When you say the word “comics” these days, people instantly think superheroes. And when you say “princesses”, people think Disney. Well, this has nothing to do with either. This is in fact going to be about princesses from all branches of history and mythology that have at some point been adapted into comics. Somewhere, somehow, these princesses ended up in a drawn book where their stories could be told to children and adults alike.
Let’s take a look at some of these forgotten princesses and where they came from.
Shajar Al-Durr
The “Tree of Pearls” as she’s so beautifully called, was a focal character after the death of Sultan As-Salih Ayyub. She captured King Louis IX and sold him back to France for a hefty ransom and was then caught killing the Sultan of Egypt, only to be imprisoned and killed herself with her naked body thrown over the city walls. Sounds like an interesting character for one of those billion dollar Disney films, doesn’t it?
Wu Zetian
The only female emperor to grace the country of China during the Tang dynasty. She was mostly famous for being distrusting and having a special torture technique called the “human pig”. It basically meant she’d remove all your limbs and your tongue. Remember, this was before we had prosthetics.
Hatshepsut
This Egyptian queen was actually the fifth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. As far as historians are concerned, this was the first important woman in history that we know of. She led her country for 22 years and spent her years as a ruler dressed in men’s clothing, false beard and all.
Corn Maiden
Yes, I know this one does sound like she could be some weird superhero, but this is actually a mythological figure that is said to be the creator of corn. She was mostly a part of the Arapaho, Tepecano and Zuni culture of North America. Depending on who you ask, the story gets weirder, where she eventually even ends up being made out of corn herself.
Mai Bhago
Mai Bhago was a Sikh warrior-saint and gained martyrdom for her warriors when she battled the Mughal army of emperor Aurangzeb. They were trying to capture Guru Gobind Singh who was saved because of Mai Bhago’s prowess in battle. Mai was the only survivor and after the fight became one of Guru Gobind Singh’s bodyguards.
Khutulun
In Central Asia there was a powerful ruler called Kaidu and Khutulun was his daughter. Marco Polo described her in his writings and described her as an amazing warrior that followed her father into battle at the drop of a dime. She designed a contest for her wedding where the man that beat her at wrestling would receive her hand in marriage but if the man should lose he owed her 100 horses. At the end of the contest she was still single but had 10,000 horses to her name.
Pasiphaë
A Greek Mythology princess, Pasiphaë was actually the mother of the Minotaur. She was also married to King Minos, who at a certain time cheated on his wife one too many times which made Pasiphaë curse him. Yikes.
