What a fun and educational read!

Using ancient poetry, archaeological evidence, and folktales, dozens of Indo-European war goddesses are explained to the best of factual evidence.
My initial takeaway:
No wonder female gods were replaced by male deities; if women were instilled with their Ancient World skills and powers today, earth would be a radically different place. And some of these women were arguably historical figures.
The similarities and differences of each cultural goddess is examined.
The ancient goddesses generally were “virginal” by the old definition of virgin—-quite the surprising definition in many cultures. Depicted in art and literature wearing armor, carrying battle axes, and aggressive demeanor, it was good to have a goddess on your side.
The Near East goddesses were particularly aggressive, and European goddesses had some quirky battle skills. Using trickery, gruesome war mutilations and politically motivated sex, the goddesses myths make for fun historical reading.
No wonder warrior women, human or mythical, have been consigned to oblivion (except possibly for Helen of Troy, Amazons, Hatshepsut, Elizabeth I, to name but a few). This nonfiction book also dispels some myths and supports others.
Though useful for that age, their stories are awesome to me today. Highly recommended!

Thank you NetGalley and Pen and Sword Limited for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this historical nonfiction book, it was a unique concept for women in war and I was hooked from the first page. I thought Karlene Jones-Bley wrote this perfectly and was glad it was informative and glad I read this.

Women and Warfare in the Ancient World is a vast expanse of knowledge put together in a well researched and chronologically catergorised book which was incredibly fascinating.

As a general reader it took me a little while to get through this piece of work but as I have a love of history and Greek Mythology this was a no brainer to request.

The author Karlene Jones-Bley has crafted an extraordinary insight into the cultural aspects of women and their participation in Warfare. From well known Greeks and Romans to lesser known Celts and Indo-European Goddesses this book was full of inciteful information, loads of historical references and contributions from scholars.

I loved this book and will definitely be putting it on my bookshelf.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for granting my wish for this ARC.

The extensive research that went into this collection is very evident. Learning about the various cultures, myths, and historical details of women and war was extremely informative. There were several that I was previously unfamiliar with and greatly enjoyed learning more. I may even do some more digging to learn more about some of these women. Great reference book!

What a wonderful book, it was interesting and immediately engaging. I loved reading it and learning about theses women and their storys.

I found this book to be a fantastic starter for understanding where women and female figures appear in Mythology, legend and the historical record.

I was impressed at the scope looked at in this book, it went beyond the common known figures like Athena and Greek mythology, but looked at feminine divine beings and real people from around the world. I particularly liked learning about Near Eastern goddesses. It was interesting to learn about corresponding iconographies (birds, horses, water ect.) and the overlap of figures.

When reading about real women from history, I was torn. For those who were new to me, I found the length of entries were well sized and informative, but for those I knew more about, particularly my pharaonic Egyptians (Ahhotep and Hatshepsut) frustratingly brief and recount like in nature. The book is incredibly well researched and successfully weaves a variety of ancient evidence and modern commentary from experts throughout the text.

I really enjoyed reading Women and Warfare in the Ancient World and think it is a great starting point for any young historians, particularly those with interest in feminine figures and experiences in the scope of warfare, which feminine experiences are often left out of. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Pen & Sword who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

As a self confessed history and mythology lover, I was really looking forward to reading this book.

The comparison between the various war goddesses around the world was interesting and I did actually educate myself on some of the more obscure goddesses. However, I was really hoping for more on the non-mythological females contribution to defence of their homes, lands and culture.

I fully accept that many cultures female contributions for warfare and defence was tied to caring and defending their homes and lands when the menfolk were off at war. But I would have loved to have read more about any new findings about actual female warriors, possibly misgendered previously.

The examples given tended to be very heavily based in Europe and the Middle East. I would have loved to see more from examples from China, the Far East, Maori and Samoan cultures - many of which I'm sure have at least one if not many warrior goddesses.

There was some discussion of historical females from the Roman to the medieval and renaissance period but It would have been great to see more of these figures fleshed out a bit more. I know that sometimes this is a challenge as women very rarely got to have a voice or leave records of their achievements but I feel this would really have balanced out the book.

A worthy read for those with a burgeoning interest in mythology but perhaps not suitable for those of us with a more advanced knowledge of the subject.

I devoured this book. I love reading history, especially about women. This was a gem to read about forgotten women and how they dealt with war in the past. It's a lot of information, but if you loved books like Women Warriors by Pamela D Toler, you'll love this as well.

Another gap in traditional history has been ably filled by this carefully researched and wide ranging book. It shines a light on the role and contribution of women and expands the scope to include behind the scenes perspectives and functions. Really, really interesting and written in such a way as to invite more interest. I hope we will see more.

There is an interesting presumption about the participation of women in warfare, which is arguably an activity largely restricted to men; so I was very much interested in the potential for this book, especially given the fairly recent news of DNA results reclassifying some “warrior” burials (bodies interred with weapons) as female instead of their original classification of male. This had given me the impression that the historical record might be incorrectly over looking the contribution of woman warriors. Unfortunately, this book does very little to change what is arguably a consensus that actually taking up arms and fighting in the rank and file is a predominantly male activity. The focus here appears to be more on myth (gods and legends) and power (queens and commanders) which are more an exception to the rule than anything else and are not really anything new. That is not to say I didn’t enjoy reading about these famous and powerful women, I did … but I was looking for something different here … evidence about what the “average” woman did in war … and as might be expected (although only hinted at here) is that this was primarily restricted to a defense of home and hearth (under or alongside the husband unless they were away) … with the potential exception of Scythian horse archers, the presumed inspiration for the amazon legends (which absolutely makes sense). In addition, the area of investigation was restricted to what is largely considered to be the western world (and immediate influence such as Persia). So while the information was interesting, it remains a disappointedly incomplete treatment of the subject.

This compendium provides a thorough, detailed, cross-cultural analysis of the role of women in warfare in the ancient world. Because it’s descriptive, rather than advancing theories or using storytelling techniques, it reads like a reference work or textbook. Unfortunately for listeners using text-to-speech, the inline citations (instead of endnotes) make the book almost unreadable, continually interrupting the flow of the prose. This is more of a scholarly work than a book for a lay audience.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Women and Warfare in the Ancient World - Myth, Legend and Reality by Karlene Jones-Bley is a deeply immersive exploration of Women through all aspects of warfare since recording began and beyond

Throughout history, the recording of women's involvement in matters outside of the home went largely unrecorded, but more and more contemporary research is showing just how misleading this was

Women and Warfare in the Ancient World exceeded my expectations, because not only did the author explore the mythical representation of women in battle as Goddesses and Valkyries for example, but on to strategy, generals and the polarity between the effects of war on men and on women (ie, women being perceived as objects and pizes, open to brutality, ownership and SA for example, whereas men are more likely to be brutalised as prisoners, however, there are always exceptions to the rule and this is not a definitive interpretation)

Jones-Bley writes in a thoughtful, insightful way whilst being directly focussed on the evidence at hand. Women and Warfare in the Ancient World is a fascinating record of representation and misrepresentation throughout time, geography and culture. As research and archaeological methods become more refined, more and more is being discovered about the true role of women throughout historical warfare

An absolutely fascinating book and highly recommended

Thank you to Netgalley, Pen & Sword | Pen & Sword History and the incredible author Karlene Jones-Bley for this fantastic ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own