Henrietta Hay's Column

Sometimes we think that" uppity women" are a new phenomenon, born of the 20th century women's movement. In years past, so we have been led to believe, women were downtrodden, spending most of their time cleaning the cave, cooking for the gladiators, cleaning up after the elephants, and singing to Ulysses. Women have been generally ignored in the history books. But no more.

A series of paperbacks put out by Conari Press seeks to redress this ill. The first in the series was Autumn Stephens' "Wild Women -- Crusaders, Curmudgeons and Completely Corset less Ladies in the Otherwise Virtuous Victorian Era" It was such a success that the publishers founded the Wild Woman Association, the goal of which is to rediscover and rewrite our wild fore sisters back into history.

Going much further back in history than our Victorian grandmothers, Vicki Leon's contribution to the series is called "Uppity Women of Ancient Times." She excavates some little known facts about some 200 pirates, pyramid builders, poets, prisoners, panderers and princesses in one of the funniest and most delightful books I have read recently.

León writes, "Between 2500 B.C. and A.D. 450 . . . there were countless women who mattered -- real life women, not goddesses or literary fragments. Their names have not been lost, just mislaid or glossed over... Their deeds haven't been lost to us either: uppity women rocked as many cradles as the next gal, but they rocked a lot of boats as well.... A line from Pauline Pantel might well define the ultimate uppity woman B.C. (or for that matter, 2000 A.D.): 'Slowly, very slowly, women became individuals, people whose consent mattered.'"

The world's first author to be known by name was Enheduana, a poet and priestess who lived more than 4300 years ago in Sumer. In addition to her priestly duties, she wrote poetry and prose. Fifty clay reprints of one of her poems have been found. "After her nasty nephew chucked her out of office... Enheduana used her ouster as raw material for her work, proving again that the pen is mightier than the pink slip."

Uppity women often get accused of wearing the pants in the family. They were probably invented, not by Amelia Bloomer in 19th century America, but by Semiramis 2,800 years ago. As Queen of Assyria she oversaw construction of a new system of canals and dikes, which irrigated the flatland between the Tigris and the Euphrates. She was also a warrior. On one of her expeditions she came up with the pants prototype, "her idea being that they made it harder to tell the women from the men. As camouflage or to ward off cold, pants became a fashion item--but it was the males who were mad for them."

This book has cleared up one mystery about the original Greek Olympic games. Callianax was part of a boxing family. Her son was primed for the 98th Olympiad when his father died. Callianax took over the job of training, despite the fact that married women were forbidden to take part even as spectators in the Games. During the Games in 388 B.C. she disguised herself in training gear, a long robe draped in a special way, and hoped she would not be recognized. But her son won his match and, "shrieking with delight she jumped over the barrier separating the athletes from the trainers. Unfortunately her jump revealed quite a bit more than her happiness." Rather than tossing her off the cliff (the usual reward) the Olympic committee passed a law that, "henceforth trainers as well as athletes would participate naked."

One outstanding athlete was Hydna from Scione. She was an ace swimmer and diver like her dad. In the 480 B.C. war with the Persians, she and Pop had a mission almost impossible: to cut the moorings of the Persian ships. "Swimming ten miles in a wild storm to do so, they trashed the fleet; in gratitude, statues were dedicated to them at Delphi. At the time of the swim she must have been young or unmarried. The Greeks actually believed you had to be a virgin to dive (unless, of course, you were a man)."

If you want something to take your mind off the world's problems, "Uppity Women of Ancient Times" should do it. Those uppity women are great role models for today's girls.