Women wielding swords/daggers/bows in the past

fearn · 1st January 2009, 05:51 PM

I'm not much of an archer, but I would note that in kyudo, male archers sometimes take off their left sleeves and bare their left breast. I assume this is so that the cloth doesn't tangle in the long sleeve, since they are bracing their bows with the left hand and drawing with the right.

Note that I have yet to see a picture of a woman doing this, but I'd guess that, if a woman wasn't too well endowed, she could do the same thing to clear her arm to draw the bow. This would result in having one bare breast and one covered, leading to Hippocrates' description. Personally, I'd bet that most women are too intelligent to do this, but who knows. Maybe the amazons did this during archery competitions or something, to mess with the aim of their male competitors.

F

1st January 2009, 05:51 PM	#14
fearn Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,247	I'm not much of an archer, but I would note that in kyudo, male archers sometimes take off their left sleeves and bare their left breast. I assume this is so that the cloth doesn't tangle in the long sleeve, since they are bracing their bows with the left hand and drawing with the right. Note that I have yet to see a picture of a woman doing this, but I'd guess that, if a woman wasn't too well endowed, she could do the same thing to clear her arm to draw the bow. This would result in having one bare breast and one covered, leading to Hippocrates' description. Personally, I'd bet that most women are too intelligent to do this, but who knows. Maybe the amazons did this during archery competitions or something, to mess with the aim of their male competitors. F