Despite the growing body of scholarship on gender as a critical category of analysis in the study of antiquity, the study of ancient warfare has remained comparatively resistant to sustained gendered analysis. Though research on women in antiquity has expanded significantly in recent decades, their relationship to warfare remains underexplored and frequently marginalised. This volume, edited by Carney and Müller, represents a concerted effort to redress this imbalance by re-examining the roles, representations and experiences of women within wartime contexts across the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. As Carney and Müller state in the introduction, ‘military camps, battlefields, garrisons, and forts were often and still are viewed as male spaces … However, this image of an exclusively male world is an artificial construct’ (p. 3). Their further assertion that ‘women were integral to war in antiquity’ (p. 5) serves as a clear statement of the volume’s intervention in the field, foregrounding its effort to dismantle entrenched assumptions by placing women at the centre of military history and its representations.

To achieve this overarching aim, the Companion examines the multifaceted roles of women in military contexts across a broad chronological and geographical spectrum, spanning from the Ancient Near East to the Roman imperial period. The volume foregrounds their centrality to warfare by exploring the presence of mythical and historical women in martial contexts and the diverse range of roles they occupied (such as commander and symbolic figurehead). To accommodate the breadth of this inquiry, the volume is organised into six parts, each of which approaches the topic from a distinct yet complementary perspective. Part 1 establishes the conceptual and historiographical foundations of the volume, situating it within existing scholarly debates. Part 2 turns to Greek and Roman mythology, examining the construction and significance of bellicose female figures. Part 3 shifts the focus to historical realities, analysing the active involvement of royal women in warfare from Mesopotamia in the third millennium bce to the Julio-Claudian period. Part 4 confronts the darker dimensions of the subject, addressing gendered violence and the impact of war on women and girls. Part 5 returns to the realm of representation, interrogating how ancient literary genres and the concerns of ancient authors shape the depiction of women in wartime. Finally, Part 6 offers an afterword that synthesises the volume’s findings and identifies productive avenues for future research, such as women’s financial contributions to warfare and their roles in logistics, including the care of the wounded and the transmission of messages.

Two features of the volume are particularly noteworthy in establishing its significance within the field. First, its scope extends well beyond the traditional Graeco-Roman focus that continues to dominate much classical scholarship. By incorporating material from regions such as Scythia (W.D. Penrose, Jr, Chapter 3; S.A. Yatsenko, Chapter 4), Mesopotamia (S.C. Melville, Chapter 8), Egypt and Nubia (U. Matić, Chapter 9; G. Ramsey Neugebauer, Chapter 11), the Companion broadens the geographical scope of inquiry, enabling meaningful comparison across distinct cultural and historical contexts. This broader geographical lens highlights the diversity of women’s experiences in wartime while challenging the implicit universalisation of Greek and Roman models, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of how cultural, political and social contexts shape gendered participation in war. Such an approach is especially valuable in a field where the evidentiary base is uneven and often mediated through culturally specific lenses.

Second, the volume’s engagement with a wide array of source material – including historiography (Carney, Chapter 10; Ramsey Neugebauer, Chapter 11; M.T. Boatwright, Chapter 12; K.A. Langenfeld, Chapter 18; Müller, Chapters 19 and 22; J. Heinrichs, Chapter 20; J. Fabre-Serris, Chapter 24; C.A. Reeder, Chapter 27), oratory (Penrose, Chapter 3; F. Landucci, Chapter 14; E. Cosgrave, Chapter 16; K. Welch and L. Webb, Chapter 23), biography (C. Bearzot, Chapter 13; F. Tanga, Chapter 25); philosophical treatises (Bearzot, Chapter 13), epigraphy (E.M. Greene, Chapter 17) and material culture (Penrose, Chapter 3; Yatsenko, Chapter 4; O. Palagia, Chapter 5; R.M. Kousser, Chapter 6; Cosgrave, Chapter 16) – represents a methodological strength. The study of women and war necessarily demands an interdisciplinary approach, given both the fragmentary nature of the evidence and the ideological inflections of literary sources. By juxtaposing textual and material evidence, the contributors are able to interrogate the gaps and tensions within the evidence and to reconstruct, where possible, the lived realities of women in wartime contexts. This multiplicity of sources also enables a more critical interrogation of how narratives about women and war are constructed, transmitted and contested across different genres and media. Taken together, these elements position the volume as an ambitious and timely contribution to the study of gender and warfare in antiquity, one that both consolidates and advances ongoing scholarly conversations.

Given my own research on ancient Amazons, I was particularly drawn to Part 2, ‘Goddesses, Myth, Amazons, and War’. This section engages directly with a set of methodological and interpretative questions central not only to studies of the Amazons, but also to the study of myth more broadly: how mythical narratives intersect with, reshape or respond to historical realities, and how female martial figures are constructed and mobilised within different literary and cultural traditions. Such questions are especially significant in the context of women and war, where the evidentiary record is often mediated through mythological or highly stylised accounts. The chapters in this section are especially effective in distinguishing between Greek and Roman mythological traditions and in interrogating the relationship between myth and history. Rather than treating ‘classical myth’ as a monolithic or internally consistent body of material, the contributors attend carefully to the specific cultural, political and temporal contexts in which these narratives were produced and received. This distinction is crucial in demonstrating that Greek and Roman engagements with divine and mythical figures are not interchangeable, and collapsing them risks obscuring the ideological work that such figures perform in different settings. Equally important is the volume’s insistence on situating mythical material within broader historical frameworks. By exploring how myths both respond to and shape historical realities – whether in the context of warfare, imperial expansion or civic identity – the chapters move beyond purely literary analysis and instead foreground the dynamic interplay between narrative and lived experience. This approach is exemplified in Chapter 2 (‘Greek Goddesses Associated with War: from the Heights of Olympus to Troy and Marathon’ by T.S. Scheer), Chapter 3 (‘The Amazons: from History to Myth’ by Penrose) and Chapter 7 (‘Bellona: Roman Goddess of War’ by M. Poplacean), each of which, in different ways, illuminates the shifting meanings and functions of female martial figures across mythical and historical contexts.

Scheer’s Chapter offers a nuanced analysis of Greek war deities, with particular attention to the contrasting roles of Ares and Athena in the Iliad. Her close reading foregrounds the gendered dynamics of martial competence, concluding that ‘in direct close combat, the female deity Athena proves to be the superior figure’ (p. 26) and that she is ‘the guarantor of successful mental and energetic military support for men’ (p. 27). This interpretation not only complicates simplistic associations between masculinity and martial prowess but also underscores the extent to which Greek conceptions of warfare privilege strategy, intelligence and discipline – qualities embodied by Athena – over brute force. Scheer’s discussion is further enriched by her consideration of the Persian Wars, demonstrating how mythical frameworks are mobilised within historical contexts (p. 39). The Athenians’ dedication of votive offerings to Athena following their victories, portraying her as responsible for their success, reveals the permeability between myth and history and highlights the role of divine figures in shaping collective memory and civic identity. In this way the chapter exemplifies how mythological analysis can be grounded in historically specific practices and beliefs.

Poplacean’s Chapter provides a compelling counterpart through its focus on the Roman goddess Bellona, whose associations diverge significantly from those of her Greek counterparts. Rather than embodying abstract martial virtues only, Bellona is closely linked to the practical and institutional dimensions of warfare. As Poplacean demonstrates, the location of her temple in the Campus Martius – serving as a meeting place for the Senate in matters of war – positions her at the heart of Roman military decision-making (p. 122). This reinforces her role as ‘the custodian of the state’s history of war and triumph’, encompassing conflicts such as the Samnite, Punic, Macedonian and Civil wars (p. 127). Particularly illuminating is the chapter’s exploration of Bellona’s evolving representation over time. Her later association with Sulla, for instance, marks a significant shift, as she comes to ‘symbolise the blood and chaos of the worst parts of Sulla’s tenure’ (p. 133). This diachronic perspective is especially valuable, demonstrating how divine figures are continually reinterpreted in response to changing political and historical circumstances.

Penrose’s Chapter, ‘The Amazons: from History to Myth’, is of particular interest for its direct engagement with the longstanding question of the Amazons’ historicity. As Penrose notes, previous scholarship has tended to polarise the debate, arguing either that the Amazons were purely imaginary figures or that Amazonian myth can be straightforwardly equated with Scythian realities (p. 43). Against this binary, he proposes a more measured position, arguing that, ‘while each of these positions holds some merit, the truth lies somewhere in between’ (p. 43). Rather than seeking a reductive resolution, the chapter traces the complex processes through which historical encounters with nomadic or foreign warrior women may have been transformed into the mythical figures of the Greek tradition, drawing carefully on both literary and archaeological evidence. From this, Penrose argues that ‘the Greek idea of the Amazon is a Greek cultural construct that reflects an historical reality of non-Greek warrior women but also exaggerates and mythologises it’ (p. 45). In doing so, the chapter offers a more flexible and methodologically robust framework for interpreting Amazonian material, one that acknowledges the role of Greek narrative in shaping, distorting and recontextualising external phenomena. A further strength of the chapter lies in Penrose’s attention to onomastics, specifically his observation that the names of individual Amazons predominantly have Greek etymologies. Hence he argues that this evidence suggests that ‘the Amazons are a product of Greek cultural expression, even if their myths, ultimately, were originally designed to explain the presence of warrior-women in non-Greek cultures’ (p. 57). Taken together, these chapters foreground the specificity of Greek and Roman traditions and interrogate the porous boundaries between myth and history, making a significant contribution to ongoing debates about how female martial figures are constructed, represented and understood in the ancient world.

In sum, Brill’s Companion to Ancient Women and War in the Mediterranean World represents a substantial and thoughtfully executed contribution to the study of gender and warfare in antiquity. Its breadth of scope, methodological diversity and sustained engagement with both mythical and historical material demonstrate the value of integrating gender as a central analytical category in the study of ancient war. As such, this Companion will serve as a useful resource for scholars and students alike, and as a foundation for further research in this evolving field.