Yael

According to scholars, one of the oldest stories in the Hebrew Bible is the story of Yael. The subject of many paintings throughout history, this in-your-face woman distinguished herself when the Israeli armies of Deborah (led by Barak) met the Canaanite armies of Jabin (led by Sisera).

The Canaanites were routed and Sisera had run for his life right into the arms of Yael, who greeted him with apparent hospitality and a big bowl of milk. After Sisera drank the milk and fell asleep, Yael came to where he lay and drove a tent peg through his temple with a mallet, making her a hero of her people for all time. One account of the incident (by Pseudo-Philo in the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum) has Yael saying to Sisera as he dies: "Go, boast before your father in hell and tell him that you have fallen into the hands of a woman." An in-your-face woman, that is.