I talked about the Nine Worthies the other day.

These are the Nine Greatest/Most Virtuous/Chivalric Males.

They have female counterparts. And the fresco at Castello della Manta shows them too.

But – unlike the men who seem to be fixed in history, the women are not. Depending on which source you research, the names of these nine women will change according to the era/writer.

And another “anomaly.” Unlike the men who are celebrated for their VIRTUES, the women 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.

THEY ARE ALL AMAZONS!

I “know” that, in the first half of the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu wrote a book about the Nine Worthy Females (?!) He included Jehanne d’Arc in his list.

If this is true about Richelieu then I can quite understand why he did it. His whole life and career were being threatened by “A Monstrous Regiment of Women.”

And Marie de Rohan was the worst of all.

LOL :o)