Conference Presentations by Connie Skibinski
Australasian Society for Classical Studies, 2025
From Archaic Greece to the present day, the legendary Trojan War has captivated public imaginatio... more From Archaic Greece to the present day, the legendary Trojan War has captivated public imagination and had a significant impact on literature, art and self-definition. A key figure in ancient sources and subsequent retellings is the Amazon Queen, Penthesilea, who led her army of women against the Greeks and ultimately perished heroically at Achilles’ hands. Throughout Medieval art and literature – characterised in large part by the self-conscious adaption of pre-existing literature – the Trojan War was a popular subject matter. Penthesilea played a large role in Medieval retellings, praised for both her courage in battle and her womanly virtues. In drawing upon ancient sources, Medieval authors adapted elements of the ancient Trojan War narrative to suit the changing tastes and preferences of scribes, audiences and patrons, diverging from the earlier accounts to create a distinctly Medieval image of Penthesilea.
An aspect of Medieval sources that is not found in extant ancient sources is the love story between Penthesilea and Hector. In the Middle Ages, Hector was consistently portrayed as the knightly ideal. As one of the Nine Worthies, he embodied the virtues of chivalry and loyalty. Penthesilea, among the Nine Worthy Women, was positioned as the ideal romantic counterpart for Hector. Penthesilea admires Hector from afar and longs to become his wife but is tragically killed before they meet. I explore how this romantic subplot draws upon popular tropes in the Medieval courtly love genre, presenting Penthesilea as a dutiful, chaste woman in line with contemporary socio-cultural models of female virginity.
Fanfiction and the Ancient World Conference, 2024
The Supernatural TV series, spanning 2005 – 2020, has attracted a loyal and dedicated fanbase aff... more The Supernatural TV series, spanning 2005 – 2020, has attracted a loyal and dedicated fanbase affectionately termed the SPN Family. Fandom scholars consider the SPN Family “a fandom like no other” (Zubernis, 2021), characterized by close communal bonds, convention attendance, and direct engagement in the production of fan art and fanfiction. As the Supernatural series draws heavily upon mythology and folklore from various cultures, fan engagement with episodes inspired by Classical Antiquity can be examined as meaningful instances of Classical Reception. By considering fanfiction as a specific form of cultural artefact derived from fannish engagement, scholars can employ a reception theory approach to examine these works as rewritings of Classical material, which shed light on how individuals receive and use pre-existing literature and ideas (Willis, 2018). This presentation examines fanfiction responding to the Supernatural episode ‘Slice Girls’ (2012), considering how fan narratives generate new meaning by challenging the established plot of the episode, particularly in relation to the depiction of Amazons.
The plot of ‘Slice Girls’ revolves around Dean’s unwitting role in propagating the Amazon tribe – he is seduced by the Amazon Lydia, who gives birth to Emma, Dean’s biological daughter. As a young Amazon, Emma is told she must kill her father to complete her initiation into adulthood, putting Dean’s life in direct danger. When Emma is defeated, Dean expresses no sympathy for his deceased daughter, referring to her as a “crazy man-killing monster”. This response elicited criticism from the fans of the show, who expected that the heavy emphasis on family throughout the series would prompt Dean to be more sympathetic, especially as Emma acts under coercion and lacks agency. Fans’ interest in Emma’s character can be seen in the 88 works in Archive of Our Own (AO3) under the pairing Emma & Dean Winchester. This paper examines key trends that emerge across these fan narratives, highlighting the tendency to portray Emma as a sympathetic victim of circumstance and/or a conventional awkward adolescent daughter. In presenting Emma in this manner, these narratives subvert the show’s portrayal of Amazons as hostile antagonists, instead reclaiming the positive portrayals of aspirational Amazon characters (such as Wonder Woman) in contemporary media.
International Women's Day - Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies, 2024
International Women’s Day is both a celebration of the achievements of women and a reminder of th... more International Women’s Day is both a celebration of the achievements of women and a reminder of the importance of shedding light on gender equality and the rights of people of marginalized genders. These principles lie at the center of my research – I foreground the heroic achievements and reverential receptions of the Amazon warrior women and critically examine representations of Queen Penthesilea, some of which deploy problematic tropes that present her as a gendered “Other”. In the spirit of Internal Women’s Day, I reflect on my experiences as a feminist historian and the joy I find in studying ancient women, undertaking research trips, and in being part of likeminded academic communities.
ANZAMEMS Conference, 2024
Medieval and Early Modern scholarship provides valuable insights into human behaviour and socio-c... more Medieval and Early Modern scholarship provides valuable insights into human behaviour and socio-cultural norms throughout time, allowing us to understand and interrogate our expectations of the past as well as the present. Societal constructs surrounding gender matter greatly since they shape the lived experiences of individuals, dictating aspects of their lives such as what they can do and how they should look. Medieval conceptions of femininity and masculinity coalesce in the figure of the warrior woman, epitomised in representations of the legendary Amazons. This presentation examines the complex representation of the Amazon Queen Penthesilea in Medieval sources (illuminated manuscripts of Boccaccio’s De Mulieribus Claris and Lydgate’s Troy Book) and contemporary media (Troy: Fall of a City, 2018 and A Total War Saga: Troy, 2020) to highlight changing societal attitudes towards militaristic women and to showcase the important role historians can play in challenging long-established gender stereotypes.
In doing so, this presentation considers the role of the Medieval scholar to explore the dialogic relationship between past and present, exploring how traditional stereotypes can be renegotiated in the present day and how contemporary paradigms can illuminate aspects of Medieval society. Throughout, I argue that the future of the discipline lies in embracing interdisciplinarity and reception studies to showcase the enduring relevance of Medieval subject matter in the world today.
Historical, Cultural and Critical Inquiry cluster seminar series, 2023
As the recipient of the Odyssey Travel Scholarship, this year I went on a trip to Greece to under... more As the recipient of the Odyssey Travel Scholarship, this year I went on a trip to Greece to undertake research for my PhD. My thesis is titled 'The Amazon Queen Penthesilea from Antiquity to Modernity', and this travel allowed me to view artefacts of Penthesilea and other Amazons in situ. I had three primary goals associated with this research trip. First, I viewed artefacts of the Amazons (including Penthesilea) in museums, making note of the dominant iconographic modes of representation and considering how the visual material reinforces the ancient literary sources on Penthesilea that I examine in my thesis. Second, I visited sites of public buildings adorned with Amazon sculptures – the Parthenon in Athens and the Athenian Treasury in Delphi. Viewing these sites in situ allowed me to have a heightened understanding of how the ancient audience would have engaged with the visual representations of Amazons, as I observed the scale of the sculptures and the processionary nature of the battle scenes. Third, I accessed secondary scholarship in the BSA and AAIA to complete my literature review in the thesis introduction and to inspire the big-picture focus of my conclusion. This presentation evaluates how successful I was in meeting this aims, and provides an overview of the pertinent archaeological sites and artefacts that I visited.
Conference - Challenging the Patriarchy: Reframing Graeco-Roman Women and Their Reception, 2023
The mythic Amazons – an autonomous all-female tribe of fierce warrior women– embody the
antithesi... more The mythic Amazons – an autonomous all-female tribe of fierce warrior women– embody the
antithesis of Greek patriarchal norms. Their subversion of traditional gender stereotypes is at the
heart of ancient accounts, such as Herodotus’ Histories, where they claim ‘we shoot with a bow and
hurl a javelin and ride horses, we did not learn the works of women’ (Hdt. 4.114.3). While most
scholars employ a gendered or ethnocentric lens to examine the Amazons’ divergence from Greek
socio-cultural norms, this paper takes a different approach, focusing instead on their sexual identity
and sexual behaviour. Adopting a queer theory to examine the importance of virginity in Amazonian
society, I argue that their construction as unconquerable virgins challenges the heterosexual and
gendered dynamics upheld in the patriarchal institution of marriage. Since sexuality and sexual
behaviour is an inherently multifaceted topic, for the sake of scope this presentation focuses solely
on ancient Greek attitudes towards virginal and non-virginal adolescent women, particularly with
regards to discourses justifying patriarchal practices.
This paper constists of two sections, which shed light on the Amazons’ virginity customs as a
means of challenging the restrictive cultural expectations and societal norms of ancient Greece. Part
one surveys a range of written sources on the role of virginity within Amazonian society,
complemented by sources illustrating how virginal women were received within ancient Greek
society. In doing so, I argue that the Amazons’ portrayal as wild and unrestrained forces aligns with
the model of the unruly maiden upheld in ancient literature and religious rites. Part two provides an
extended case study of the virginal Amazon Queen Penthesilea and her interaction with the Greek
hero Achilles, examining the consequences she faced for transgressing heteronormative paradigms.
This presentation therefore considers both the Amazons’ attempts at circumventing the patriarchal
institution of marriage, as well as the Greek male hero’s ultimate success in ‘taming’ the seemingly
unconquerable Amazon women.
Conference: Classics and the Supernatural in Contemporary Media, 2022
Stories of the mythic Amazons – an all-female tribe of formidable warrior women– have been told f... more Stories of the mythic Amazons – an all-female tribe of formidable warrior women– have been told for millenia, from pre-Homeric times to the modern day. Prior scholarship tends to treat the ancient Amazons as hostile ‘Other’ figures, embodying the antithesis of Greco-Roman cultural norms. Recently, scholars have begun to examine the positive portrayal of Amazons in contemporary media, as role models and heroic figures. However, there is a dearth of scholarship examining the Amazons’ inherently multifaceted nature, and their subsequent polarised reception in both ancient and modern texts.
In this presentation, I apply a two-fold approach to generate a more holistic analysis of the Amazons’ complex portrayal in ancient sources and contemporary media. First, I draw upon a range of evidence from Greco-Roman art and literature, arguing that Amazons were viewed as either monstrous or heroic figures throughout antiquity, depending on authorial intention, constraints of genre, and wider socio-political concerns.
I then provide two extended case studies of contemporary Amazon narratives, highlighting that the Amazon figure is similarly polarised in contemporary media. I begin with a case study of the superhero Wonder Woman (from DC’s All Star Comics #8 in 1941 to the 2020 film Wonder Woman 1984), as this epitomises the dominant contemporary trend of portraying Amazons as strong female role models and feminist icons. As a second case study, I examine the representation of the Amazons in the Supernatural episode ‘Slice Girls’ (S7 E13, 2012), as the portrayal of the Amazons as hostile, monstrous figures serves as a counternarrative to the dominant contemporary trend. When comparing the positive characterisation of Wonder Woman with the monstrous Amazons of ‘Slice Girls’, I consider how factors such as feminist ideology, narrative story arcs, character’s/viewer’s perspectives and male bias shape the representation of Amazons post-antiquity.
The University of Sydney, Classical Archaeology Seminar Series, 2022
The mythic Amazons – an autonomous, all-female society of fierce warrior women – have been studie... more The mythic Amazons – an autonomous, all-female society of fierce warrior women – have been studied extensively by Classics scholars with an interest in ancient mythology. Much prior scholarship employs a framework of alterity, focusing on ways in which this mythical society embodies specific elements that are antithetical to Greek society. Thus, the scholarly consensus is that the ancient audience would have conceived of the Amazons as inimical figures, worthy of derision and contempt. My research challenges this line of argumentation, as I analyse a range visual material which shows that the ancient Amazons are more multifaceted than traditionally assumed.
In this presentation, I examine material culture from Greece and Rome, to consider how the Amazons were represented and perceived throughout antiquity. I employ four discrete case studies: Classical Greek ‘Amazonomachy’ artworks (5th C BC); Hellenistic era ‘Wounded Amazon’ sculptures (3rd C BC); Augustan era ‘Amazonomachy’ artworks (27 BC – 14 AD); and post-Augustan numismatic representations (1st – 3rd C AD). By analysing dominant iconographic trends as well as wider socio-political conditions, I argue that the Amazon image is highly nuanced, taking on different meaning in each period.
Australasian Society for Classical Studies (ASCS) 43rd Annual Conference, 2022
This paper explores how the mythic Amazons – a formidable tribe of warrior women known from pre-H... more This paper explores how the mythic Amazons – a formidable tribe of warrior women known from pre-Homeric times – were represented in Roman art. While there is substantial research on Classical Athenian representations of Amazons, there is minimal scholarship considering how the Amazon image was recontextualised in the Roman era. Prior scholarship on this topic predominantly treats the Amazons through the framework of alterity, focusing solely on the Amazonomachy (battles with Amazons) motif, thus treating the Amazons as hostile, ‘Other’ figures.
By contrast, this paper provides two diverse case-studies which showcase radically different attitudes towards the Amazons. I first examine Augustan era Amazonomachies, considering how they draw upon the pre-established (Classical Greek) visual rhetoric to reflect contemporary anxieties and concerns associated with the expansion of the Roman empire. I then analyse a range of coins from the Flavian, Nerva-Antonine and Severan dynasties, which use pre-existing numismatic iconography to portray Amazons in a reverential mode, by depicting them as founders of cities and places of worship.
By juxtaposing these two artistic trends, I argue that the Amazon image is highly variable, as it is inherently shaped by wider socio-cultural paragidms, such as attitudes towards women and non-Romans. From this, I conclude that the representation of the Amazons is more complex and multifaceted than traditionally assumed, since there is ample evidence that Amazons were not portrayed as inimical figures throughout all of antiquity.
AIMS Conference “What Has Antiquity Ever Done for Us?” The Vitality of Ancient Reception Studies Now, 2021
Ancient Reception Studies provides a useful framework for teaching material to students who may n... more Ancient Reception Studies provides a useful framework for teaching material to students who may not be familiar with ancient mythic material, but are aware of contemporary adaptations. As well as using students’ prior knowledge as a starting point, a Reception Studies approach is useful as it demonstrates how ideological factors shape storytelling in both the ancient world and reception traditions. This approach proved to be especially useful when analysing and interpreting ancient Amazon mythology, as many students were not familiar with the Amazon warriors of Greco-Roman mythology. By integrating a case study of Wonder Woman – a modern iteration of ancient Amazon mythology – I was able to shed light on the ancient mythic material, while also demonstrating the influence of the feminist movement on contemporary representations of the ancient warrior women. In doing so, I had students examine scenes from Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), as well as comic book covers. This was then used to draw comparisons between archaeological artefacts depicting ancient Amazons, to see how the contemporary adaptations can draw attention to elements of the ancient mythic material that may otherwise be overlooked.
This presentation discusses both the benefits and pitfalls of teaching Amazon mythology through the figure of Wonder Woman, with a focus on how the students responded to this material during the tutorial discussions. This contributes to a wider discourse surrounding the usefulness of Ancient Reception Studies, as well as the importance of interrogating both modern and ancient perspectives in the reception of mythology.
Conference - Amphorae XIV, 2020
While some scholars have commented on the connections between Amazons and various Iliadic heroes ... more While some scholars have commented on the connections between Amazons and various Iliadic heroes (Scheijnen, 2018; Hardwick, 1990), there is no substantial research to date on the wealth of ancient written and visual material portraying the Amazons as epic heroes. By contrast, the scholarly consensus is that ancient representations portray the Amazons in an inimical manner, as several scholars have argued that the Greeks viewed the Amazonian society as a perverted inversion of Greek patriarchal norms (Tyrrell, 1984; Keuls, 1985; Lefkowitz, 1986; Roque, 2017) and viewed the Amazons themselves as culturally and militarily inferior Easterners (Martin, 1990; Yang, 2006; Hartog, 2009).
This paper aims to address the gaps and limitations in the relevant scholarship through a discrete case study examining the representation of the Amazon queen Penthesilea in Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica, a poem composed during the Second Sophistic. This source is underutilised in scholarly studies on Amazon ontology, which typically favour visual and written representations from the Classical era. The model of the epic hero employed in this paper is based on the research of Homeric scholars (including Nagy, 2005 and 2013; Krischer, 1971; Schein, 1984; and Renehan, 1987), which I innovatively apply to representations of Penthesilea. Through this methodology and case study, the representations of the Amazons in ancient sources are shown to be more complex than traditionally assumed.
Conference: Modern Women of the Past, Unearthing Gender and Antiquity, 2021
The mythic Amazons – an autonomous, all-female society of fierce warrior women – have been studie... more The mythic Amazons – an autonomous, all-female society of fierce warrior women – have been studied extensively by Classics scholars with an interest in ancient mythology. Much prior scholarship employs a framework of alterity, focusing on ways in which this mythical society embodies specific elements that are antithetical to Greek society (see, for instance, Tyrrell, 1984; Keuls, 1985; Lefkowitz, 1986; Martin, 1990; Yang, 2006; Hartog, 2009; Roque, 2017). Subsequently, the predominant line of argumentation is that the ancient audience would have conceived of the Amazons as inimical figures, worthy of derision and contempt.
My research challenges this scholarly consensus, as I unearth and examine a range of written and visual material which suggests that the reception of the Amazons throughout antiquity is far more complex than traditionally assumed. In this paper, I posit that there is need for theoretical recalibration of the dominant scholarship on Amazon mythology. I propose that this take place through the inclusion of Feminist Theory – a theoretical framework which illuminates the portrayal of women (both mythic and historical) throughout antiquity, endeavouring to set the record straight in relation to women’s history. I argue that the Amazons have been consistently marginalised and misrepresented in scholarship and propose methods for a more balanced approach to counteract this distorted perspective.
Conference - Revisiting the Warrior Princess and her Legacy: Xena 20 Years On , 2021
Media texts are not created out of nothing, but rather, they exist within a wider network of pre-... more Media texts are not created out of nothing, but rather, they exist within a wider network of pre-existing texts, codes, traditions, and discourses (Naficy, 1989; Sanders, 2006; Willis, 2018). In this paper, I examine Greco-Roman mythological links in Xena: Warrior Princess, focusing particularly on the shows’ portrayal of the mythic Amazons. I begin with a preliminary overview of the Amazons in Greco-Roman literature and art, outlining three fundamental characteristics which distinguish them from other mythic societies. From this, I consider the extent to which the Amazons in the Xenaverse share the same salient features. I then provide two extended case studies where I analyse specific scenes through the lens of Classical Reception Studies: the battle between Centaurs and Amazons in ‘Hooves and Harlots’ (Season 1 Episode 10); and Ephiny’s death in ‘Endgame’ (Season 4 Episode 20).
Throughout, I employ a ‘context-activated theory of reception’ approach, which argues that meaning is co-determined by the text itself as well as the viewer/reader’s personal response to the text (Staiger, 1992; Gadamer, 2004; Pollock, 2014). Since this approach treats the creator and the audience as being equally significant in the creation of meaning, I reference interviews with Co-Executive Producer Steven Sears where relevant (taken from Potter, 2013), but do not entirely limit my analysis to what the production team had in mind. Moreover, I adopt reception scholar Ika Willis’ premise that ‘what is “in” a text depends in part on the frames, conventions and competences that a reader brings to it’ (Willis, 2018: 144). Thus, Willis notes that there are ‘multiple and variable interpretations’ of any text, as the reader uses their own interpretive conventions to generate meaning. Accordingly, I interpret material from Xena: Warrior Princess by employing the framework of Classical Reception Studies, positioning my observations as valid readings of the text which exist within a wider network of alternate interpretations.
Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies Conference, 2021
A central premise of Classical Reception Studies is that reception texts shed light on wider soci... more A central premise of Classical Reception Studies is that reception texts shed light on wider socio-cultural paradigms, both in antiquity and in the reception traditions. In this presentation I contrast attitudes towards female virgins in ancient Greece and Medieval Europe, through a discrete case-study of the virgin Amazon Queen, Penthesilea. Ancient and Medieval authors consistently stress her virginal nature as a central component of her identity. However, the articulation and manifestation of this aspect of her characterisation varies greatly over time, due to changing conceptions of female virginity.
By tracing the shift in her portrayal from an unruly parthenos to a virtuous virgin, I illustrate that the ancient and Medieval societies had vastly different conceptions of the expected behaviour of maidens.
In doing so, I examine how Penthesilea’s portrayal illuminates dominant concepts surrounding youth, womanhood, marriage and religion in the respective societies. I also argue that the Medieval authors are engaged in a complex process of reception, by adapting elements of the ancient myth and altering them to reflect their changing tastes, preferences and religious paradigms.
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Conference Presentations by Connie Skibinski
An aspect of Medieval sources that is not found in extant ancient sources is the love story between Penthesilea and Hector. In the Middle Ages, Hector was consistently portrayed as the knightly ideal. As one of the Nine Worthies, he embodied the virtues of chivalry and loyalty. Penthesilea, among the Nine Worthy Women, was positioned as the ideal romantic counterpart for Hector. Penthesilea admires Hector from afar and longs to become his wife but is tragically killed before they meet. I explore how this romantic subplot draws upon popular tropes in the Medieval courtly love genre, presenting Penthesilea as a dutiful, chaste woman in line with contemporary socio-cultural models of female virginity.
The plot of ‘Slice Girls’ revolves around Dean’s unwitting role in propagating the Amazon tribe – he is seduced by the Amazon Lydia, who gives birth to Emma, Dean’s biological daughter. As a young Amazon, Emma is told she must kill her father to complete her initiation into adulthood, putting Dean’s life in direct danger. When Emma is defeated, Dean expresses no sympathy for his deceased daughter, referring to her as a “crazy man-killing monster”. This response elicited criticism from the fans of the show, who expected that the heavy emphasis on family throughout the series would prompt Dean to be more sympathetic, especially as Emma acts under coercion and lacks agency. Fans’ interest in Emma’s character can be seen in the 88 works in Archive of Our Own (AO3) under the pairing Emma & Dean Winchester. This paper examines key trends that emerge across these fan narratives, highlighting the tendency to portray Emma as a sympathetic victim of circumstance and/or a conventional awkward adolescent daughter. In presenting Emma in this manner, these narratives subvert the show’s portrayal of Amazons as hostile antagonists, instead reclaiming the positive portrayals of aspirational Amazon characters (such as Wonder Woman) in contemporary media.
In doing so, this presentation considers the role of the Medieval scholar to explore the dialogic relationship between past and present, exploring how traditional stereotypes can be renegotiated in the present day and how contemporary paradigms can illuminate aspects of Medieval society. Throughout, I argue that the future of the discipline lies in embracing interdisciplinarity and reception studies to showcase the enduring relevance of Medieval subject matter in the world today.
antithesis of Greek patriarchal norms. Their subversion of traditional gender stereotypes is at the
heart of ancient accounts, such as Herodotus’ Histories, where they claim ‘we shoot with a bow and
hurl a javelin and ride horses, we did not learn the works of women’ (Hdt. 4.114.3). While most
scholars employ a gendered or ethnocentric lens to examine the Amazons’ divergence from Greek
socio-cultural norms, this paper takes a different approach, focusing instead on their sexual identity
and sexual behaviour. Adopting a queer theory to examine the importance of virginity in Amazonian
society, I argue that their construction as unconquerable virgins challenges the heterosexual and
gendered dynamics upheld in the patriarchal institution of marriage. Since sexuality and sexual
behaviour is an inherently multifaceted topic, for the sake of scope this presentation focuses solely
on ancient Greek attitudes towards virginal and non-virginal adolescent women, particularly with
regards to discourses justifying patriarchal practices.
This paper constists of two sections, which shed light on the Amazons’ virginity customs as a
means of challenging the restrictive cultural expectations and societal norms of ancient Greece. Part
one surveys a range of written sources on the role of virginity within Amazonian society,
complemented by sources illustrating how virginal women were received within ancient Greek
society. In doing so, I argue that the Amazons’ portrayal as wild and unrestrained forces aligns with
the model of the unruly maiden upheld in ancient literature and religious rites. Part two provides an
extended case study of the virginal Amazon Queen Penthesilea and her interaction with the Greek
hero Achilles, examining the consequences she faced for transgressing heteronormative paradigms.
This presentation therefore considers both the Amazons’ attempts at circumventing the patriarchal
institution of marriage, as well as the Greek male hero’s ultimate success in ‘taming’ the seemingly
unconquerable Amazon women.
In this presentation, I apply a two-fold approach to generate a more holistic analysis of the Amazons’ complex portrayal in ancient sources and contemporary media. First, I draw upon a range of evidence from Greco-Roman art and literature, arguing that Amazons were viewed as either monstrous or heroic figures throughout antiquity, depending on authorial intention, constraints of genre, and wider socio-political concerns.
I then provide two extended case studies of contemporary Amazon narratives, highlighting that the Amazon figure is similarly polarised in contemporary media. I begin with a case study of the superhero Wonder Woman (from DC’s All Star Comics #8 in 1941 to the 2020 film Wonder Woman 1984), as this epitomises the dominant contemporary trend of portraying Amazons as strong female role models and feminist icons. As a second case study, I examine the representation of the Amazons in the Supernatural episode ‘Slice Girls’ (S7 E13, 2012), as the portrayal of the Amazons as hostile, monstrous figures serves as a counternarrative to the dominant contemporary trend. When comparing the positive characterisation of Wonder Woman with the monstrous Amazons of ‘Slice Girls’, I consider how factors such as feminist ideology, narrative story arcs, character’s/viewer’s perspectives and male bias shape the representation of Amazons post-antiquity.
In this presentation, I examine material culture from Greece and Rome, to consider how the Amazons were represented and perceived throughout antiquity. I employ four discrete case studies: Classical Greek ‘Amazonomachy’ artworks (5th C BC); Hellenistic era ‘Wounded Amazon’ sculptures (3rd C BC); Augustan era ‘Amazonomachy’ artworks (27 BC – 14 AD); and post-Augustan numismatic representations (1st – 3rd C AD). By analysing dominant iconographic trends as well as wider socio-political conditions, I argue that the Amazon image is highly nuanced, taking on different meaning in each period.
By contrast, this paper provides two diverse case-studies which showcase radically different attitudes towards the Amazons. I first examine Augustan era Amazonomachies, considering how they draw upon the pre-established (Classical Greek) visual rhetoric to reflect contemporary anxieties and concerns associated with the expansion of the Roman empire. I then analyse a range of coins from the Flavian, Nerva-Antonine and Severan dynasties, which use pre-existing numismatic iconography to portray Amazons in a reverential mode, by depicting them as founders of cities and places of worship.
By juxtaposing these two artistic trends, I argue that the Amazon image is highly variable, as it is inherently shaped by wider socio-cultural paragidms, such as attitudes towards women and non-Romans. From this, I conclude that the representation of the Amazons is more complex and multifaceted than traditionally assumed, since there is ample evidence that Amazons were not portrayed as inimical figures throughout all of antiquity.
This presentation discusses both the benefits and pitfalls of teaching Amazon mythology through the figure of Wonder Woman, with a focus on how the students responded to this material during the tutorial discussions. This contributes to a wider discourse surrounding the usefulness of Ancient Reception Studies, as well as the importance of interrogating both modern and ancient perspectives in the reception of mythology.
This paper aims to address the gaps and limitations in the relevant scholarship through a discrete case study examining the representation of the Amazon queen Penthesilea in Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica, a poem composed during the Second Sophistic. This source is underutilised in scholarly studies on Amazon ontology, which typically favour visual and written representations from the Classical era. The model of the epic hero employed in this paper is based on the research of Homeric scholars (including Nagy, 2005 and 2013; Krischer, 1971; Schein, 1984; and Renehan, 1987), which I innovatively apply to representations of Penthesilea. Through this methodology and case study, the representations of the Amazons in ancient sources are shown to be more complex than traditionally assumed.
My research challenges this scholarly consensus, as I unearth and examine a range of written and visual material which suggests that the reception of the Amazons throughout antiquity is far more complex than traditionally assumed. In this paper, I posit that there is need for theoretical recalibration of the dominant scholarship on Amazon mythology. I propose that this take place through the inclusion of Feminist Theory – a theoretical framework which illuminates the portrayal of women (both mythic and historical) throughout antiquity, endeavouring to set the record straight in relation to women’s history. I argue that the Amazons have been consistently marginalised and misrepresented in scholarship and propose methods for a more balanced approach to counteract this distorted perspective.
Throughout, I employ a ‘context-activated theory of reception’ approach, which argues that meaning is co-determined by the text itself as well as the viewer/reader’s personal response to the text (Staiger, 1992; Gadamer, 2004; Pollock, 2014). Since this approach treats the creator and the audience as being equally significant in the creation of meaning, I reference interviews with Co-Executive Producer Steven Sears where relevant (taken from Potter, 2013), but do not entirely limit my analysis to what the production team had in mind. Moreover, I adopt reception scholar Ika Willis’ premise that ‘what is “in” a text depends in part on the frames, conventions and competences that a reader brings to it’ (Willis, 2018: 144). Thus, Willis notes that there are ‘multiple and variable interpretations’ of any text, as the reader uses their own interpretive conventions to generate meaning. Accordingly, I interpret material from Xena: Warrior Princess by employing the framework of Classical Reception Studies, positioning my observations as valid readings of the text which exist within a wider network of alternate interpretations.
By tracing the shift in her portrayal from an unruly parthenos to a virtuous virgin, I illustrate that the ancient and Medieval societies had vastly different conceptions of the expected behaviour of maidens.
In doing so, I examine how Penthesilea’s portrayal illuminates dominant concepts surrounding youth, womanhood, marriage and religion in the respective societies. I also argue that the Medieval authors are engaged in a complex process of reception, by adapting elements of the ancient myth and altering them to reflect their changing tastes, preferences and religious paradigms.