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Wounded Amazon of the Capitoline Museums, Rome
Amazon preparing for a battle (Queen Antiop or Armed Venus), by Pierre-Eugène-Emile Hébert, 1860, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες Amazónes, singular Ἀμαζών Amazōn) are portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, the Argonautica and the Iliad. They were a people of female warriors and hunters, who matched man in physical agility and strength, in archery, riding skills and the arts of combat. Their society was closed for men and they only raised their daughters and either killed their sons or returned them to their fathers, with whom they would only socialize briefly in order to reproduce.[1][2]

Courageous and fiercely independent, the Amazons, commanded by their queen, regularly undertook extensive military expeditions into the far corners of the world, from Scythia to Thrace, Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands, reaching as far as Arabia and Egypt.[3] Besides military raids, the Amazons are also associated with the foundation of temples and the establishment of numerous ancient cities like Ephesos, Cyme, Smyrna, Sinope, Myrina, Magnesia, Pygela, etc.[4][5]

The texts of the original myths envisioned the homeland of the Amazons at the periphery of the then known world. Various claims to the exact place ranged from provinces in Asia Minor (Lycia, Caria etc.) to the steppes around the Black Sea, in Libya, even. However, authors most frequently referred to Pontus in northern Anatolia, at the southern shores of the Black Sea as the independent Amazon kingdom where the Amazon queen resided at her capital Themiscyra at the banks of the Thermodon river.[6]

Palaephatus, who himself might have been a fictional character, attempted to rationalize the Greek myths in his work On Unbelievable Tales. He suspected that the Amazons were probably men who were mistaken for women by their enemies because they wore clothing that reached their feet, tied up their hair in headbands and shaved their beards. Probably the first in a long line of skeptics, he rejected any real basis, because they did not exist during his time, most probably they did nοt exist in the past, either.[7][8][9]

Decades of archaeological discoveries of countless burial sites of female warriors, including royalty, in the Eurasian Steppes prove that the horse cultures of Scythian, Sarmatian, Hittite and other women have inspired and fundamentally defined the Amazon myth.[10][11] In 2019 a grave with multiple generations of female Scythian warriors, armed and in golden headdresses was found near Russia's Voronezh.[12][13][14][15][16]

Etymology

Origin of the name

Departure of the Amazons, by Claude Deruet 1620, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The origin of the word is uncertain.[17] It may be derived from an Iranian ethnonym *ha-mazan- "warriors", a word attested indirectly through a derivation, a denominal verb in Hesychius of Alexandria's gloss "ἁμαζακάραν· πολεμεῖν. Πέρσαι" ("hamazakaran: 'to make war' in Persian"), where it appears together with the Indo-Iranian root *kar- "make".[17] hamazan - in iranian/tajik means only women or just women or collection of women It may also be derived from *ṇ-mṇ-gw-jon-es "manless, without husbands" (a- privative and a derivation of *man- also found in Slavic muzh) has been proposed, an explanation deemed "unlikely" by Hjalmar Frisk. A further explanation proposes Iranian *ama-janah "virility-killing" as source.[18]

Among ancient Greeks, the term amazon was given a folk etymology as originating from (ἀμαζός „breastless“), connected with an etiological tradition once claimed by Marcus Justinus who alleged that Amazons had their right breast cut off or burnt out.[19] There is no indication of such a practice in ancient works of art,[20] in which the Amazons are always represented with both breasts, although one is frequently covered.[21] According to Philostratus Amazon babys were just not fed with the right breast.[22] Author Adrienne Mayor suggests that the false etymology led to the myth.[20][23]

Alternative terms

A wide variety of descriptive phrases for the Amazons were in use as a result of their unconventional nature. In fact, all authors referred to below have come up with and, indeed used individual appellations.

Herodotus used the terms Androktones (Ἀνδροκτόνες, singular Ἀνδροκτόνα, [Androktonα] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 10) (help)) - killers/slayers of men and Androleteirai (Ἀνδρολέτειραι, singular Ἀνδρολέτειρα, Androleteira) - destroyers of men, murderesses. Amazons are called Antianeirai (Ἀντιάνειραι, singular Ἀντιάνειρα, Antianeira) equivalent to men and Aeschylus used Styganor (Στυγάνωρ) - those who loathe all men.[15]

In his work Prometheus Bound and in the The Suppliants, Aeschylus called the Amazons "...τὰς ἀνάνδρους κρεοβόρους τ᾽ Ἀμαζόνας" - the unwed, flesh-devouring Amazons. In the Hippolytus tragedy, Phaedra calls Hippolytus, the son of the horse-loving Amazon (...τῆς φιλίππου παῖς Ἀμαζόνος βοᾷ Ἱππόλυτος...). In his Dionysiaca Nonnus calls the Amazons of Dionysus Androphonus (Ἀνδροφόνους) - men slaying.[24][25] Herodotus acknowledged that in the Scythian language Amazons were called Oiorpata, oior ("man") and pata ("to slay").

Historiography

Amazons in the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel, 1493

The ancient Greeks never had any doubts that the Amazons were, or, had been real. Not the only people enchanted by warlike women of nomadic cultures, such exciting tales also come from ancient Egypt, Persia, India and China. Greek heroes of old had encounters with the queens of their martial society and fought them. However, their original home was not exactly known, certainly, though and crucially in the obscure lands beyond the civilized world. The Amazons existed outside the range of normal human experience.[26] As a result, for centuries scholars believed the Amazons to be purely imaginary, although there were various proposals for a historical nucleus of the Amazons in Greek historiography. Some authors preferred comparisons to cultures of Asia Minor or even Minoan Crete. The most obvious historical candidates are Lycia and Scythia & Sarmatia in line with the account by Herodotus. In his Histories (5th century BC) Herodotus claims that the Sauromatae (predecessors of the Sarmatians), who ruled the lands between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, arose from a union of Scythians and Amazons.

Herodotus also observed rather unusual customs among the Lycians of south-west Asia Minor. The Lycians obviously followed matrilineal rules of descent, virtue and status. They named themselves along their maternal family line and a child's status was determined by the mother's reputation. This remarkably high esteem of women and legal regulations based on maternal lines still in effect in 5th century BC in the Lycian regions that Herodotus had traveled to, lent him the idea that these people were descendants of the mythical Amazons.[27]

Modern historiography no longer relies exclusively on textual and artistic material, but also on the vast archaeological evidence of over 1,000 nomad graves from steppe territories from the Black Sea all the way to Mongolia. Spectacular discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons (bows and arrows, quivers and spears) prove that women warriors were not merely figments of imagination, but the product of the Scythian/Sarmatian horse-centred lifestyle. These women turned out to be able to fight, hunt, ride and utilize a bow and arrows just like the men.[28][29]

Mythology

According to myth, Otrera the first Amazon queen is the fruit of a Romance between Ares the god of war and the nymph Harmonia of the Akmonian Wood, and as such a demigod.[30] Common Amazons are portrayed as mortal humans, whose formidable military prowess and high degree of freedom and independence was rather attributed to their own virtue, effort and determination but supernatural designs and divine intervention.[31] However, skill, bravery and being characterized as equal of men by Homer, did not prevent the Amazons from losing the Amazonomachies - single combat engagements against well-known Greek heroes. Highly romanticized versions of these duels found their way into popular Greek culture, art and tragedy.[32]

Battle of the Amazons, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1618, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Early records refer to two events in which Amazons appeared prior to the Trojan War (before 1250 BC). Within the epic context, Bellerophon, Greek hero and grandfather of the brothers and Trojan War veterans Glaukos and Sarpedon, faced Amazons during his stay in Lycia, when King Iobates sent Bellerophon to fight the Amazons, hoping they would kill him, yet Bellerophon slayed them all. The youthful King Priam of Troy fought on the side of the Phrygians, who were attacked by Amazons at the Sangarios River.[33]

Amazons in the Trojan War

There are Amazon characters in Homer's Trojan War epic poem, the Iliad, one of the oldest surviving texts in Europe (around 8th century BC). The now lost epic Aethiopis (probably by Arctinus of Miletus) (6th century BC) which, like the Iliad and several other epics, is one of the works, that in combination form the Trojan War Epic Cycle. In one of the few references to the text an Amazon force under queen Penthesilea, who was of Thracian birth, came to join the ranks of the Trojans after Hector's death and initially put the Greeks under serious pressure. Only after the greatest effort and the help of the reinvigorated hero Achilles, the Greeks eventually triumphed. Penthesilea died fighting the mighty Achilles in single combat.[34] Homer himself deemed the Amazon myths to be common knowledge all over Greece, which suggests, that they had already been known for some time before him. He was also convinced, that the Amazons lived not at its fringes, but somewhere in or around Lycia in Asia Minor - a place well within the Greek world.

Troy is mentioned in the Iliad as the place of Myrine's death.[35][36] Later identified as an Amazon queen, according to Diodorus (1st century BC), the Amazons under her rule, invaded the territories of the Atlantians, defeated the army of the Atlantian city of Cerne and razed the city to the ground.[37][21]

Affairs in Scythia

Amazons and Scythians, by Otto van Veen, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Poet Bacchylides, (6th century BC) and historian Herodotus (5th century BC) located the Amazon homeland in Pontus at the southern shores of the Black Sea, and the capital Themiscyra at the banks of the Thermodon (modern Terme river), by the modern city of Terme. Herodotus also explains how it came to be, that some Amazons would eventually be living in Scythia. A Greek force, that after it had defeated the Amazons in battle at the Thermodon river, sailed home. The fleet included three ships, that were crowded with Amazon prisoners. Once out at sea the Amazon prisoners overwhelmed and killed the small crews of the prisoner ships and, despite not having even basic navigation skills, managed to escape and safely embark at the Scythian shore. As soon as the Amazons had caught enough horses, they easily asserted themselves in the steppe in between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea and, according to Herodotus, would eventually assimilate with the Scythians, whose descendants were the Sauromatae, the predecessors of the Sarmatians.[38][2]

Amazon native land

Strabo (1st century BC) visits and confirms the original homeland of the Amazons in Themiscyra on the plains by the Thermodon river. However, long gone and not seen again during his life time, the Amazons had allegedly retreated into the mountains. Strabo, however, added that other authors, among them Metrodorus of Scepsis and Hypsicrates claim that after abandoning Themiscyra, the Amazons had chosen to resettle beyond the borders of the Gargareans, an all-male tribe native to the northern foothills of the Ceraunian Mountains. The Amazons and Gargareans had however, for many generations met in secrecy once a year during two months in spring, in order to produce children. These encounters would take place in accordance with ancient tribal customs and collective offers of sacrifices. In an obvious culture of decency and understanding, all females were retained by the Amazons themselves, as males would be returned to the Gargareans.[39] 5th century BC poet Magnes sings of the bravery of the Lydians in a cavalry-battle against the Amazons.[40][41]

A Tyrrhenian amphora, depicting Amazonomachy - Herakles fights Andromache, Telamon fights Ainipe and Iphis fights Panariste[42], ca. 570 BC, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Hercules myth

Hippolyte, an Amazon queen died by the hand of Hercules, who had set out for her in order to obtain the queen's magic belt, in a task he was to accomplish as one of the Labours of Hercules. Although neither side had intended to resort to lethal combat, a misunderstanding led to the fight. In the course of this, Heracles killed the queen and several other Amazons. In awe of the strong hero, the Amazons eventually handed the belt to Heracles. In another version, Heracles does not kill the queen, but exchanges her kidnapped sister Melanippe for the belt.[43][17][44][42]

Theseus myth

Queen Hippolyte is abducted by Theseus, who takes her to Athens, makes her his wife and she bears him a son - Hippolytus. In other versions the kidnapped Amazon is called Antiope, the sister of Hippolyte. In revenge, the Amazons invaded Greece, plundered some cities along the coast of Attica and besieged and occupied Athens. Hippolyte, who fought on the side of Athens and according to another account with the Amazons was killed during the final battle along with all of the Amazons.[44][45]

Amazons and Dionysus

According to Plutarch, the god Dionysus and his companions fought Amazons at Ephesus. The Amazons fled to Samos and Dionysus pursued them and killed a great number of them at a site since called Panaema (blood-soaked field).[46] The Christian author Eusebius writes that during the reign of Oxyntes, one of the mythical kings of Athens, the Amazons burned down the temple at Ephesus.[47]

In another myth Dionysus unites with the Amazons to fight against Cronus and the Titans. Polyaenus writes that after Dionysus has subdued the Indians, he allies with them and the Amazons and takes them into his service, who serve him in his campaign against the Bactrians. Nonnus in his Dionysiaca reports about the Amazons of Dionysus, but states that they do not come from Thermodon.[24][48]

Amazons and Alexander the Great

The Amazon Queen Thalestris in the camp of Alexander the Great, Johann Georg Platzer

Amazons are also mentioned by biographers of Alexander the Great, who report of Queen Thalestris bearing him a child (a story in the Alexander Romance).[49] However, other biographers of Alexander dispute the claim, including the highly regarded Plutarch. He noted a moment when Alexander's naval commander Onesicritus read an Amazon myth passage of his Alexander History to King Lysimachus of Thrace who had taken part in the original expedition. The king smiled at him and said: And where was I, then?[50]

Roman and ancient Egyptian records

An armed and helmeted Amazon, her shield decorates a Gorgon head; Tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, around 500 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Berlin

Virgil's characterization of the Volscian warrior maiden Camilla in the Aeneid borrows from the myths of the Amazons. Philostratus, in Heroica, writes that the Mysian women fought on horses alongside the men, just as the Amazons did, and the leader was Hiera, wife of Telephus. The Amazons are also said to have undertaken an expedition against the Island of Leuke, at the mouth of the Danube, where the ashes of Achilles were deposited by Thetis. The ghost of the dead hero appeared and so terrified the horses, that they threw off and trampled upon the invaders, who were forced to retreat. Pompey is said to have found them in the army of Mithridates.[21]

Virgil mentioned the Amazons and their queen Penthesilea in his epic Aeneid (around 20 BC). The biographer Suetonius had Gaius Julius Caesar say in his De vita Caesarum that the Amazons once ruled a large part of Asia. Appian provides a vivid description of Themiscyra and its fortifications in his account of Proconsul Lucius Lucinius Lucullus' Siege of Themiscyra in 71 BCE during the Third Mithridatic War.[51][52][43]

An Amazon myth has been only partly preserved in two badly fragmented versions around historical people in 7th century BC Egypt. The Egyptian prince Petechonsis and allied Assyrian troops undertook a joint campaign into the Land of Women, to the Middle East at the border to India. Petechonsis initially fought the Amazons, but soon fell in love with their queen Sarpot and eventually allied with her against an invading Indian army. This story is said to have originated in Egypt independently of Greek influences.[53][54]

Amazon queens

Sources provide names of individual Amazons, that are referred to as queens of their people, even as the head of a dynasty. Wthout a male companion they are portrayed in command of their female warriors. Among the most prominent Amazon queens were:

Otrera, was the daughter of the nymph Harmonia and god of war, Ares. She was the mother of Hippolyta, Antiope, Melanippe and Penthesilea. She is the mythical founder of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

Hippolyte, daughter of Otrera and Ares, part of the Theseus and Heracles myths, Antiope is her sister there. Alcippe, the only Amazon known to have sworn a chastity oath, belongs to her entourage.

Penthesilea, kills her sister Hippolyte in a hunting accident, comes to the aid of the hard-pressed Trojans with her warriors, is defeated by Achilles, who falls in love with the dying woman.

Myrina, leader of a military expedition in Libya, defeats the Atlanteans, forms an alliance with the ruler of Egypt and conquers numerous cities and islands.

Thalestris, the last known Amazon queen. Meets, according to legend, the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great in 330 BC. Her home is the Thermodon region, or variably the Gates of Alexander, south of the Caspian Sea.

Various authors and chroniclers

A hippeis rider seizes a mounted Amazonian warrior armed with a labrys by her Phrygian cap. Roman mosaic emblema (marble and limestone) from Daphne, a suburb of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (now Antakya in Turkey), second half of the 4th century AD, the Louvre, Paris

Quintus Smyrnaeus

Quintus Smyrnaeus lists the attendant warriors of Penthesilea: "Clonie was there, Polemusa, Derinoe, Evandre, and Antandre, and Bremusa, Hippothoe, dark-eyed Harmothoe, Alcibie, Derimacheia, Antibrote, and Thermodosa glorying with the spear."

Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus lists twelve Amazons who challenged Heracles to single combat during his quest for Hippolyta's girdle and died against him one by one: Aella, Philippis, Prothoe, Eriboea, Celaeno, Eurybia, Phoebe, Deianeira, Asteria, Marpe, Tecmessa, Alcippe. After Alcippe's death, a group attack followed. She also mentions Melanippe, who he set free after accepting her girdle as ransom and Antiope, who he gifted to Theseus.[55]

Diodorus also lists another group of Amazons in book 3. He mentions Myrina as the queen who commanded the Amazons in a military expedition in Libya, as well as her sister Mytilene, after whom she named the city of the same name. Myrina also named three more cities after the Amazons who held the most important commands under her, Cyme, Pitane, and Priene.

Justin and Paulus Orosius

Both Justin in his Epitome of Trogus Pompeius and Paulus Orosius give an account of the Amazons, citing the same names. Queens Marpesia and Lampedo shared the power during an incursion in Europe and Asia, where they were slain. Marpesia's daughter Orithyia succeeded them and was greatly admired for her skill on war. She shared power with her sister Antiope, but she was engaged in war abroad when Heracles attacked. Two of Antiope's sisters were taken prisoner, Menalippe by Heracles and Hippolyta by Theseus. Heracles latter restored Menalippe to her sister after receiving the queen's arms in exchange, though, on other accounts she was killed by Telamon. They also mention Penthesilea's role in the Trojan War.[56][57][58]

Battle of the Amazons by Rubens and Jan Brueghel, c. 1600, Sanssouci Picture Gallery, Potsdam

Hyginus

Another list of Amazons' names is found in Hyginus' Fabulae. Along with Hippolyta, Otrera, Antiope and Penthesilea, it attests the following names: Ocyale, Dioxippe, Iphinome, Xanthe, Hippothoe, Laomache, Glauce, Agave, Theseis, Clymene, Polydora.[59]

Perhaps the most important is Queen Otrera, consort of Ares and mother by him of Hippolyta and Penthesilea.[60] She's also known for building a temple to Artemis at Ephesus.[61]

Valerius Flaccus

Another different set of names is found in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica:[62] he mentions Euryale, Harpe, Lyce, Menippe and Thoe. Of these Lyce also appears in a fragment preserved in the Latin Anthology where she is said to have killed the hero Clonus of Moesia, son of Doryclus, with her javelin.

Late Antiquity, Middle Age and Renaissance literature

Stephanus of Byzantium provides an alternative list of the Amazons who fell in combat against Hercules, describing them as "the most prominent" of their people: Tralla, Isocrateia, Thiba, Palla, Coea (Koia), Coenia (Koinia). Both Stephanus and Eustathius write of these Amazons in connection with the placename Thibais, which they report to have been derived from Thiba's name.[63]

Stephanus also mentions other Amazons in other entries of his work:

  • Amastris, who was believed to be the eponym of the city previously known as Kromna, although the city was actually named after the historical Amastris.
  • Anaea, an Amazon whose tomb was shown at the island of Samos.[64] In addition, the city Anaea in Caria was named after the Amazon.[65]
  • Cyme, who gave her name to the city of Cyme (Aeolis).
  • Cynna (?), one of the two possible eponyms (the other one being "Cynnus, brother of Coeus") of Cynna, a small town not far from Heraclea.
  • Ephesos, a Lydian Amazon, after whom the city of Ephesus was thought to have been named; she was also said to have been the first to honor Artemis and to have surnamed the goddess Ephesia. Her daughter Amazo was thought of as the eponym of the Amazons.
  • Myrleia, possible eponym of a city in Bithynia, which was later known as Apamea.
  • Sisyrbe, after whom a part of Ephesus was called Sisyrba, and its inhabitants the Sisyrbitae.
  • Smyrna, who obtained possession of Ephesus and gave her name to a quarter in this city, as well as to the city of Smyrna.[66]
Dahomey Amazons were so named by Western observers due to their similarity to the mythical Amazons

Jordanes' Getica (c. 560 CE), purporting to give the earliest history of the Goths, relates that the Goths' ancestors, descendants of Magog, originally lived in Scythia, at the Sea of Azov between the Dnieper and Don Rivers. When the Goths were abroad campaigning against Pharaoh Vesosis, their women successfully fended off a raid by a neighboring tribe. Accordingly the women established their own army under Marpesia, crossed the Don and invaded Asia. Marpesia's sister Lampedo remained in Europe to guard the homeland. They procreated with men once a year. These Amazons conquered Armenia, Syria and all of Asia Minor, even reaching Ionia and Aeolis, holding this vast territory for 100 years. Jordanes also mentions that they fought with Hercules and in the Trojan War and that a smaller contingent of them survived in the Caucasus Mountains until the time of Alexander. He mentions by name the Queens Menalippe, Hippolyta, and Penthesilea.

In the Grottaferrata Version of Digenes Akritas, the twelfth century medieval epic of Basil, the Greek-Syrian knight of the Byzantine frontier, the hero battles with and kills the female warrior Maximo, descended from some Amazons and taken by Alexander from the Brahmans.[67]

Niketas Choniates wrote that during the Emperor Manuel I Komnenos reign, females were numbered among them riding horses and bearing weapons and they were like the Amazons. Added that one stood out from the rest as another Penthesilea.[68]

John Tzetzes in Posthomerica lists the Amazons (20) who fell at Troy. Hippothoe, Antianeira, Toxophone, Toxoanassa, Gortyessa, Iodoce, Pharetre, Andro, Ioxeia, Oïstrophe, Androdaïxa, Aspidocharme, Enchesimargos, Cnemis, Thorece, Chalcaor, Eurylophe, Hecate, Anchimache and Andromache the queen. This list is a unique attestation for all the names but Antianeira and Andromache.[69]

Amazons continued to be discussed by authors of the European Renaissance, and with the Age of Exploration, they were located in ever more remote areas. In 1542, Francisco de Orellana reached the Amazon River (Amazonas in Spanish), naming it after icamiabas[70] a tribe of warlike women he claimed to have encountered and fought on the Nhamundá River, a tributary of the Amazon.[71] Afterwards the whole basin and region of the Amazon (Amazônia in Portuguese, Amazonía in Spanish) were named after the river. Amazons also figure in the accounts of both Christopher Columbus and Walter Raleigh. Famous medieval traveller John Mandeville mentions them in his book:

Beside the land of Chaldea is the land of Amazonia, that is the land of Feminye. And in that realm is all woman and no man; not as some may say, that men may not live there, but for because that the women will not suffer no men amongst them to be their sovereigns.[72]

Medieval and Renaissance authors credit the Amazons with the invention of the battle-axe. This is probably related to the sagaris, an axe-like weapon associated with both Amazons and Scythian tribes by Greek authors (see also Thracian tomb of Aleksandrovo kurgan). Paulus Hector Mair expresses astonishment that such a "manly weapon" should have been invented by a "tribe of women", but he accepts the attribution out of respect for his authority, Johannes Aventinus.

Ariosto's Orlando Furioso contains a country of warrior women, ruled by Queen Orontea; the epic describes an origin much like that in Greek myth, in that the women, abandoned by a band of warriors and unfaithful lovers, rallied together to form a nation from which men were severely reduced, to prevent them from regaining power. The Amazons and Queen Hippolyta are also referenced in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in "The Knight's Tale".


Amazons in art

Two female gladiators with their names Amazonia and Achillea
Juliusz Kossak, An Amazon, 1878

Beginning around 550 BC. depictions of Amazons as daring fighters and equestrian warriors appeared on vases. After the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC the Amazon battle - Amazonomachy became popular motifs on pottery. By the sixth century BCE, public and privately displayed artwork used the Amazon imagery for pediment reliefs, sarcophagi, mosaics, pottery, jewelry and even monumental sculptures, that adorned important buildings like the Parthenon in Athens. Amazon motifs remained popular until the Roman imperial period and into Late antiquity.[73]

Apart from the artistic desire to express the passionate womanhood of the Amazons in contrast with the manhood of their enemies, some modern historians interpret the popularity of Amazon in art as indicators of societal trends, both positive and negative. Greek and Roman societies, however, utilized the Amazon mythology as a literary and artistic vehicle to unite against a commonly-held enemy. The metaphysical characteristics of Amazons were seen as personifications of both nature and religion. Roman authors like Virgil, Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Curtius, Plutarch, Arrian, and Pausanius advocated the greatness of the state, as Amazon myths served to discuss the creation of origin and identity for the Roman people, that, however, changed over time. Amazons in Roman literature and art have many faces, such as the Trojan ally, the warrior goddess, the native Latin, the warmongering Celt, the proud Sarmatian, the hedonistic and passionate Thracian warrior queen, the subdued Asian city, and the worthy Roman foe.[74][75]

In Renaissance Europe, artists started to reevaluate and depict Amazons based on Christian ethics. Queen Elizabeth of England was associated with Amazon warrior qualities (the foremost ancient examples of feminism) during her reign and was indeed depicted as such. Though, as explained in Divinia Viagro by Winfried Schleiner, Celeste T. Wright "has given a detailed account of the bad press Amazons had in the Renaissance (with respect to their unwomanly conduct and Scythian cruelty). She notes that she has not found any Elizabethans comparing the queen directly to an Amazon, and suggests that they might have hesitated to do so because of the association of Amazons with enfranchisement of women, which was considered contemptible."[76]

Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel depicted the Battle of the Amazons around 1598, a most dramatic baroque painting, followed by a painting of the Rococo period by Johann Georg Platzer, also titled Battle of the Amazons. In 19th-century European Romanticism German artist Anselm Feuerbach occupied himself with the Amazons as well. His paintings engendered all the aspirations of the Romantics: their desire to transcend the boundaries of the ego and of the known world; their interest in the occult in nature and in the soul; their search for a national identity, and the ensuing search for the mythic origins of the Germanic nation; finally, their wish to escape the harsh realities of the present through immersion in an idealized past.[77]”


Archaeology

Amazon in Scythian attire, Attic vase, c. 420 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich

Speculation that the idea of Amazons contains a core of reality is based on archaeological discoveries at kurgan burial sites in the steppes of southern Ukraine and Russia. The graves of numerous high-ranking Scythian and Sarmatian warrior women, who might have participated in warfare led scholars to suggest that the Amazonian legend has been inspired by the real world. About 20% of the warrior graves on the lower Don and lower Volga contained women dressed for battle similar to how men dress... Armed women accounted for up to 25% of Sarmatian military burials. Russian archaeologist Vera Kovalevskaya asserts, that when Scythian men were abroad fighting or hunting, women would have to be able to competently defend themselves, their animals and pastures.[78]

In early 20th century Minoan archeology a theory regarding Amazon origins in Minoan civilization was raised in an essay by Lewis Richard Farnell and John Myres. According to Myres, the tradition interpreted in the light of evidence furnished by supposed Amazon cults seems to have been very similar and may have even originated in Minoan culture.[79]

Modern legacy

Postcard promoting Munich as Capital of German Art of the Olympia-Sommer 1936. The Amazone holds a longbow and a victory wreath.
Amazone on a special stamp promoting German horse races in the 1930s

16th-century Spanish explorer and conquistador Francisco de Orellana, inspired by clashes with a tribe, whose women fought alongside the men, as skilled and courageous as Amazons, he named the longest river of the Americas Amazon river in their honor.[80]

The city of Samsun in modern-day Samsun Province, Turkey features an Amazon Village museum, to help bring attention to the legacy of the Amazons and to promote both academic interest and tourism. An annual Amazon Celebration Festival takes place in the Terme district.[81] [82]

From 1936 to 1939, annual propaganda events, called Night of the Amazons (Nacht der Amazonen) were performed in Nazi Germany at the Nymphenburg Palace Park in Munich. Announced as evening highlights of the International Horse Racing Week Munich-Riem, bare-breasted variety show girls of the SS-Cavalry, 2,500 participants and international guests performed at the open-air revue. These revues served to promote an allegedly emancipated female role and a cosmopolitan and foreigner-friendly Nazi regime.

In literature and media

Literature

Film and television

Games

Amazons are featured in the following roleplay - and video games: Diablo, Heroes Unlimited, Aliens Unlimited, Amazon: Guardians of Eden, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Rome: Total War, Final Fantasy IV, Age of Wonders Planetfall, Legend of Zelda series and Yu-Gi-Oh games.

Military units

Movements

  • During the period 1905–1913, members of the militant Suffragette movement were frequently referred to as "Amazons" in books and newspaper articles.[84]
  • In Ukraine Katerina Tarnovska leads a group called the Asgarda which claims to be a new tribe of Amazons.[85] Tarnovska believes that the Amazons are the direct ancestors of Ukrainian women, and she has created an all-female martial art for her group, based on another form of fighting called Combat Hopak, but with a special emphasis on self-defense.[85]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Carly Silver (October 28, 2019). "The Amazons Were More Than A Myth: Archaeological And Written Evidence For The Ancient Warrior Women". ATI. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Adrienne Mayor (September 22, 2014). "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World". Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  3. ^ Carlos Parada, Maicar Förlag. "AMAZONS". maicar. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  4. ^ Andreas David Mordtmann. "Die Amazonen : ein Beitrag zur unbefangenen Prüfung und Würdigung der ältesten Überlieferungen". Reader digitale sammlungen. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  5. ^ Ian Harvey (August 5, 2019). "The Fierce Amazon Warrior Women – What's Real and What's Myth". Vintage news. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  6. ^ Mark Cartwright (November 14, 2019). "AMAZONS". Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  7. ^ Jacob Stern (1 January 1996). On Unbelievable Tales. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. ISBN 978-0-86516-320-1.
  8. ^ Hansen, William F. (26 April 2005). Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195300352 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Anton Westermann (1839). Paradoxographoi [romanized].: Scriptores rerum mirabilium graeci. Insunt (Aristotelis) Mirabiles auscultationes ; Antigoni, Apollonii, Phlegontis Historiae mirabiles, Michaelis Pselli Lectiones mirabiles, reliquorum eiusdem generis scriptorum deperditorum fragmenta . Accedunt Phlegontis Macrobii et Olympiadum reliquiae et anonymi tractus De mulieribus, etc. sumptum fecit G. Westermann.
  10. ^ Simon, Worrall. "Amazon Warriors Did Indeed Fight and Die Like Men". National Geographic. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  11. ^ Foreman, Amanda. "The Amazon Women: Is There Any Truth Behind the Myth?". Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  12. ^ Schuster, Ruth (2 January 2020). "Tomb with Three Generations of 'Amazon' Warrior Women Found in Russia". Haaretz.
  13. ^ Bacchylides, Epinicians, p. 9.
  14. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Books I-V, p. 3.
  15. ^ a b Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound.
  16. ^ Marston, William Moulton. "Wonder Woman". Archive. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  17. ^ a b c J. H. Blok (1995). The Early Amazons: Modern and Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-10077-6.
  18. ^ Hinge 2005, pp. 94–98
  19. ^ Marylene Patou-mathis (1 October 2020). L'homme préhistorique est aussi une femme. Allary éditions. pp. 313–. ISBN 978-2-37073-342-9.
  20. ^ a b Haynes, Natalie (16 October 2014). "The Amazons: Lives & Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor, book review". The Independent. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  21. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Amazons". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 790–791.
  22. ^ Flavius Philostratus, Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, Jennifer K. Berenson Maclean (August 5, 2019). "Flavius Philostratus, On Heroes". The Center for Hellenic Studies. Retrieved January 10, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ "The Amazons - Adrienne Mayor,". Radio Four. 6 April 2015.
  24. ^ a b "Διονυσιακά/36 - Βικιθήκη". el.wikisource.org.
  25. ^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women.
  26. ^ P. Walcot. "Greek Attitudes towards Women: The Mythological Evidence". jstor. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  27. ^ Herodotus, The Histories, p. 1.173.1.
  28. ^ John Man (October 23, 2017). "The real Amazons: how the legendary warrior women inspired fighters and feminists". BBC History Magazine. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  29. ^ Simon Worrall (October 28, 2014). "Amazon Warriors Did Indeed Fight and Die Like Men". National Geographic. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  30. ^ "HARMONIA". Theoi. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  31. ^ "ARES FAMILY - Greek Mythology". theoi com. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  32. ^ Adrienne Mayor, Josiah Ober. "AMAZONS". Historynet. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  33. ^ Colin Quartermain (February 2, 2017). "BELLEROPHON IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY - Bellerophon and the Amazons". Greek legends and myths. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  34. ^ "Epic Cycle". Livius org. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  35. ^ Homer, Iliad, p. 2.45–46.
  36. ^ Homer, Iliad, p. 3.52–55.
  37. ^ Bruce Robert Magee. "The Amazon Myth in Western Literature". Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  38. ^ Herodotus, The Histories, p. 4.110.1.
  39. ^ "Reading on Amazons". University of Washington. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  40. ^ "Suda Encyclopedia". Topostext. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  41. ^ Sue Blundell; Susan Blundell (1995). Women in Ancient Greece p. 60. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-95473-1.
  42. ^ a b Stéphane Gsell. "Boston 98.916 (Vase), from the Vulci necropolis". Tufts University. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  43. ^ a b Tobias Fischer-Hansen; Birte Poulsen (2009). From Artemis to Diana: The Goddess of Man and Beast. Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 333–. ISBN 978-87-635-0788-2.
  44. ^ a b Page duBois (July 1991). Centaurs and Amazons: Women and the Pre-History of the Great Chain of Being. University of Michigan Press. pp. 33–. ISBN 0-472-08153-5.
  45. ^ Florence Mary Bennett (1967). Religious Cults Associated With the Amazons. Library of Alexandria. pp. 88–. ISBN 978-1-4655-7683-5.
  46. ^ Mayor, Adrienne (22 September 2014). The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400865130 – via Google Books.
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  49. ^ Greek Alexander Romance, 3.25–26
  50. ^ Plutarch, Life of Alexander, Chapter 46
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  52. ^ Lee Fratantuono (30 September 2017). Lucullus: The Life and Campaigns of a Roman Conqueror. Pen & Sword Books. pp. 100–. ISBN 978-1-4738-8363-5.
  53. ^ Adrienne Mayor (22 September 2014). The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World. Princeton University Press. pp. 15–. ISBN 978-1-4008-6513-0.
  54. ^ Friedhelm Hoffmann; Joachim Friedrich Quack (2018). Anthologie der demotischen Literatur. LIT Verlag Münster. pp. 419–. ISBN 978-3-643-14029-6.
  55. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Books I-V, p. 4.
  56. ^ Scholia on Pindar, Nemean Ode 3. 64
  57. ^ "Justinus: Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Philippic Histories 2.4". Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  58. ^ Paulus Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos, I. 15
  59. ^ HYGINUS, FABULAE & 163, 30, 122, 223.
  60. ^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E5. 1
  61. ^ Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 370 ff and 382 ff
  62. ^ Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, 6. 370–377
  63. ^ D. WHITEHEAD. "From Political Architecture to Stephanus Byzantius. Sources for the study of the ancient Greek polis". Brill. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  64. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Anaia
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  70. ^ "New Frog Species Named After Fabled Female Warriors". National Geographic. 2018-07-20. Retrieved 2021-01-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  71. ^ It has been suggested that what Orellana actually engaged was an especially warlike tribe of Native Americans whose warrior men had long hair and thus appeared to him as women. See Theobaldo Miranda Santos, Lendas e mitos do Brasil ("Brazil's legends and myths"), Companhia Editora Nacional, 1979.
  72. ^ The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Dover publications, Mineola, New York, 2006, cap. XVII, p. 103-104
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  74. ^ Annaliese Elaine Patten (March 22, 2012). "The Amazon in Greek Art". Portland State University. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  75. ^ Erin W. Leal (March 22, 2012). "Roman Interpretations of the Amazons through Literature and Art". Ancient EU. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  76. ^ Winfried Schleiner (March 22, 2012). ""Divina Virago": Queen Elizabeth as an Amazon". Jstor. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  77. ^ "German masters of the nineteenth century : paintings and drawings from the Federal Republic of Germany / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York :: Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications". libmma.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
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  82. ^ "Village of Amazons to be recreated in Samsun park". Todays Zaman. June 10, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  83. ^ "9 to 5". TV Tropes. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  84. ^ Wilson, Gretchen "With All Her Might: The Life of Gertrude Harding, Militant Suffragette" (Holmes & Meier Publishing, April 1998)
  85. ^ a b "Ukraine's Asgarda martial arts program recasts Amazon warrior women | Public Radio International". Pri.org. Retrieved 2014-01-25.

Sources

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amazons.
Look up Amazon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Amazons.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Amazons".
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