Hey /his/, you guys know a lot, can you help me out?
Is there any female legendary hero, along the lines of Gilgamesh and Cú Chulainn?
Seems like there gotta be at least a couple from some obscure mythology or epic, but I don't know any.
Fate/stay
>>>/a/
"Heroines" did exist, but the exploits of these so-called "heroines" have very little to do with ye olden hero myth of monster slaying, invincibility and wanton massacres.
There used to be "heroine" cults, for example there were the Menelaion dedicated to both Menelaus and Helen at Therapne near Sparta, a shrine at Mycenae dedicated to Agamemnon and Cassandra, another at Amyklai dedicated to Alexandra (another name for Cassandra).
>>843850
You know who taught CuChulainn right.
>>844788
Speaking of which, it's the same character he also got a certain spear from.
>>843850
Your pic is a confusing choice for such a question. Aside from Scathach and her sister, there is also Queen Meave herself. Of course, these are all mythic figures rather than "semi-historical" / legendary. There is the irl Queen Bouddica, tho she wasn't herself a warrior, and beyond the Celtic world there are the Amazons and especially their leader Hippolyta, and Mulan.
>>843850
>Gilgamesh
How about his patron and enemy, the goddess Ishtar?
>Cú Chulainn
How about his patrons and enemies, the goddesses Scathach, Aiofe, Mebd, Morrigu and Badb?
>>843850
Kriemhild is a heroine for a short time in the Nibelungenlied before she goes full psycho and kills her entire family
>>843850
Atalanta and Hippolyta are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are more in Greek myth alone, let alone other cultures.
>>844842
Queen Méadbh is a figure of ridicule in TBC. Scáthach is a side character of little import. The Mórríoghan is a better example but she's more of an adversary, as well as being a goddess.
>>843850
How about Athena?
>>844842
Boudica is probably the single biggest military failure in human history.
>>846239
Goddesses shouldn't count because being above all humans (including men), it doesn't really mean anything to OP.
>>843850
Brunhild
Nothing that I can think of in terms of main characters of epic sagas.
There are interesting female characters in Irish mythological cycles like Scáthach, Aífe. Liath Luachra, Queen Meadhbh and the Morrígan. The great hero trained by formidable warrior women was a common trope in Celtic myths it seems.
There was also Grace O'Malley, the real life Irish pirate queen who got up to some shenanigans but that's not an old epic either.
>>843850
Do quest at ancient divine females. Today legendary and famous heroes could considered as saints, into ancient world they were considered as goddesses.
Ali Baba's slave-girl comes to mind, but I guess she doesn't quite fit as legendary or as appearing in a myth.
>>843850
mulan
>>843850
Where does this painting take place where killing a dog passes for "heroic"?
>>850514
>>846236
Meave is a fictional figure, possibly based on a patron deity of Connaught, possibly just a pun (her name means "intoxicated (with mead)", it's a direct cognate of the English word Mead, so it may just have signified that the Connaught people were drunkards). We don't know anything about her except from the Ulster cycle, where she's an antagonist.
But Scathach and her sister were bona fides Amazons, for all that they were pretty clearly pure myth.
Judith was pretty badass.
>>851665
Esther as well
>>844842
>>846243
Everyone remembers Boudicca, but no one remembers Gaius Seutonius Paulinus.
>>851039
Ireland.
>>851039
Well after killing this guy's super dog he took its place to pay the debt and also banged some hot fae chick. Oh yeah he can one legged hopping magic
Jeanne
>>852934
>everyone remembers boudicca
>no one remembers the superior celtic revolt of vercingetorix
>>851116
I know I've read it, the point was that she wasn't a warrior.
And she isn't an antagonist throughout the Ulster Cycle, just in the Tain really, though even then its kind of a switch because the first half is written from her/ her side's perspective with Cu Cuhlain as this shadowy figure picking off her soldiers and leaving measages on rocks.
Its only when it gets to the stalemate where Cu Chulain agrees to fight a series of champions (usually the dude was persuaded because Medb or her daughter fucked them the night before, that might link to the pun) that it switches to his perspective.
