Ignorance is indeed the problem here, but not on the part of Mike and Joe. The truth is that we simply do not know enough, and there simply is not enough evidence about, I think, any of these intriguing characters to build an Elite title around, unless it’s Osprey policy to take the Series into fiction and fantasy! Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus, is a good example of the problem. I would dearly like to feature her prominently in one of my Salamis battlescenes, that wonderful moment when she rams a ship on her own side to confuse her Greek pursuers and deeply impress Xerxes. But, not greatly to my surprise, I have not been able to find a single visual reference of any value for the all-important artist briefing. As far as narrative is concerned, the source material pretty much begins and ends with Herodotus, the ramming episode, presented with more than a hint of scepticism, and two speeches attributed to Artemisia in which she gives good advice to Xerxes at two key decision points in the campaign. “Made-up” speeches were a valuable element of Herodotus’ historical method and it is likely that one or two of these were based on distant memories passed on to him. But Herodotus probably gave these two speeches to Artemisia because he too was from Halicarnassus, to reflect well on his birthplace, and possibly also because he was in some trouble with Artemisia’s grandson who was ruler by then. And the ramming story is questionable for the same reasons. Additionally, it suggests that Xerxes’ staff on a hillside hundreds of yards, even a mile away, could pick out Artemisia’s ship from several hundred others in a vast melee whilst the Athenian commander within ramming distance did not know who he had in his sights, even though the Athenians had put a large price on Artemisia’s head, “appalled that a woman should go to war against Athens”. So, Artemisia will get a walk-on part in the text but she cannot appear except as a distant blob in the artwork, and this is, I believe, the best Osprey can do with her. For some of the individuals Richard suggests it may be possible to find reasonable costume and weaponry references, for instance, Boudicca in the Campaign title that is in the works. Angus McBride gave us a gorgeous Zenobia of Palmyra in Men-at-Arms 243: Rome’s Enemies 5, though not dressed for battle. And then Gerry Embleton’s jubilant Sarmatian female warrior in Men-at-Arms 373 is as close as Osprey gets to depicting an Amazon... But no author could assemble enough material on any of them to produce the 64-page work of reference with eight pieces of artwork and numerous images and artefacts that would qualify for publication as an Osprey Elite. Steven Pressfield’s enjoyable “Last of the Amazons” is a novel.
Report this comment
there are nevertheless a lot of warrior women to be found, particularly in Africa and India, most of which are totaly obscure to students of occidental history. then there were also a few women disguised as men who fought in the Napoleonic Wars in the armies of Russia and Prussia. the Ukrainian Legion of Austria-Hungary in ww1 featured women, so did the Russian Army and later in ww2 the Soviet Army. the Japanese-sponsored Indian Liberation Army of Bose also featured female soldiers.
Report this comment
i forgot to mention wikipedia has a nice overview:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_ancient_warfare
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Women_in_Medieval_warfare
and so on, up until modern times.
Report this comment
There is a colour plate of Artemisia at the battle of Salamis ramming a allied ship! It's by Angus Mcbride and is in Women Warlords by Tim Newark (Blandford, 1989)
Colin
Report this comment
Thanks, Colin. I must get hold of the book. I’d love to see what the great Angus made of this scene, and of the feisty queen. His capacity to produce a fantastic image and convincing detail on the basis of minimal (or zero) reference material was wondrous! I’m sure his powers of imaginative reconstruction did not disappoint here. On the subject of Warrior Women in general, I’m sure an approach along the lines suggested by Wurttemberger could work, women warriors in a particular war or period of history... A while back there was talk at Osprey of a Warrior title on vivandiers, which we all liked the idea of a lot, but we didn’t manage to get it written (yet). Russians in WWII get a good showing in ELI 90 Heroines of the Soviet Union, though, and are represented in ELI 68 The Military Sniper.
Report this comment
I for one was looking forward to Warrior Women of Northern Europe!
Report this comment
Personally I would be very interested in any books about "Warrior Women". How about a stand alone hardback along similar lines to the enemy within covering all the time periods?
Report this comment
Amazon (who else!) were happy to supply me with a retired library copy of "Women Warlords" in a couple of days - £3.95 plus shipping; excellent value. If the real Artemisia was half the Levantine temptress that Angus depicted, it's no surprise she was Xerxes' favourite admiral! I somehow think she'd have saved the purple ballgown for the victory parade and gone into battle in something a little more practical.... But who knows?! Angus craftily avoided entering what Peter Dennis describes as "trireme hell", not an oar in sight but our heroine centre stage surrounded by attentive hoplites. Other triremes, blazing and/or sinking are seen only in the distance, so not a Battlescene in my book, though highly enjoyable, as are the other 15 colour plates ranging from mythical times (Hercules and Theseus having a bit of bother with Amazon queens) to the Hundred Years War (a truly scary Jeanne 'Hachette' or 'Battleaxe' Laisne). Yes, Rich, you can borrow it!
Report this comment
You are too kind William!
Report this comment