The series of the Nine Heroines begins without any break at the centre of the wall. They are queens of antiquity distinguished not by their feminine virtues but for their military achievements. They are, from left to right: Delphile of Athens; Sinope, queen of Bosnia; Hyppolyte, ruler of the country bordering Bosnia (Macedonia?); Semiramis, the bellicose queen of the Assyrians who conquered the Scythians and Barbarians; the African Aetiope, who conquered India; Lampedo, who subjugated Asia and Europe; Tomyris, who dipped the head of the Persian king Cyrus in blood; Teucha, a ruler of the Illyrians; and finally the queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea, who allied herself with the Trojans and fought against the Greeks after Hector’s death, only to be killed, like him, by Achilles.
With its return to the story of Troy in the figure of Penthesilea, the series comes full circle. She and Hector, the first in line, were fighters for the same cause, and in this space they come to stand directly across from one another. (source)
In the late fourteenth century, Lady Worthies began to accompany the Nine Worthies, though usually not individualized and shown as anonymous Amazon-styled warriors. In later years, nine of the “Most Illustrious Ladies of All Ages and Nations” were chosen from scripture, history and legend to be placed alongside their male counterparts, though the choices for the Lady Worthies were not usually standardized and often varied by region, author and artist.
Eustache Deschamps to the neuf preux adds neuf preuses (women), including Penthesilea, Tomyris, and Semiramis. Together with their male counterparts, they precede Henry VI as he enters Paris in 1431, and figure in Le Jouvencel (1466). The list of preuses was however less fixed, and not always structured in pagan, Jewish and Christian triads. Thomas III of Saluzzo[12] has: Deiphille, Synoppe, Hippolyte, Menalyppe, Semiramis, Lampetho, Thamarys, Teuta, Penthésilée.
A very fine set of Siennese fifteenth century panel paintings, attributed to the Master of the Griselda Legend and others, now incomplete and widely dispersed, showed male and female worthies - the remaining paintings were reunited in a 2007 exhibition at the National Gallery, London.[13]
In the German Renaissance, Hans Burgkmair made a set of six woodcuts, each showing three of the “Eighteen Worthies”. In addition to the usual males, his prints showed the Pagan Lucretia, Veturia and Virginia, the Jewish Esther, Judith and Yael, and the Christian Saints Helena, Bridget of Sweden and Elizabeth of Hungary. Burgkmair was in touch with Augsburg Renaissance Humanist circles, who may have helped choose the group. Apart from Veturia, mother of Coriolanus, who tried to save Rome from defeat by her son, the other pagan two were examples of chastity, responsible for no heroic acts except their defence of their own virtue. In contrast, two of the Jewish women, Judith and Jael, are known for their personal assassination of leaders opposed to Israel. Judith carries a sword in one hand and Holofernes’s severed head in the other, and Jael carries the mallet with which she hammered a peg in the head of Sisera. The “Power of Women” and female violence was an interest of German artists at the time, and Lucas van Leyden, Albrecht Altdorfer and others made prints of Jael in the act. (wikipedia)
^ Penthesilea as one of the Lady Worthies
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