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Historical Indigenous Women & Figures [7]:

Indiana Juliana: a Guarani woman who, along with many other Indigenous women, was captured and sold into slavery during early colonial Paraguay. She is known for killing her slaver with poison and encouraged other Indigenous women to do the same. Elsie Allen: a prominent Chief, activist, and weaver of the Pomo who worked to preserve her cultural traditions and improve education and Native rights for her community. She is considered to have been one of the three most well known basketweavers in California. Agrippina Vaganova: a famed Armenian Ballerina who developed the Vaganova method, which remains a standard textbook for ballet instruction to this day. Che-Na-Wah: Hailing from the Yurok tribe and commonly known by her English name Lucy Thompson, she was an author who was first trained to become a spiritual leader, and served her community this way. In 1916, she became the first Native American published author in California, debuting her memoir which preserved cultural teachings of the Yurok in addition to criticizing Whites for over-fishing on Native Land, and directly expressing that violence towards Indigenous peoples of California as genocide. Reina Eva: known as the Last Queen of Rapa Nui, she was also one of the last women to have received traditional tattooing. She and her husband King Atamu Tekena experienced the Annexation of Rapa Nui to Chile. Teresa Magbuana: Indigenous revolutionary who took up arms against the Spanish, winning multiple battles, and took part in all three major resistance movements against all 3 colonizers within the Phillipines. She was often called the "Visayan Joan of Arc" Tjintji-wara: a Chief, alleged sorceress, and skilled tracker of the Mantuntara people in what is now called "Australia", she also resisted colonialism with her people by killing settlers' cattle that were drinking from and polluting the water on her people's lands while they were experiencing a severe drought. Her life experiences were recorded in a book and, at one point after she had returned home from a Christian mission that had treated her for an illness, she left saying, 'too much soup! Too much Jesus!' Tonita Peña: Also known by her traditional name Quah Ah, Tonita was was a prominent Pueblo artist who was raised by her aunt, a famed Pueblo artist in her own right, she heavily influenced social change within her community, and Euro-American views of Native American art. She refused to abide by gender restrictions at the time, while at the same time highlighted women's cultural significance within her art. Her son became a famous artist himself, and her art is featured in multiple prestigious art collections, including the American Natural History Museum.

part [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. Transphobes & any other bigots need not reblog and are not welcome on my posts.

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HANNIBAL AS DOGS!

im not very good at drawing dogs (or animals for that matter), but one night i was bored and made a list of dogs i associate with some of the hannibal cast and well... it nagged at me, so here we are.

you just have to see my vision.. okay... but i also encourage you to do this as too if you have any alternative dog breeds you think suit these guys — i know i struggled picking just one.

anyways, pomeranian chilton brings a hearty guffaw from me, get small-annoying-dogged idiot.

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Raphaël Personnaz as Alexander Vronsky in Anna Karenina (requested by anonymous)

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After the fall of Constantinople, Anna Notaras (d. 1507) gathered a community around her, preserving Greek culture and spreading it in ways that profoundly influenced the Italian Renaissance.

Exile from Constantinople

Anna was born into a wealthy and prestigious family. Her father, Loukas Notaras, was an influential statesman who served as mesazon (prime minister) to the last two Byzantine emperors and held the title of megas doux (Grand Duke). Her mother was from the imperial Palaiologos family, which allowed Anna to use the family name Palaiologina.

It’s possible Anna was once considered as a prospective bride for the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI. However, she was never officially betrothed to him and certainly never became his wife, contrary to later erroneous claims.

Sometime before 1453, Anna and her sisters, Theodora and Euphrosyne, were sent away from Constantinople, which spared them from witnessing the city’s fall during the Ottoman siege. Sultan Mehmed II executed her father and brothers, sparing only her brother Jacob.

Now in exile, Anna settled in Italy with the ample fortune from father’s bank accounts.

A Vision for a Greek Colony

By 1472, Anna had a plan: she sought to establish a Greek colony on Italian soil. She sent a delegation to Siena and received a warm welcome. A draft agreement was drawn up, deciding that the castle of Montauto in the Maremma should be handed to Anna. She was to become the rallying point of a community of 100 Greek families.

However, the project never materialized. Likely, Anna realized the land and the ruined castle were unsuitable for such a plan. By 1475, she had relocated to Venice.

A Patron of Culture

An independent woman, Anna never married, nor did she become a nun since there was no Orthodox convent she could join. Respected, wealthy, and influential, she became a prominent spokeswoman for Venice’s rapidly growing Greek community. She convinced the authorities to allow her to build an oratory in her home so the Orthodox liturgy could be celebrated in Greek.

Anna also emerged as a key cultural patron. She owned a library and supported the first dedicated Greek printing press. In 1499, her name appeared in the first book it produced: the Etymologicum Magnum. The dissemination of Greek philosophy, scholarship and litterature would influence the Italian renaissance.

Anna passed away on July 8, 1507, after a long and eventful life.

Anna’s dream of an Orthodox church in Venice was realized 30 years after her death. Among her possessions were magnificent icons brought from Constantinople; three of them are now preserved in the church of San Giorgio dei Greci.

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Further reading 

Nicol Donald M., The Byzantine Lady: Ten Portraits, 1250–1500

Nottara Paltin, Anna Notaras, la dernière Byzantine

Philippides Marios, Constantine XI Dragaš Palaeologus (1404-1453): The Last Emperor of Byzantium

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He had a close relationship with both his parents and as their only son, he was the apple of their eyes.

Selim and Nurbanu deliberately did not produce more children after Murad's birth for years so that Murad would not have a competitor and would not have to shed his own blood when he ascended the throne.

(requested by anonymous)

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Happy birthday to Aglae Ney - the bravest of brave women!

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top 10 favorite non-royal women (gabrielle’s choice) requested by anonymous

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Mania (active during the 5th to early 4th century BCE) served as the governor of Aeolis and led armies as a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire.

Her husband, Zenis of Dardanus, had governed Aeolis for the satrap (provincial governor) Pharnabazus II. When Zenis died of illness, Mania petitioned Pharnabazus, who had initially planned to appoint a man as her husband's successor. However, Mania sought the position for herself. According to Xenophon, she approached Pharnabazus with a large retinue and many gifts, both for him and to win favor with his concubines and the influential men at his court.

Her request was granted, and Mania became “mistress of the province”. She governed effectively and led successful military campaigns. She expanded her territory, capturing the cities of Larisa, Hamaxitos, and Kolonai with a force of Greek mercenaries. Mania also accompanied Pharnabazus twice in battle. Impressed by her abilities, he rewarded her and sometimes sought her counsel.

Polyaenus praised her as an exceptional general:

“She always went to battle drawn in a chariot; she gave out orders while in action, formed her lines, and rewarded every man who fought well, as she saw he deserved. And – what has scarcely happened to any general, except herself – she never suffered a defeat.”

Mania was over 40 years old (c.399 BCE) when she was murdered by her son-in-law Meidias, who reportedly claimed that  “it was a disgraceful thing for a woman to be the ruler while he was in a private station.” Meidias also killed Mania’s 17-year-old son.

He then asked Pharnabazus to grant him control of the territory, but Pharnabazus rejected his gifts, stating that “he would not wish to live if he failed to avenge Mania.” Eventually, Mania’s cities were seized by the Spartan general Dercylidas. Meidias thus gained nothing in murdering Mania. 

Here is the link to my Ko-Fi. Your support would be much appreciated!

Further reading:

Polyaenus, Stratagems in war

Xenophon, Hellenica

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Women’s History Meme || Women from Ancient History (or legends) (3/5) ↬ Septima Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra (c. 240 – c. 274)

Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, and self-proclaimed Empress, is one of the heroines of the ancient world who has inspired successive generations of scholars, writers, librettists and musicians, playwrights and actors. In the modern western world she is slightly less well known than Cleopatra; in the east she is still supreme, as demonstrated by the massive response throughout the Arab world to the television series called Anarchy (Al-Abadid) broadcast in Syria in 1997. The role of the Empress Zenobia was played by a very famous and beautiful Arab actress, Raghda, and her struggle against the Romans was depicted in twenty-two episodes watched by millions of people. For political reasons, but by controversial calculations, Zenobia claimed descent from Cleopatra, who was neither Arab nor Egyptian, but a Macedonian Greek. The writers of the television series emphasized Zenobia’s iconic Arab origins, but in fact, as a Palmyrene, Zenobia combined elements of Aramaic and Arabic ancestry. The population of Palmyra was descended from an amalgamation of various tribes of different ethnic backgrounds, and their language was a dialect of Aramaic. As the heroic and ultimately tragic Queen of Palmyra, Zenobia ranks with two other heroines of ancient history: the British Queen Boudicca and Cleopatra, who stood firm for their principles and their people, defied their oppressors, and were ultimately defeated. In each case the tragedy is all the more poignant because all three queens were the last of their lines, and after their deaths, each of their kingdoms disappeared, absorbed by Rome. These heroic women passed into legend as a result of their individual struggles and tragic fates, and the simple fact that they were women, who ruled as capably, and fought just as fiercely, as kings. Their enduring fame far outstrips the quantity and quality of the information about them. — Empress Zenobia: Palmyra’s Rebel Queen by Pat Southern

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Women’s History Meme || Kick-ass Women (8/10) ↬ Fannu bint Umar ibn Yintan (d. 1147)

After several days of fighting, they began to get the upper hand, aided by the defection of the Almoravids’ Christian corps, but they still had to fight hard to secure the Almoravid citadel at its heart which, according to al-Baydhaq, was defended doggedly by a virgin warrior, Fannu bint ‘Umar, whose sex was only revealed after her death when her armour was removed. — Almoravid and Almohad Empires by Amira K. Bennison

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House of the Dragon → Mother + Daughter Fates

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LAURA BERLIN as Emma of Normandy Vikings: Valhalla (2022), 1.07

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Salomea of Berg (c. 1099/1101 – 27 July 1144) was a noblewoman of Berg and, by marriage with Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth in 1115, High Duchess of Poland until her husband's death in 1138.

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Constance of Hungary (?-1302), was a Queen consort of Galicia and a Grand Princess of Kiev by marriage to Leo I of Galicia, Grand Prince of Kiev (r. 1271–1301).

She was the daughter of Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina.

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Princess Sophie Christine of Erbach-Erbach (12 June 1725 Schloss Reichenberg - 10 July 1795 Aschaffenburg) was the wife of William Henry, Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken and was the mother of Louis, Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken.

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Beatrice Cane (c. 1372 – 1418), mistakenly known in much of the historiography as Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda but actually a member of the Cane family, was an Italian noblewoman who married first the condottiero Facino Cane, Count of Biandrate and a cousin once removed, and then Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, who later had her killed.

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Women’s History Meme || Kick-ass Women (6/10) ↬ Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae (d. c. 520s BCE)

The nomadic Saka-Scythian groups of Central Asia were less familiar with wine, as we can gather from accounts about Queen Tomyris told by Herodotus, Strabo, and Justin. In the sixth century BC, King Cyrus of Persia invaded the land of the Massagetae, a confederation of Saka-Scythian nomads east of the Caspian Sea. Warlike horse people, like their neighbors the Issedonians, the Massagetae were distinguished by gender equality and the sexual freedom of their women. They sacrificed horses to the Sun. Armored in helmets and wide war belts of brass and gold, they fought with bows, lances, and battle-axes. The ruler of the Massagetae at this time was a powerful woman named Tomyris. Like other Scythian tribes, the Massagetae were milk drinkers unused to wine. This fact was exploited by Cyrus. Retreating aſter losing a battle with Tomyris (ca. 530 BC), he resorted to treachery. According to Herodotus’s account, he set out a fancy banquet with large quantities of wine under his Persian tents and withdrew. The pursuing nomads, led by Tomyris’ son, came upon the abandoned feast. They drank the wine and fell into a stupor. The Persians came back and slaughtered the Massagetae; they captured Tomyris’ son, who killed himself as soon as he regained his senses. Enraged, Tomyris sent a message castigating Cyrus. “Glutton for blood! Your weapon was red wine, which you Persians drink until you are so crazy that shameful words float on the liquor’s fumes. This was the poison you used to destroy my army and my son. Leave my land now, or I swear by the Sun I will give you more blood than you can drink.” The mayhem was horrendous in the next battle. Tomyris’ army destroyed the Persians and Cyrus was killed. According to the legend, Tomyris found the king’s corpse, hacked off his head, and plunged it into a wine jug filled with blood drained from Cyrus’ men, crying, “Drink your fill of blood!” — The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor