergoddess of the Niger River. She is the warrior-spirit of the wind, lightning, fertility, fire and magic. It is believed that she creates hurricanes and tornadoes, and serves as guardian of the underworld.

Americas

Depiction of Itzpapalotl from the Codex Borgia.

Native Americans

Aztec mythology

• Itzpapalotl is a fearsome skeletal warrior goddess who ruled over the paradise world of Tamoanchan.

American Old West

• Calamity Jane was a frontierswoman and professional scout best known for her claim of being a close friend of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native Americans.
• Laura Bullion, was an outlaw and a member of the Wild Bunch
• Rose Dunn, was an outlaw
• Pearl Hart, was an outlaw
• Annie Oakley, was a sharpshooter and performer
• Etta Place, was a bank robber
• Lillian Smith, was a sharpshooter
• Belle Starr, was a notorious American outlaw

American Revolution

• "Molly Pitchers", patriot women who would man cannons to fend off the British during the war for independence

Brazil

• Maria Quitéria, dressed as a man, enlisted in the forces fighting for the Brazilian Independence. Once discovered, she was turned cadet and after alferez. Her courage was recognized by the emperor Peter I.
• Anita Garibaldi, fought on the Farroupilha Revolution
• Maria Rosa, a 15 year old girl who fought in the Contestado War. She wore white clothes, rode a white horse and claimed that she had divine inspiration

East Asia

File:Hua Mulan.jpg

Oil painting on silk, "Hua Mulan Goes to War"

• The Venetian traveller Marco Polo recorded tales of Aijaruc, "valiant daughter of King Caidu" of the Tartars (book 4, chapter 4), who refused to marry any suitor whom she could vanquish. In this way she won 10,000 horses, and often accompanied her father into battle. "This damsel was very beautiful, but also so strong and brave that in all her father's realm there was no man who could outdo her in feats of strength. In all trials she showed greater strength than any man of them."

• Ibn Battuta records a warlike princess, Urdúja, whom he professes to have visited in the questionable kingdom of Tawálisi on his way to China: "I heard ... that various sons of kings had sought Urduja's hand, but she always answered, 'I will marry no one but him who shall fight and conquer me'; so they all avoided the trial, for fear of the shame of being beaten by her." (Book IV. 253-254.)

Historical China

• Hua Mulan a legendary woman who went to war disguised as a man, and was able to return home after years of war without being found out.
• Yim Wing-chun, often cited in Wing Chun legends as the first Wing Chun master.
• Fu Hao was one of the many wives of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty and, unusually for that time, also served as a military general and high priestess.
• Mother Lü began a peasant rebellion.
• Li Xiu successfully defeated rebels as a military commander.
• Lady of Yue a swordswoman
• Qin Liangyu fought battles with her husband.
• Sun Shangxiang was the sister of the warlord Sun Quan, is often depicted as a tomboy, as she received extensive martial arts training and her maidservants were armed with weapons, which was odd for her time.
• Lady Zhurong Its unknown if she existed, but she was the only woman portrayed in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms who took part in fighting in the war during the three kingdoms period alongside her husband.

Japanese mythology and historical Japan

• Hangaku Gozen was an onna bugeisha (woman warrior).
• Tomoe Gozen (1157?–1247?) was an onna bugeisha (woman warrior).
• Marishi-Ten the goddess of heaven who was adopted by warriors in the 8th century CE as a protector and patron goddess. While devotions to Marishi-ten predate Zen, they appear to be geared towards a similar meditative mode in order to enable the warrior to achieve a more heightened spiritual level. He lost interest in the issues of victory or defeat (or life and death), thus transcending to a level where he became so empowered that he was freed from his own grasp on mortality. The end result was that he became a better warrior.
• Amaterasu-ōmikami is the sun goddess of Shinto culture.
• Kaihime (presumably born 1572) was said to have fought during the Siege of Odawara and to have personally crushed a rebellion, earning her father the respect of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. However, historians aren't entirely sure if she truly did accomplish those events.

Historical Vietnam

• The Trung Sisters, (c.AD 12 - 43), known in Vietnamese as Hai Bà Trưng ("the two Trưng ladies"'), and individually as Trưng Trắc (Traditional Chinese: 徵側; pinyin: Zhēng Cè) and Trưng Nhị (Traditional Chinese: 徵貳; pinyin: Zhēng Èr), were two 1st century women leaders who successfully repelled Chinese invasions for three years, winning several battles against considerable odds, and are regarded as national heroines of Vietnam.
• Phùng Thị Chính was a Vietnamese noblewoman who fought alongside the Trưng sisters. Legend says she gave birth on the front lines and carried her newborn in one arm and a sword in the other as she fought to open the ranks of the enemy.
• Triệu Ẩu described as the Vietnamese Joan of Arc.

Europe

Boudica and Her Daughters near Westminster Pier, London, commissioned by Prince Albert and executed by Thomas Thornycroft

Britons, Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England

• Boudica was a queen of the Brythonic Celtic Iceni people of Norfolk in Eastern Britain who led a major uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.
• Queen Cordelia (on whom the character in Shakespeare's King Lear is based), battled her nephews for control of her kingdom.
• Queen Gwendolen fights her husband Locrinus in battle for the throne of Britain. She defeats him and becomes queen.
• Ethelfleda (alternative spelling Aethelfled, Æthelfleda, Æthelflæd) (872/879 – 918), Queen of Mercia, called "Lady of the Mercians". Daughter of Alfred the Great, she succeeded to Mercian power upon the death of her husband Aethelred, Ealdorman of Mercia (883-911), in 911. She was a skilled military leader and tactician, who defended Mercia against neighboring tribes for eight years.

Celtic mythology and Irish mythology

• Andraste is a Celtic war goddess invoked by Boudica while fighting against the Roman occupation of Britain in AD 61.
• Medb (also: Medhbh, Meadhbh, Meab°, Meabh, Maeve, Maev) is queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. As recounted in The Cattle Raid of Cooley, she started war with Ulster.
• Scathach is a legendary Scottish woman warrior who appears in the Ulster Cycle. She trains Cuchulainn.
• Aife is Scathach's rival in war; she becomes the lover of Cuchulainn and gives birth to his son Connla.
• Triple warrior goddess: Morrígan, Badb, and Macha (could also include Nemain and Anann)
• Gráinne O'Malley Legendary "Pirate Queen" of Ireland. She lived during the 16th century.
• On St Kilda, one of the most isolated islands of Scotland, legends exist of a female warrior. A mysterious structure is known as Taigh na Banaghaisgeich, the 'Amazon's House'. As Martin Martin, who travelled there in 1697 recorded:

This Amazon is famous in their traditions: her house or dairy of stone is yet extant; some of the inhabitants dwell in it all summer, though it be some hundred years old; the whole is built of stone, without any wood, lime, earth, or mortar to cement it, and is built in form of a circle pyramid-wise towards the top, having a vent in it, the fire being always in the centre of the floor; the stones are long and thin, which supplies the defect of wood; the body of this house contains not above nine persons sitting; there are three beds or low vaults that go off the side of the wall, a pillar betwixt each bed, which contains five men apiece; at the entry to one of these low vaults is a stone standing upon one end fix’d; upon this they say she ordinarily laid her helmet; there are two stones on the other side, upon which she is reported to have laid her sword: she is said to have been much addicted to hunting, and that in her time all the space betwixt this isle and that of Harries, was one continued tract of dry land.

Similar stories of a female warrior who hunted the now submerged land between the Outer Hebrides and St Kilda are reported from Harris.

Historical Czech Lands

• The story of Šárka and Dlasta is a legend dealing with events in the "Maidens' War" in seventh-century Bohemia.

England

• Margaret of Anjou, wife of mentally-ill Henry VI, emerged as the de facto leader of the Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses. She introduced conscription, amassed armies, and won several battles before ultimately being defeated by the Yorkists.

Bronze statue of Jeanne Hachette in Beauvais, by Gabriel-Vital Dubray

• Catherine of Aragon was Queen Regent, Governor of the Realm and Captain General of the King's Forces from 30 June 1513 – 22 October 1513 when Henry VIII was fighting a war in France. When Scotland invaded, they were defeated at the Battle of Flodden Field, with Catherine addressing the army, and riding north in full armour with a number of the troops, despite being heavily pregnant at the time. She sent a letter to Henry along with the bloodied coat of the King of Scots, James IV, who died in the battle.

Duchy of Brittany

• Joanna of Flanders (c. 1295 – September 1374), also known as Jehanne de Montfort and Jeanne la Flamme, was consort Duchess of Brittany by her marriage to John IV, Duke of Brittany. She was the daughter of Louis I, Count of Nevers and Joan, Countess of Rethel, and the sister of Louis I, Count of Flanders.Joanna organized resistance and made use of diplomatic means to protect her family and her country. In the siege of Hennebont, she took up arms , dressed in armor, and conducted the defence of the town. She, eventually, led a raid of soldiers outside the walls of the town and successfully demolished one of the enemy's rear camps. She was an earlier patron for women, and a possible influence to Joan of Arc.

Historical Balkans

• Teuta was an Illyrian queen and is frequently evoked as a fearsome "pirate queen" in art and stories dealing with Croatian and Albanian past.

Historical France

• Jeanne Hachette (1456 - ?) was a French heroine known as Jeanne Fourquet and nicknamed Jeanne Hachette ('Jean the Hatchet').
• Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc in French) asserted that she had visions from God which told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. She was tried and executed for heresy when she was only 19 years old. The judgment was broken by the Pope and she was declared innocent and a martyr 24 years later.

Greek Mythology

Amazon preparing for the battle (Queen Antiope or Armed Venus) -Pierre-Eugène-Emile Hébert 1860 National Gallery of Art

• The Amazons (in Greek, Αμαζόνες) are a mythical ancient nation of female warriors. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia. The histories and legends in Greek mythology may be inspired by warrior women among the Sarmatians.
• Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt, daughter of Zeus and Leto. She is usually depicted bearing a bow and arrows. Artemis known as the leader and chief goddess of Amazonian Women.
• Atalanta is one of the few mortal heroines in Greek mythology. She possessed great athletic prowess: she could hunt and shoot and wrestle almost as well—if not better—than a man. She is said to have participated in the Argonaut expedition, and is one of the central figures in the Calydonian Boar hunt. She was sought by many suitors, one of whom by the name of Melanion or Hippomenes she married when she was beaten by him in a foot race. The pair were eventually turned into lions, some say by Zeus, others by Aphrodite.
• Athena (Latin: Minerva) is the goddess of wisdom. Wearing a goatskin breastplate called the Aegis given to her by her father, Zeus, she is often shown helmeted and with a shield bearing the Gorgon Medusa's head, the gorgoneion, a votive gift of Perseus. Athena is an armed warrior goddess, and appears in Greek mythology as a helper of many heroes, including Heracles, Jason, and Odysseus.
• Enyo, a minor war goddess, delights in bloodshed and the destruction of towns, and accompanies Ares -- said to be her father, in other accounts her brother—in battles.
• Hippolyta is a queen of the Amazons, and a daughter of Ares. It was her girdle that Hercules was required by Eurystheus to obtain. He captured her and brought her to Athens, where he gave her to the ruler, Theseus, to become his bride.
• Penthesilea, in a story by the Greek traveler Pausanias, is the Amazonian queen who led the Amazons against the Greeks during the Trojan War. In other stories she is said to be the younger sister of Hippolyta, Theseus's queen, whom Penthesilea had accidentally slain while on a hunt. It was then that she joined the Trojan War to assuage her guilt. She was killed, and mourned, by Achilles, who greatly admired her courage, youth and beauty.

Portuguese Legend

• Brites de Almeida, aka Padeira de Aljubarrota was a Portuguese legendary figure associated with Portuguese victory at Aljubarrota Battle over Spanish forces in 1385 near Aljubarrota, Portugal. She supposedly killed seven Spanish invaders who were hidden in an oven.
• Deu-la-deu Martins, the heroine of the North. The Castilian had besieged the town of Monção for many weeks and inside the town walls, provisions were almost depleted. Knowing that the invaders also were demoralized that the town resisted for so long and without provisions themselves, Deu-la-deu ("God gave her") made loaves of bread with the little flour that remained in Monção and threw the loaves at the invaders from the walls, shouting at them defiantly "God gave these, God will give more". As a result, the Castilians gave up the siege believing that still there was a lot resistance and infinite provisions within the town walls.

Roman Mythology

• Bellona is the Roman goddess of war: the Roman counterpart to the Greek war goddess Enyo. She prepared the chariot of her brother Mars when he was going to war, and appeared in battles armed with a whip and holding a torch.
• Camilla was the Amazon queen of the Volsci. She was famous for her footspeed; Virgil claims that she could run across water and chase down horses. She was slain by Arruns while fighting Aeneas and the Trojans in Italy.

Historical Russia

• Princess Olga ruled in Kievskiy Rus 945 to 960 AD. In 945, a tribe of Drevlyane, killed her husband, king Igor. Princess Olga revenged this death four times. In first instance, she buried alive 20 ambassadors from Drevlyane. In second instance she put on fire a bathhouse with another group of Drevlyane ambassadors. During third revenge, princess Olga managed to get about 5 000 Drevlyane drunk, than her soldiers slashed all of those Drevlyane. And lastly, princess Olga burned the entire city of Drevlyane, using sparrows and doves with attached strings on fire.
• White Tights are an urban legend about Baltic female snipers supposed to have fought against Russian forces in various recent conflicts.

Scandinavian folklore and Germanic paganism

• Blenda is the heroine of a legend from Småland, who leads the women of Värend in an attack on a pillaging Danish army and annihilates it.
• Freyja is a fertility goddess, the sister of the fertility god Freyr and daughter of the sea god Njörðr. Freyja is also a goddess of war, battle, death, magic, prophecy, and wealth. Freyja is cited as receiving half of the dead lost in battle in her hall Fólkvangr, whereas Odin would receive the other half. Some scholars argue that Freyja, Frigg, and Gefion are Avatars of each other. She is also sometimes associated with the Valkyries and disir.
• Shieldmaidens in Scandinavia were women who did not yet have the responsibility for raising a family and could take up arms to live like warriors. Many of them figure in Norse mythology. One of the most famous shieldmaidens is Hervor and she figures in the cycle of the magic sword Tyrfing.
• The Valkyries in Norse mythology are female deities, who serve Odin. The name means choosers of the slain.
• Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr and Irpa are two goddesses, described as sisters, that appear at the Battle of Hjörungavágr to assist the fleet of Haakon Sigurdsson against the Jomvikings. The two goddesses produce harsh thunderstorms, ferocious squalls, and shoot arrows from their fingertips, each arrow described as killing a man, resulting in the defeat of the Jomvikings.
• Brunhild, in the Nibelungen, is "a royal maiden who reigned beyond the sea:

"From sunrise to the sundown no paragon had she.
All boundless as her beauty was her strength was peerless too,
And evil plight hung o'er the knight who dared her love to woo.
For he must try three bouts with her; the whirling spear to fling;
To pitch the massive stone; and then to follow with a spring;
And should he beat in every feat his wooing well has sped,
But he who fails must lose his love, and likewise lose his head."

Historical Spain

Agustina, maid of Aragon, fires a gun on the French invaders at Saragossa.

• Agustina de Aragón ('Agustina, maid of Aragon', also known as "the Spanish Joan of Arc") was a famous Spanish heroine who defended Spain during the Spanish War of Independence, first as a civilian and later as a professional officer in the Spanish Army. She has been the subject of much folklore, mythology, and artwork, including sketches by Goya. Her most famous feat was at the bloody sieges of Saragossa where, at the moment the Spanish troops abandoned their posts not to fall to nearby French bayonets, she ran forward, loaded a cannon, and lit the fuse, shredding a wave of attackers at point blank range. The sight of a lone woman bravely manning the cannons inspired the fleeing Spanish troops and other volunteers to return and assist her.
• Mariana Pineda was a Spanish national heroine, defender of liberalism and famous for her flag with a slogan embroidered in red: 'Equality, Freedom and Law'. After having been arrested, and refusing to betray her accomplices in exchange of pardon, she was publicly executed. She would inspire García Lorca's play Mariana Pineda.
• María Pita. She defended La Coruña against Francis Drake's army.

Near East

History of Arabia

• Queen Mavia, leader of the Tanukh confederation
• Queen Zenobia of Palmyra

Early Islam

Aisha, wife of Muhammad, led an army against Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law. It should be noted that both are highly honored by Muslims.

Persian mythology and Historical Persia

• Gordafarid is one of the heroines in the Shāhnāmeh. She was a champion who fought against Sohrab (another Iranian hero who was the commander of the Turanian army) and delayed the Turanian troops who were marching on Persia.
• Banu Goshasp is an important heroine in Persian mythology. She is the daughter of Rustam and the wife of the hero Giv.

Ancient Egypt

The warrior goddess Sekhmet, shown with her sun disk and cobra crown

• Ankt may have originated in Asia Minor. Within Egypt she was later syncretized as Neith (who by that time had developed aspects of a war goddess).
• Cleopatra VII was a Hellenistic co-ruler of Egypt with her father (Ptolemy XII Auletes) and later with her brothers/husbands Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV. Her patron goddess was Isis, and thus during her reign, it was believed that she was the re-incarnation and embodiment of the goddess of wisdom.
• Sekhmet is a warrior goddess depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians.

Mesopotamian mythology

• Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. Anunit, Atarsamain and Esther are alternative names for Ishtar. Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, sexual love, and war. In the Babylonian pantheon, she "was the divine personification of the planet Venus".

Old Testament

• Deborah, a prophetess mentioned in the Book of Judges, was a poet who rendered her judgments beneath a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the land of Benjamin. After her victory over Sisera and the Canaanite army, there was peace in the land for forty years.
• Jael kills the fleeing Sisera with a tent peg after his army is defeated. (Judges 4:17-21)
• An unnamed woman from the town of Thebez is mentioned in the Book of Judges (9:50-57) as having killed the would-be king Abimelech, who was besieging her hometown, by dropping a mill-stone on his head.
• Judith was a widow in the Book of Judith who foils the attack of Assyrian general Holofernes against Bethulia by beheading him.

South Asia

Image of Durga, shown riding her tiger and attacking the demon Mahishasura

Razia Sultana

• Razia Sultana usually referred to in history as Razia Sultan or Razia Sultana, was the Sultana of Delhi in India from 1236 to 1240. She was of Turkish Seljuks ancestry and like some other Muslim princesses of the time, she was trained to lead armies and administer kingdoms if necessary. Razia Sultana, the fifth Mamluk Sultan, was the very first woman ruler in the Muslim and Turkish history.

Chand Bibi

• Chand Bibi (1550–1599), also known as Chand Khatun or Chand Sultana, was an Indian Muslim woman warrior. She acted as the Regent of Bijapur (1580–90) and Regent of Ahmednagar (1596–99)[1]. Chand Bibi is best known for defending Ahmednagar against the Mughal forces of Emperor Akbar.

Abbakka Rani

• Abbakka Rani or Abbakka Mahadevi was the queen of Tulunadu who fought the Portuguese in the latter half of the 16th century. She belonged to the Chowta dynasty who ruled over the area from the temple town of Moodabidri.

Tarabai

• Tarabai (1675–1761) was a queen of the Maratha Empire in India.

Bibi Dalair Kaur

• Bibi Dalair Kaur was a seventeenth century Sikh woman who fought against the Moghuls.

Mai Bhago

• Mai Bhago was a Sikh woman who led Sikh soldiers against the Mughals in 1704.

Onake Obavva

• Onake Obavva (18th Century) was a woman who fought the forces of Hyder Ali single-handedly with a masse (Onake) in the small kingdom of Chitradurga in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka, India. She is considered to be the epitome of Kannada women pride, with the same standing as Kittur Chennamma and Keladi Chennamma.

Begum Samru

• Begum Samru (ca 1753- 1836), also known as Zebunissa, Farzana and Joanna after baptism started her career as a Nautch girl in 18th Century India, and eventually became the ruler of Sardhana, a principality near Meerut. Later on, she played a key role in the politics and power struggle in 18th and 19th century India. She is also regarded as the only Catholic Ruler in India.

Kittur Chennamma

• Kittur Chennamma (1778–1829) was the queen of the princely state of Kittur in Karnataka. Her legacy and first victory are still commemorated in Kittur, during the Kittur Utsava of every 22–24 October. The festival is similar to the Mysore Dasara.

Rani Lakshmibai

• Rani Lakshmibai known as Jhansi Ki Rani, was the queen of the Maratha-ruled princely state of Jhansi, was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and a symbol of resistance to British rule in India.

Rani Durgavati

• Rani Durgavati was born in the family of famous [Rajput] Chandel Emperor Keerat Rai.

Keladi Chennamma

• Keladi Chennamma was daughter of Siddappa Setty of Kundapur. She became the queen of Keladi Nayaka dynasty who fought the Mughal Army of Aurangzeb from her base in the kingdom of Keladi in the Shimoga district of Karnataka State, India. Her rule lasted for 25 years and Keladi kingdom was probably the last to lose autonomy to Mysore rulers and subsequently to British.

Belawadi Mallamma

• Belawadi Mallamma, to defend her husband's kingdom, she fought against the Maratha king Shivaji Maharaj and defeated him.

Unniyarcha

• Unniyarcha: She was a chekava/Ezhava woman warrior from Kerala famous for her valour and beauty.

Hindu Religion

• Durga (Sanskrit: "the inaccessible" or "the invincible", Bengali: দুর্গা) is a form of Devi, the supreme goddess of Hinduism. According to the narrative from the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana, the form of Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight a demon. The nine-day holiday dedicated to Durga, The Durga Puja, is the biggest annual festival in Bengal and other parts of Eastern India and is celebrated by Hindus all over the world.
• Other warrior goddesses include Chamunda ("the killer of demon Chanda and Munda") and the goddess group Matrikas ("Mothers").
• Vishpala (in The Rigveda) is a warrior queen who, after having lost a leg in battle had an iron prosthesis made. Afterwards, she returned to fight.

See also

• List of female action heroes
• Woman warrior
• Timeline of women in early modern warfare