TOP 10 GIRLS OF HISTORY (SPECIAL MENTION)

 

But Bill, there are even more more historical babes!

Yes, I’ve counted down my Top 10 Girls of History, but given that we’ve got all of human history, there’s more than enough historical babes for my usual twenty special mention entries per top ten.

Of course, this continues in the same vein of personal novelty list as my Top 10 Girls of History, as the entries don’t tend to have the same art or cosplay as my usual Fantasy Girls in popular culture – but you may continue to be surprised at the extent to which girls of history do feature in popular culture, albeit not always with historical accuracy.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(1) PREHISTORIC GIRLS

 

Hold up, Stark After Dark, I hear you say – this isn’t just another entry for the Jungle Girl and Cavewoman, those archetypal characters of comics and fantasy, is it?

Why yes, it is, but it isn’t just that – it’s an entry for the actual girls of prehistory, to the extent that they have come down to us in art, whether prehistoric art (usually sculpture) or modern reconstructions of their appearance by art or models.

For the former, the most famous prehistoric female figure is the Venus of Willendorf – although as figures go, she’s a little thick for my taste, and I suspect far thicker than the actual average Paleolithic hunter and gatherer girl. Her thick figure may well be a stylistic representation (or spiritual invocation) of abundance or fertility. Alternatively, I’ve heard a theory that the Venus of Willendorf and similar figures are self-portraits by female artists and hence represent the distorted perspective looking down at their bodies (consistent with their lack of facial features).

Anyway, there’s a naming convention of Venus for prehistoric female figurines, not all of whom are as thick as that of Willendorf.

And yes, prehistoric girls may not have names in historical records like the girls of history, but they do often have names given to them by convention, usually from their location (where their art or graves were located) – such as Willendorf herself, or the Egtved Girl. There’re also enough prehistoric girls – at least in terms of types or archetype – for their own top ten.

 

 

 

(2) GIRLS OF ANCIENT EGYPT – NEFERTITI

 

Well, no surprise here, given that ancient Egypt is up there in my nominations for the s€xiest civilizations of history. What’s not to love about those slinky girls in Egyptian art? Lithe and svelte in their form-fitting dresses, with their golden skin and painted eyes, they would not look out of place as supermodels on a modern catwalk.

There are enough named girls of ancient Egypt for their own top ten, albeit only one other than Cleopatra (the top spot of my Top 10 Girls of History) has widespread name recognition – Nefertiti, perhaps the most famous bust from ancient history.

No, not like that! I’m talking bust as sculpture of the subject’s head – with Nefertiti’s bust as arguably the most recognizable artefact of Egyptian history, even more so than any artwork of Cleopatra.

Well, perhaps a little like that, with Nefertiti as the titular queen in the 1961 Italian film Queen of the Nile.

 

 

 

 

(3) GIRLS OF ANCIENT GREECE – ARTEMISIA

 

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly given how women were effectively second-class citizens of ancient Greece, although it roughly varied between Athens at one end and Sparta at the other (where ironically women had a better position to some extent), there’s more than enough girls of classical Greek and Hellenic history for their own top ten. Yes – including those topless Minoan ones.

There’s also many with wider name recognition beyond specialist history, but I’ve gone with Artemisia…because Eva Green. 300: Rise of an Empire was a desultory prequel, but I liked Eva as Artemisia – as I’ve liked her for pretty much anything. It was a close call with Angelina Jolie’s Olympias, even if that film was also desultory.

 

 

 

(4) GIRLS OF CLASSICAL ROME – HONORIA

 

O yes – there’s more than enough women in the historical record of classical Rome for their own top ten, some very salacious indeed.

I’ve gone with Honoria, despite wider name recognition for other girls of classical Rome, because…Sophia Loren (in the 1954 film Attila). Also, she’s a femme fatale who perhaps more than any other female figure literally embodies the fall of Rome.

Cleopatra, Boadicea, and Zenobia might all arguably count as women of classical Rome but I feel that’s stretching it for imperial subjects turned rebels against or enemies of Rome, even if as rulers of client states.

 

 

 

 

(5) GIRLS OF EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE – THEODORA

 

“Such passion! Such a woman!…Theodora, slave empress!”

I mean, I’m not going to see a film poster like this and then not include it in special mentions for my girls of history! Although I liked Theodora, wife of emperor Justinian, beforehand and would have included her as poster girl for this entry even without an actual poster.

There’s also the historical themed art of Gambargin in social media, who has a particular soft spot for the women of the eastern Roman Empire – with my favorite being the gag art for the Byzantine Discussion and Study Meetings.

But seriously, the eastern Roman empire took the historical record of the women of classical Rome and doubled down on it – literally in terms of further span (give or take, depending on how you reckon it) but also in terms of better status, in comparison not only to classical Rome (including actual empresses as opposed to the classical Roman empire) but contemporary Western Europe and Islamic states.

And yes – that means there are enough girls of the eastern Roman empire for their own top ten.

 

 

 

(6) PRIESTESSES & ORACLES – PYTHIA & VESTAL VIRGINS

 

Probably the first leading role played by women in history – or indeed in prehistory, given some of the prehistoric female figures in my special mention entry for the women of prehistory – albeit not their oldest profession as the saying goes (and which is the subject of its own special mention entry here), although that role and profession are said to have overlapped in some cases.

That last of course doesn’t apply for one of the two religious female figures of history that I’ve chosen because of their fame for this entry – the Vestal Virgins of classical Rome, a religious office held by multiple women over centuries, some of whom are named in the historical record. The Pythia – occasionally referred to as the Pythoness – is the other of the two famed female figures of history and similarly was an office as the leading classical Greek oracle, the Oracle of Delphi, held by multiple women over centuries.

There’re enough religious female figures in history for their own top ten.

 

 

 

(7) ROYALTY – QUEENS & PRINCESSES

 

After priestesses and other religious female figures, probably the next leading role played by women in history.

Some have already featured in my Top 10 Girls of History, those rebel queens against Rome – Cleopatra, Boadicea, Zenobia – as well as Marie Antoinette.

Some have already featured in these special mentions – Nefertiti for example.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the female royalty of history, which could have their own top ten many times other – including the princess I chose as representative of this special mention, Grace Kelly as Princess Grace of Monaco.

 

 

 

(8) GIRLS OF WAR

 

Women have not played as leading a role in war throughout history as they have in religion or royalty – but there are enough girls of war for special mention and their own top ten, indeed arguably there’s even enough girls of war for individual wars such as First or Second World War. The latter could be extended to pin-up nose art, but readily includes famed Soviet female snipers or pilots such as Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Roza Shanina, and the Night Witches,

Some girls of war have already featured in my Top 10 Girls of History or special mentions so far – Joan of Arc, Boadicea, Tomoe Gozen, and Artemisia.

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

(9) SAPPHO & HYPATIA (630-570 BC & 350/370 – 415 AD)

 

The classical girls of poetry and philosophy, of enduring historical fame.

Sappho is famed for her love poetry – and also for the subject of her poetry, such that her name has lent itself to the term Sapphic that connotes, well, the same thing that the name of her native island of Lesbos has also been used to connote.

Hypatia hasn’t quite the fame of Sappho’s name (or the island of Lesbos) but has become a feminist icon for her fame as a pagan Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician – as well as being transformed into a “martyr for philosophy” at the hands of a Christian mob.

 

 

 

 

(10) HUA MULAN (4TH-6TH CENTURY AD)

 

“Let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns”.

Yes, yes – she’s more legendary than historical but I’m counting her here.

You all know her from the Disney film of her name – the good animated one, that is. A Chinese woman who disguised herself as a man to fight with the army against the “Huns” – the nomadic Xiongnu who may or may not have been the same as the Huns in Western history.

 

 

(11) LAGERTHA (9TH CENTURY AD)

 

“Lagertha, according to legend was a Viking ruler and shield-maiden from what is now Norway and the onetime wife of the famous Viking Ragnar Lodbrok. Her tale was recorded by the chronicler Saxo in the 12th century. According to the historian Judith Jesch, Saxo’s tales about warrior women are largely fictional”

Yes, she may be more legend than history (like Ragnar himself) but I couldn’t go past Katheryn Winnick’s depiction of her in the Vikings TV series

 

 

(12) LA MALINCHE (1500 – 1529)

 

Alternatively Malintzin or Marina – interestingly, when searching online her description comes up as “Mexican interpreter”. Well, that’s underselling her. She was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast with a gift for languages – speaking Nahuatl and Maya, but most substantially for her role in history, Spanish.

There’s the old (and somewhat s€xist) saying that behind every great man is a woman. In this case, the woman was La Malinche and the man was Hernan Cortes – La Malinche was a slave-woman “gifted” to the Spanish with her own gift for languages, who became Cortes’ interpreter, diplomatic adviser and mistress.

She might also be described as his co-conquistador. She was an instrumental part in the true reason for the Spanish victory other than disease – that the Spanish force didn’t win it as such, but rather led the much larger winning force consisting predominantly of their native American allies against the Aztecs.

And yes, I’m using Chel as my usual Meso-American pin-up stand-in but the consort of Cortes has spawned all those Meso-American girl memes ever since. Also Chel is not a bad stand-in for La Malinche, given her shrewd intelligence adapting to the Spanish interlopers in her Meso-American world (and Cortes himself makes an appearance).

 

 

 

(13) POCAHONTAS (1596 – 1617)

 

Thanks to the Disney film, probably the most famous female figure of native American history.

Although I’m going with the Disney film depiction as it featured her as a Disney princess, rather than the child of 10-11 years that she was when the English colonists arrived in 1607. At least she was a historical figure – the daughter of chief Powhatan, “the paramount leader of over thirty tribes” – but was elevated in folklore or legend from her actual history of captivity and exploitation in the Anglo-Powhatan War. In that history, she was captured by the English, coerced into conversion to Christianity, baptized as Rebecca (which seems a downgrade from Pocahontas), married to tobacco planter John Rolfe and taken to England where she died from illness at only 20-21 years.

 

 

(14) ADA LOVELACE (1815 – 1852)

 

If being the daughter of Lord Byron (and his only child within his marriage) wasn’t enough to feature as one of my girls of history, there’s also that she is often dubbed the first computer programmer for her work on Charles Babbage’s “analytical engine”.

 

 

 

 

(15) FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (1820 – 1910)

 

The Lady with the Lamp!

The most famous nurse in history – in large part because she founded modern nursing – and an icon of Victorian culture.

She also saved more lives than any other entry in my top ten or these special mentions, perhaps more than all of them combined – significantly reducing death rates by improved hygiene and living standards, both during her nursing (as well as managing and training nurses) for wounded soldiers in the Crimean War and subsequently through her institution of modern nursing as well as social reforms.

 

 

 

 

(16) CALAMITY JANE & ANNIE OAKLEY (1852-1903 & 1860-1926)

 

I considered an entry for the girls of the Wild West but while there were certainly other female figures of the Wild West, it’s really these two that have the widespread name recognition.

They tend to be made more glamorous in appearance when represented in popular culture so I’ve chosen to represent them by Jane Fonda’s Cat Ballou from the publicity photos for the film. Sadly, the actual girls of the Wild West weren’t quite as glamorous as they are depicted in popular culture, even if I have a soft spot for the latter.

 

 

 

 

(17) MATA HARI (1876-1917)

 

Still the most famous female spy in history, lending her stage name to sheer mystique and embodying the femme fatale as an exotic dancer using her powers of seduction as a spy.

Unfortunately for her, the First World War was a dangerous time to be a spy and she was executed by French firing squad as a spy for Germany.

That hasn’t stopped her being frequently adapted in popular culture, including the comics series of my feature image

 

 

.

 

(18) AMELIA EARHART (1897 – 1937/1939?)

 

American aviator (or aviatrix) and pioneer of aviation in trans-Atlantic flights, although her fame was heightened by her mysterious disappearance in the Pacific while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. (She disappeared in 1937 and was declared dead in 1939).

She has become a global cultural figure, including her portrayal by Amy Adams in the Night in the Museum film series.

 

 

 

(19) EVA PERON (1919-1952)

 

“Don’t cry for me, Argentina”

Need I say more? Actress become First Lady of Argentina, then cult figure and icon of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical theater production Evita.

 

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

 

 

(20) COURTESANS – PHRYNE & THAIS

 

It is dubbed the oldest profession but I was still surprised by how prolific they were in history – enough for their own top ten, not to mention my usual kinkier entry as my twentieth special mention.

Or how high profile they could be, although of course we are talking the historical elite here. To represent them for this entry, I couldn’t go past the two famous hetairai (or hetaerae) of classical Greece

Phryne became one of the richest women of ancient Greece, was the model for artists for statues of Aphrodite, and was acquitted in her trial for impiety after baring her br€asts to the jury – which frankly I’d like to see in more trials.

Thais accompanied Alexander the Great, was famed for instigating the burning of Persepolis and became the de facto queen of Egypt as lover of Ptolemy.

 

 

GIRLS OF HISTORY: TOP 10

 

“Bill: We gotta go, this is a history report, not a babe report!

Ted: But Bill, those are historical babes!”

 

That’s right – once again, I can find Fantasy Girls in anything.

Similarly to my Girls of Mythology, this is something of a personal novelty list, as my Girls of History don’t tend to have the same art or cosplay as my usual Fantasy Girls in popular culture – the holy trinity of comics, video games and anime of course, but also animation or fantasy and SF.

Although you may be surprised at the name recognition of the more distinctive girls of history and perhaps even more surprisingly, at the extent to which they do feature in popular culture, notably comics, film or television.

Also, comics artist Simon Bisley has done an awesome art collection of women from history, which features quite a few of my top ten entries. You can find it on his official website but I don’t feature any of it here, with one exception tightly cropped for fair use under copyright and because the full image is too racy, the same reasons that I don’t feature anything else from the collection.

While on the subject of art, there’s also a surprisingly prolific subculture of historical comics art on X or Twitter, usually featuring historical babes, by artists such as Gambargin, Centuriichan (a name shared with her signature female Roman legionary character), and Anonhistory (who likes to tease Centuriichan with a Pictish witch character, naked but for blue woad tattoos).

 

Ted: Oh, you beautiful babes from England, for whom we have traveled through time… will you go to the prom with us in San Dimas? We will have a most triumphant time! [princesses giggle]

Bill: Way to go, dude!

 

Sadly, Princesses Elizabeth and Joanna from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure won’t be featuring in my Top 10 Girls of History – but here’s who does!

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

(10) MARIE ANTOINETTE (1755-1793)

 

Let them eat cake?

And yes, I know that statement being attributed to Marie Antoinette as demonstrating her ignorance of the plight of her subjects – as her answer to their protest that they had no bread to eat – is apocryphal at best and fictional propaganda at worst.

History’s most famous aristocratic party girl, albeit that fame may owe more to how the party ended for her.

Born an Austrian princess – okay, archduchess but basically the same thing – she became Queen of France through her marriage to Louis XVI as well as the target of those opposed to the monarchy, culminating with her being beheaded by guillotine along with her husband as part of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

“Long after her death, Marie Antoinette remains a major historical figure linked with conservatism, the Catholic Church, wealth and fashion. She has been the subject of many books, films, and other media. Politically engaged authors have deemed her the quintessential representative of class conflict, western aristocracy and absolutism. Some of her contemporaries, such as Jefferson, attributed to her as a cause of the French Revolution.”

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

(9) LUCREZIA BORGIA (1480-1519)

 

Basically a Renaissance mafia princess.

I just have a soft spot for the ‘bad girls’ of history, albeit that adjective is a matter of historical perspective. You can make arguments for my preceding entry as a bad girl – or indeed pretty much all my entries as bad girls – but we’re much more in bad girl territory with Lucrezia Borgia, if only through her family.

After all, she was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia in his reign as Pope Alexander VI, and it doesn’t get much more bad than popes having kids – except perhaps her brother Cesare, the model for Machiavelli’s Prince, who was arguably even worse than their father. . .

Her family arranged several marriages for her among the Italian aristocracy that advanced their own political position, lending itself to “notorious tales about her family”  that “cast Lucrezia as a femme fatale, a controversial role in which she has been portrayed in many artworks, novels, and films”. That role extended to the role of black widow for one of her husbands (even if through her brother Cesare) and poisoning or murder in general, such as the rumor that she had a hollow ring that she used to poison drinks.

“Lucrezia was described as having heavy blonde hair that fell past her knees, a beautiful complexion, hazel eyes that changed colour, a full, high bosom, and a natural grace that made her appear to “walk on air”.

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

(8) TOMOE GOZEN (1157-1247)

 

I had to get a ninja girl (or kunoichi) in there somewhere – even if the closest I could get was a female samurai (or onna-musha) and a possibly legendary one at that.

Tomoe Gozen is perhaps the best known female samurai by name, mentioned in The Tale of the Heike but not otherwise in any primary accounts of the Genpei War, a civil war between rival clans in Japan. She was famed as a swordswoman and archer, serving under the samurai lord Minamoto no Yoshinaka.

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(7) ZENOBIA (240-274)

 

The first of three rebels against Rome in my Top 10 Girls of History, Septimia Zenobia ruled what has become known to posterity as the Palmyrene Empire – Roman client state gone rogue and conquering most of the Roman East, culminating with the conquest of Egypt as the jewel in its crown and threat to Rome’s grain supply as the breadbasket of the Roman Empire.

First wife and then widow of Odaenathus, the king who had elevated the city of Palymra to its supreme power in the Roman East, she effectively became the de facto ruler as regent of her son. She “remained nominally subordinate to Rome” but Palmyrene predominance in the eastern part of the empire was too much of a threat for Rome to tolerate and so Emperor Aurelian led a campaign against her to restore her realm to the empire. That forced her reaction to declare her son emperor with herself as empress, as well as Palmyra’s independence from Rome. That did not turn out well for either Palmyra or her.

It is disappointing that she does not the same iconic status and mystique as Cleopatra, as Zenobia achieved what Cleopatra only dreamed – a genuine rival state to Roman power in the eastern empire with real prospects of success – and was at least as hot, by the account of Edward Gibbon  – at least by the account of Edward Gibbon, that she was considered “most lovely,” and “equalled in beauty her [claimed] ancestor Cleopatra”.

“Zenobia has inspired scholars, academics, musicians and actors; her fame has lingered in the West, and is supreme in the Middle East…a heroic queen with a tragic end…Harold Mattingly called Zenobia one of the most romantic figures in history.”

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(6) BOADICEA (? – 61)

 

You know her name, or maybe you don’t since it is one of many variants – Boudica or Boudicca in the Celtic language of Byrthonic connoting victory (so that she might also have been called Victory or Victoria) and Boadicea or Boudicea in Latin chronicles. There’s also a variant in Welsh as Buddug, which just sounds odd.

Anyway, she’s the second of my three rebels against Rome in my Top 10 Girls of History.

Queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, essentially a client kingdom of Rome, “she led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61” and hence has become a British national heroine despite her defeat.

Her husband Prasutagus left his kingdom jointly to their two daughters and to the Roman emperor in his will, something which was always going to go badly as the Roman Empire in such dealings often resembled Darth Vader – “I have altered the deal. Pray that I don’t alter it further”.  In the case of the Iceni, Rome was particularly egregious – ignoring the will, annexing the kingdom, and according to Tacitus, flogging Boadicea and sxually abusing her daughters.

Boadicea led the Iceni and other British tribes in revolt, initially successful to the point that emperor Nero considered withdrawing from Britain, but ultimately defeated by the Roman legions under governor Paulinus in an admittedly impressive feat of arms despite being heavily outnumbered.

She evolved into a national icon from the English Renaissance to the Victorian period, not coincidentally with Britain’s female monarchs in those periods, Elizabeth and Victoria.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

(5) ANNE BONNY (? – 1733)

 

I mean, you knew I had to have a pirate girl in my top ten and Irish pirate girl Anne Bonny eclipses the other female pirates, including her fellow pirate Mary Read

Enter some sort of pun on crossbones here – actually now that I think of it, most pirate lingo seems to double up as entendres…

Although, she was only a pirate for 61 days. 61 days?! She basically just had a couple of months Caribbean cruise as a pirate!

She joined the crew of John Rackham, alongside fellow female pirate Mary Read, for her brief, piratical career before being captured. My respect for her increases as she had her execution stayed – as did Read – on the basis of claiming to be pregnant. That worked out better for Bonny – Read died in imprisonment but Bonny was likely let go at some point, as she died a dozen years later or so.

“Amongst the few recorded female pirates in the Golden Age of Piracy, she has become one of the most recognized pirates of the era, as well as the history of piracy in general…Despite a career of only 61 days, Anne Bonny is among the most famous pirates in recorded history, primarily due to her gender. Within a decade, Bonny-inspired characters were already appearing in contemporary culture…An 1888 cigarette card depicted Bonny as a redhead, a trait that continues to this day despite no evidence supporting it. Swashbuckling cinema often included a dashing redhaired woman or female pirate companion, occasionally directly naming Bonny…By the 21st century, Bonny has appeared in hundreds of books, movies, songs, stage shows, TV programs, and video games. Almost every female pirate character, is in some form, inspired by Anne Bonny.”

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(4) ELIZABETH BATHORY (1560-1614)

 

And now we get to my biggest bad girl of history – I mean, you also knew I was going to get a vampire girl in there somewhere, even in my girls of history.

Of course, she wasn’t an actual vampire but essentially became one, literally bathing in blood as an icon of folklore, fantasy and horror – arguably second only to Dracula himself as iconic vampire, hence epithets as Countess Dracula or Blood Countess. Ironically, she was from Hungarian, neighbor to Dracula’s Transylvania and contesting that territory with Romania.

“Countess Elizabeth Báthory was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the powerful House of Bathory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia). Báthory and four of her servants were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and women from 1590 to 1610. Bathory and her cohorts were charged for 80 counts of murder and were convicted. Her servants were put on trial and executed, whereas Báthory was imprisoned…until she died in her sleep in 1614.”

My favorite folklore of her is that her spree started from her observation that her skin seemed fresher or younger from a servant’s girl blood after an accidental injury and she started bathing in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, hence her iconography as vampire or vampiric in nature (contrary to contemporary historical records and only evolving as a legend a century after her death).

I can’t feature Elizabeth Bathory without reference to my favorite fantasy art of her – the posthumous fantasy depiction by artist Olivier Ledroit in Requiem Vampire Knight by Pat Mills. (Posthumous that is, in that it is set in the afterlife – but not any afterlife you’d like to find yourself in, unless you were someone like Elizabeth Bathory).

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

S-TIER (GODDESS TIER)

 

 

 

 

(3) MARILYN MONROE (1926-1962)

 

Few modern celebrities have transcended their celebrity to become as historically iconic and none quite like her. Her image and name are instantly recognizable, indeed enduring as a valuable advertising brand, licensed to hundreds of companies.

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, she became the Hollywood blonde bombshell – as well as emblematic of Hollywood itself, Playboy (as the literal face of the first edition of the magazine on its cover and in its centerfold), and “the era’s sxual revolution”, perhaps also the American Dream (or at least the American dream girl).

“According to The Guide to United States Popular Culture, as an icon of American popular culture, Monroe’s few rivals in popularity include Elvis Presley and Mickey Mouse… no other star has ever inspired such a wide range of emotions—from lust to pity, from envy to remorse…Art historian Gail Levin stated that Monroe may have been “the most photographed person of the 20th century”.

 

RATING:

S-TIER (GODDESS TIER)

 

 

 

 

(2) JOAN OF ARC (1412-1431)

 

The Maid of Orleans – teenaged military leader and patron saint of France, surprisingly prolific in cultural depictions showcasing her enduring popularity.

“Joan of Arc…is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orleans and her insistence on the coronation of Charles VII of France during the Hundred Year’s War. Stating that she acted under divine guidance, she became a military leader who gained recognition as a savior of France.”

Much of her religious originated from her claims of visions from angels or saints, but she walked the walk as much as she talked her talk, leading the French to victories “paving the way for their final triumph in the Hundred Years War several decades later’.

However, her divine fortune ran out with two unsuccessful sieges as well as being captured and handed over to her English opponents, Famously, they tried her for heresy and executed her by burning at the stake – which only served to increase her French religious mystique as martyr.

“After the French Revolution, she became a national symbol of France. In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by Pope Benedict XV and, two years later, was declared one of the patron saints of France. She is portrayed in numerous cultural works, including literature, music, paintings, sculptures, and theater…Joan is one of the most studied people of the Middle Ages, partly because her two trials provided a wealth of documents.Her image, changing over time, has included being the savior of France, an obedient member of the Catholic Church, an early feminist, and a symbol of freedom and independence.”

She’s also a magnet for alternative historical interpretations or revisionist theories – “theories she was an illegitimate royal child; that she was not burned at the stake; that most of her story is a fabrication; and that she escaped death at the stake”. My favorite of these was Margaret Murray conscripting Joan to Murray’s pagan witch cult thesis – in which Joan “was correctly identified as a witch”, but witchcraft was “a survival of the pagan old religion of pre-Christian Europe”.

 

RATING:

S-TIER (GODDESS TIER)

 

 

 

(1) CLEOPATRA (70/69 BC – 30 BC)

 

Was there any doubt about the top spot? Although technically it’s Cleopatra VII – or Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator.

“Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and the last active Hellenistic pharaoh. A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. Her first language was Koine Greek, and she is the only Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned the Egyptian language, among several others.After her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the Hellenistic period in the Mediterranean.”

Also famously the lover of Caesar, whom she aligned herself with to gain the upper hand in the civil war with her co-ruler and brother Ptolemy XIII. Even more famously, she was the lover of Caesar’s ally Mark Anthony in the Roman civil war with Caesar’s heir Octavian – to advance her Ptolemaic interests within Mark Anthony’s control of the eastern part of the empire as against Octavian’s control of the western half. Her alliance with Mark Anthony didn’t turn out well for either of them, with both taking their own lives in the face of their defeat by Octavian’s forces.

“Cleopatra’s legacy survives in ancient and modern works of art, Roman historiography and Latin poetry produced a generally critical view of the queen that pervaded later Medieval and Renaissance literature. In the visual arts, her ancient depictions include Roman busts, painting, sculptures, cameo carvings and glass, Ptolemaic and Roman coinage, and reliefs. In Renaissance and Barosque art, she was the subject of many works including operas, paintings, poetry, sculptures, and theatrical dramas. She has become a pop culture icon of Egyptomania since the Victorian era, and in modern times has appeared in the applied and fine arts, burlesque satire, Hollywood films, and brand images for commercial products.”

And yes – I know the historical Cleopatra wasn’t the bombshell as portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film

Speaking of Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra, I’ve always liked the cover of Asterix and Cleopatra, which was adapted from that film’s poster and joked about the epic cost of the film’s production – a cost which saw the film flop.

And speaking of Asterix and Cleopatra, Monica Belucci played Cleopatra in the 2002 live-action Asterix film, Mission Cleopatra.

 

RATING:

S-TIER (GODDESS TIER)

 

 

 

 

GIRLS OF HISTORY: TOP 10 (TIER LIST)

 

S-TIER (GODDESS TIER)

 

(1) CLEOPATRA

(2) JOAN OF ARC

(3) MARILYN MONROE

 

If Cleopatra and Joan of Arc are my Old Testament of girls of history, Marilyn Monroe is my New Testament.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(4) ELIZABETH BATHORY

(5) ANNE BONNY

(6) BOADICEA

(7) ZENOBIA

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(8) TOMOE GOZEN

(9) LUCREZIA BORGIA

(10) MARIE ANTOINETTE