Aelia
Pulcheria
ruled the Roman Empire for many years as the
guardian of her younger brother, as their father died when the boy was just 7
and not fit to rule. In fact, when her
brother died Aelia Pulcheria ruled the
empire by herself for a month before
she was forced by the rest of the imperial
family to take a husband. Under her rule,
the Roman Empire flourished.
Cynisca
was an ancient Greek princess
of Sparta. In 396 BC, she became the first
woman ever to win in the Olympic games.
Through this victory, Cynisca was breaking
gender norms in a society that typically
forbade women from participating in any
kind of athletic or sporting events. To honor
this victory, there is a statue of Cynisca in
the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. She is
frequently referenced today as a symbol of
the social rise of women.
Sappho
was a poet from ancient Greece and
is often credited with being the first female Greek
writer. She was so talented that she was nicknamed
the “tenth muse” by Plato, and mainly wrote poetry
concerning human emotions and feeling. She is
suspected to have written over 10,000 lines of
poetry, some of which are still considered create
influences on audiences today. However, much of
her work was lost through time and for some of
those works, only fragments remain.