Penthesilea, Amazon Warrior Queen

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

BBC

Stand-up, History, Comedy

4.8 • 598 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Natalie Haynes tells of Penthesilea, Amazon warrior queen, in charge of ‘a bunch of golden-shielded, silver-axed, man-loving, boy-killing women,’ with a natty line in ankle boots, and even trousers, a scandalous item of clothing at the time. These fighting women were respected as exceptional warriors and Penthesilea was given a hero's burial when she died in battle.

Unusually for women in antiquity, many Amazon's names are recorded (on vases) and they are excellent: 'She Who Lets the Dogs Out'; 'She Who Is Enthusiastic at Sex'; 'She Who Fights like a Man'. Although Amazons are regarded as mythological figures, there is strong evidence for the existence of nomadic fighting women from burial grounds in the Russian steppes.

In this locked down, more intimate version of her show, Natalie offers escape to a different realm: the mythological. As fresh and funny as ever, Natalie brings us new insights into the original girl gang, as well as gossipy erudition from a couple of thousand years of culture, with the help of Professor Edith Hall.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.9	Hello and welcome to series six of Natalie Haynes stands up for the classics.
0:10.5	Brought to you for one series only from my flat.
0:14.0	I'm not standing up. I don't know how to break this to you.
0:16.1	I'm sitting on the floor. I'm sitting on the floor in a cupboard because that's the way we're recording this series. I'm sorry about that. It's just the way it had to be done. The other change we've made
0:24.6	for this series is that we thought people needed to be transported away from the real world for a little while.
0:30.6	So for one series only, I'm not doing historical figures from the ancient world, but mythological figures from the ancient world.
0:36.6	Women from Greek myth, to be precise. And this episode is going to focus on the Amazons. So, ladies and
0:43.0	gentlemen, for this episode only, today I am standing up for, I say standing up for, today I am
0:48.3	sitting down for, Pentasolaya, the Amazon warrior queen. According to the 5th century BC historian, Hellanicus of Lesbos,
0:57.4	Amazons were a bunch of golden-shielded, silver-axed, man-loving, boy-killing women.
1:03.4	I could kind of join that girl gang, maybe not the boy-killing.
1:07.2	Amazons lived and fought as a tribe,
1:09.8	and this is a really important point to differentiate them from male heroes, male warriors in epic poetry, for example.
1:17.6	As we can see throughout the Iliad, the most famous example, men fight for themselves.
1:23.6	They fight as individuals.
1:24.6	When Achilles doesn't get what he wants in book one of the Iliad, he withdraws from battle doesn't help his comrades. The men who till a moment ago were his comrades. Not only that, he praised to his mother, the goddess Thetis, to get Zeus to turn the tide of battle against them. It's all about individual glory. But Amazons are a gang. They are always a gang. They live in a place, or most
1:47.2	usually they live in a place called Themisgira. Sometimes they're put in Libya, but usually it's
1:52.0	themuskira. And they're an incredibly popular subject for ancient authors and especially for ancient
1:57.9	artists. They're routinely shown in groups. We have a thousand Amazons painted onto vases and pots from the ancient world.
2:06.9	They are the second most popular subject, mythological subject, after Heracles slash Hercules.
2:13.1	We have 60 names of them painted onto these vases too.
	...

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