Esther
The Book of Esther is a subversive feminist tract masquerading as a Bible story. Okay, that probably isn't true, but by golly, it feels true. Esther, the eponymous heroine, is a courageous young Jewish girl who becomes the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (a total schmuck, in more ways than one) and risks her own life to save her people from ...
Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut (ca. 1508-1458 BCE) was an extremely successful pharaoh whose reign was full of accomplishments: important trade missions, gorgeous architecture, a booming economy. But the thing she's most famous for, at least nowadays, is that she had herself depicted as male on her monuments. There she is, King Hatshepsut, striding across the ...
Morrigan
Of all the great bird goddesses in world mythology, the Morrigan is surely one of the birdiest. This Irish goddess typically appears as a crow or raven hovering over the battlefield, feasting on the corpses of the slain. She's a carrion bird, basically; the Celts, like their Germanic neighbors, saw these birds as she-demons or goddesses who ...
Inanna-Ishtar
Long ago, before Venus or Aphrodite, before Artemis or Athena, before Demeter or Persephone, there was Inanna. She was the great Mesopotamian Queen of Heaven and Earth, the goddess of love, fertility, and war. Inanna was what the Sumerians called her; their Semitic neighbors, the Akkadians, called her Ishtar. As time went on the Sumerian language ...
LaSiren
LaSiren, also spelled La Sirène, is the Haitian mermaid goddess of the sea. Her mythological pedigree is impressive: enslaved Africans brought with them the memory of a great female water spirit, combined it with existing Taino legends about a sea creature, and added European mermaid imagery. The result was La Sirène, the reigning queen of ...
Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga is the legendary witch of Slavic folklore, especially Russian fairy tales. She lives on the edge of the forest in a hut that stands and moves on chicken legs. Baba Yaga herself fills the hut from end to end, stretched out on her stove with her nose growing into the ceiling. She travels through the air in a mortar, pushing herself along ...
Artemis
Ah, Artemis! Goddess of the wilderness, mistress of the moon, patron of untrammeled womanhood. She races through the hills with her beloved animals, fleet-footed and shining. Artemis is one of the most venerated deities in all of Greek mythology, not to mention one of the most complex. She may be descended from a Neolithic Great Goddess, which ...
Marie Laveau
Marie Laveau (1801?-1881), better known as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is one of the most mysterious figures in American history. Almost all the facts of her life are shrouded in legend and confusion, beginning with the date of her birth (popular sources often cite 1794, but the records indicate 1801). All we can really be sure of is that ...
Rosalind Franklin
In May 1952, Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) made a photograph. It wasn't just any photograph: it was an X-ray diffraction image of the DNA molecule. Labeled "Photo 51," it would prove to be the crucial piece of data in unraveling the double helix structure of DNA. Unfortunately, Franklin never got the credit she deserved. Her resentful male ...
Hecate
When we first decided to do a costume for Hecate---the goddess of witchcraft, the night, and crossroads---we thought we would do a classic Greek look, the way the ancients saw her. But we ran into an interesting dilemma. Hecate is unusual among ancient goddesses in that she has a fully developed modern iconography that is actually quite ...
Nefertiti
Her face is one of the most famous in the world. Nefertiti (ca. 1370–1330 BCE) was the Great Royal Wife of the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten, and her sublime portrait bust is one of the glories of ancient Egyptian art. The woman herself is still a mystery, although the clues about her are tantalizing. Her prominence during the Amarna Period is ...
Elizabeth I
When Elizabeth I (1535-1603) became queen, people didn't expect much. "Get yourself married as soon as possible," she was told, "and lean on your husband for support." Elizabeth had other ideas. For 45 years she ruled in glorious solitude, steering England with a sure hand and a steely will. She was, quite simply, the greatest monarch in ...
Calamity Jane
Calamity Jane (1852-1903) was born Martha Canary, and after that things get fuzzy. Almost every detail of her life is disputed, mostly because she told quite a few tall tales (as did all the other Wild West figures who were interviewed back then for newspapers and dime novels). What’s certain is that she dressed as a man---at least some of the ...
Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Dandridge (1922-1965) was a dynamo of talent and beauty who became the first African American nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Her starring role in Carmen Jones launched her into the Hollywood stratosphere, but the racism of the era meant that there was still no real place for her in mainstream pictures. She was a brilliant performer ...
Empress Theodora
How great was Empress Theodora (500-548)? This great: she outlawed wife-killing, banned sex trafficking and sex slavery, expanded women's property rights, gave mothers the right to raise their own children, and generally endowed women with higher legal status than they'd ever had in the entire history of the Roman Empire. Yay, Theodora! She ...
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) was the greatest lady of medieval Europe. In her own right she was Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitiers, ruling over a large chunk of what is now France. By marriage she was also Queen of France, at least for the 15 years of her union with Louis VII; a high point was when she rode at the head of the ...
Marlene Dietrich
When Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) appeared in white tie and tails in the 1930 film Morocco, audiences were mesmerized. It's an incredible entrance: she strolls onto the stage with insouciant glamour, sings a song in French, throws back some champagne, and then steals a kiss from a lady in the audience. What a way to make a Hollywood debut! She ...
Bessie Coleman
Aviation pioneer Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) was the first black woman in the world to earn a pilot's license. The child of sharecroppers in Texas, she overcame incredible odds---poverty, racism, sexism---to pursue her dream of flight. Inspired by the exploits of World War I's flying aces, she set her sights on becoming a pilot herself. She ...
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great (1729-1796) was probably the best tsar Russia ever had. She arrived in the country as a teenaged German bride, and eventually took the throne in a coup that deposed her idiot husband. For 34 years she reigned as Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias, expanding the nation’s borders and turning it into an international ...
Maria Makiling
Maria Makiling is the most widely known and beloved diwata (fairy or nymph) of the Philippines. As the guardian spirit of Mount Makiling, she is depicted as a beautiful young woman in radiant white clothing, surrounded by the natural flora and fauna. Her long black hair is adorned with the fragrant white flowers of the pomelo tree. Maria is shy ...
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