ABSTRACT
This essay analyzes three stories in Herodotus’ Histories in which powerful women perform a range of roles, as rulers, military commanders, and political strategists, as well as widows and mothers, thereby problematizing the model of gender polarity which contrasts the inferior female ‘other’ with the superior normative male. It argues that law (nomos) constrains men as well as women, requiring both genders to perform a variety of roles appropriately, subjecting them to criticism if they fail. It shows how the ideology of female inferiority is used as a persuasive strategy, in urging men to fight, but is misleading as a predictor of military outcomes. Herodotus, as a non-Athenian, gives a distinctive perspective on gender ideology in fifth bce, in that he does not equate powerful women automatically with disruption, danger, and deceit. He destabilizes the binary opposition of male and female by showing the disjuncture between the rhetoric of female inferiority and the agency and authority of women in his wider narrative. He highlights the dangers for those, male or female, who reject boundaries set by the gods, in their exercise of power.
