The Ambivalent Amazons of Lope de Vega’s Las mujeres sin hombres

Abstract:In the 1621 mythological comedia Las mujeres sin hombres, Lope de Vega expresses admiration for the Amazons, but he also describes them in misogynistic terms adapted from classical, medieval, and early modern sources. Lope’s Amazons are strong, warlike, politically capable, and competent in educating their young women. Yet they are also fools for love. This article explores the ambivalence of Lope’s use of these fabled women warriors. Unlike most writers who reinterpreted the Amazon myths, Lope contemporizes the women warriors and suggests that Spanish women may be their spiritual inheritors. By marrying the Amazons off to male characters, Lope brings them under patriarchal control. However, he also allows them to escape death, the usual fate of these fighting women in his likely sources. In Las mujeres sin hombres, the Amazons’ survival in defeat figures their subversive potential; Lope suggests that they may be role models for and echoes of early modern Spanish women who resisted the dominance of men.