Tomyris: One Tough Mother

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in the United States. It’s been packaged as a pastel holiday: all flowers and robins and lace and chocolate. In fact, for many people it’s a more complicated holiday than its commercial rendering would suggest. Many people greet the holiday with a sense of loss that is too new or too…

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In which I finally review Adrienne Mayor’s The Amazons

Over the last year and a bit, I’ve mentioned Adrienne’s Mayor’s The Amazons more than once here on the Margins, always with a quick note to the effect that a) it’s excellent and b) I really need to review it. (1) In some ways a review here is superfluous. A lot of you may have…

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In Which I Consider the Smithsonian Channel’s Epic Warrior Women

Last night My Own True Love, Ms. Whiskey-Cat and I settled in to watch the first episode of the Smithsonian Channel’s new series, Epic Warrior Women. The episode, titled “Amazons,” dealt with the women warriors of Scythia–an ancient culture of nomadic horsemen (and women) from the Central Asian steppes and the earliest known women warriors.…

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