Amazons

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The Amazons (in Greek, Αμαζόνες) were a mythical ancient nation of all-female warriors. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia. Speculation based on archaeological evidence that some Sarmatian women may have participated in battle has led scholars to suggest that the Amazonian legend in Greek mythology could have been inspired by real warrior women,^[1] though this remains a minority opinion among classical historians.

[edit] Etymology

This word is probably derived from the Iranian ethnonym *ha-mazan-, originally meaning "warriors". A connected word is probably the Hesychius of Alexandria gloss ἁμαζακάραν· πολεμεῖν. Πέρσαι ("hamazakaran: 'to make war' (Persian)", containing the Indo-Iranian root kar- "make" also in kar-ma).

The Greek variant of the name was connected by popular etymology to a- (privative) + mazos, "without breast", connected with an aetiological tradition that Amazons had their right breast cut off or burnt out, so they would be able to use a bow more freely and throw spears without the physical limitation and obstruction; there is no indication of this practice in works of art, in which the Amazons are always represented with both breasts, although the right is frequently covered. Other suggested derivations were: a- (intensive) + mazos, breast, "full-breasted"; a- (privative) masso, touch, "not touching" (men); maza, a Circassian word said to signify "moon", has suggested their connection with the worship of a moon-goddess, perhaps the Asiatic representative of Artemis. According to John Colarusso,^[2] the Circassian word a-maz(ə)-áh-na, pronounced like the Greek Amazon (stress on the last syllable), means 'mother-of-the-forest', but could also be interpreted as 'moon mother'.^[3]

[edit] Amazons of Greek mythology

Amazons were said to have lived in Pontus, which is part of modern day Turkey near the shore of the Euxine Sea (the Black Sea), where they formed an independent kingdom under the government of a queen, often named Hippolyta ("she lets her horses loose"). They were supposed to have founded many towns, amongst them Smyrna, Ephesus, Sinope, and Paphos. According to the dramatist Aeschylus, in the distant past they had lived in Scythia, at the Palus Maeotis ("Lake Maeotis", the Sea of Azov), but later moved to Themiscyra on the River Thermodon (the Terme river in northern Turkey). Herodotus called them Androktones ("killers of men"), and he stated that in the Scythian language they were called 'Oiorpata', which also has this meaning. In some versions, no men were permitted to have sexual encounters or reside in Amazon country; but once a year, in order to prevent their race from dying out, they visited the Gargareans, a neighbouring tribe. The male children who were the result of these visits were either put to death, sent back to their fathers or left in the wilderness to fend for themselves; the females were kept and brought up by their mothers, and trained in agricultural pursuits, hunting, and the art of war (Strabo xi. p. 503).

In the Iliad, the Amazons were referred to as Antianeira ("those who fight like men").

The Amazons also make an appearance with the Argonauts, who came across the island of Lemnos on their way to the land of Colchis. They found Lemnos inhabited only by women and ruled by Queen Hypsipyle. They named the island Gynaikokratumene, a Greek word which roughly translates to reigned by women. Apollonius of Rhodes writes that the women received Jason and his companions in battle array -- "Hypsipile assumed her father's arms, and led the van, terrific in her charms." The young queen tells them that Lemnos was invaded in the past and all of the men were killed. The Amazons invite the Argonauts to take their fallen husbands' places. What the Argonauts do not realize is that the men of the island were slain by their own womenfolk. The Argonauts fortunately were not persuaded to stay long. As they sailed away through the Hellespont and crept up the Euxine they are told -- "flee the Amazonian shore, Else Themyscira soon, with rude alarms, Had seen the assembled Amazons in arms."

The Amazons appear in Greek art of the Archaic period and in connection with several Greek legends. They invaded Lycia, but were defeated by Bellerophon, who was sent out against them by Iobates, the king of that country, in the hope that he might meet his death at their hands (Iliad, vi. 186). The tomb of Myrine is mentioned in the Iliad; later interpretation made of her an Amazon: according to Diodorus,^[4] Queen Myrine led her Amazons to victory against Libya and much of Gorgon.

They attacked the Phrygians, who were assisted by Priam, then a young man (Iliad, iii. 189). Although in his later years, towards the end of the Trojan War, his old opponents took his side again against the Greeks under their queen Penthesilea "of Thracian birth" (Quintus Smyrnaeus), who was slain by Achilles, in the Aethiopis^[5] that continued the Iliad. (Quintus Smyrn. i.; Justin ii. 4; Virgil, Aeneid i. 490).

One of the tasks imposed upon Heracles by Eurystheus was to obtain possession of the girdle of the Amazonian queen Hippolyte (Apollodorus ii. 5). He was accompanied by his friend Theseus, who carried off the princess Antiope, sister of Hippolyte, an incident which led to a retaliatory invasion of Attica, in which Antiope perished fighting by the side of Theseus. In some versions, however, Theseus marries Hippolyta and in others, he marries Antiope and she does not die. The battle between the Athenians and Amazons is often commemorated in an entire genre of art, amazonomachy, in marble bas-reliefs such as from the Parthenon or the sculptures of the mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

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 had been deposited by Thetis. The ghost of the dead hero appeared and so terrified the horses, that they threw and trampled upon the invaders, who were forced to retire. Pompey is said to have found them in the army of Mithridates.

They are heard of in the time of Alexander, when some of the great king's biographers make mention of Amazon Queen Thalestris visiting him and becoming a mother by him. However, several other biographers of Alexander dispute the claim, including the highly regarded secondary source, Plutarch. In his writing he makes mention of a moment when Alexander's secondary naval commander, Onesicritus, was reading the Amazon passage of his Alexander history to King Lysimachus of Thrace who was on the original expedition: the king smiled at him and said "And where was I, then?"

The Roman writer Virgil's characterization of the Volscian warrior maiden Camilla in the Aeneid borrows heavily from the myth of the Amazons.

Quintus Smyrnaeus (Posthomerica i) 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."

• Ainia
• Antianara
• Antibrote
• Antiope
• Asteria
• Cleite
• Helene
• Hippolyte
• Melanippe
• Otrera
• Penthesilea
• Thalestris
• Thebe

[edit] Scythia and Sarmatia

Herodotus reports that the Sarmatians were descendants of Amazons and Scythians, and that their females "have continued from that day to the present [i.e. up to 440 BC] to observe their ancient [Amazonian] customs, frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the men" Moreover, said Herodotus, "No girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle". In the story related by Herodotus, a group of Amazons was blown across the Maeotian Lake (the Sea of Azov) into Scythia near the cliff region (today's southeastern Crimea). After learning the Scythian language, they agreed to marry Scythian men, on the condition that they not be required to follow the customs of Scythian women. According to Herodotus, this band moved toward the northeast, settling beyond the Tanais (Don) river, and became the ancestors of the Sauromatians. According to Herodotus, the Sarmatians fought with the Scythians against Darius the Great in the 5th century B.C.

Hippocrates describes them as: "They have no right breasts...for while they are yet babies their mothers make red-hot a bronze instrument constructed for this very purpose and apply it to the right breast and cauterize it, so that its growth is arrested, and all its strength and bulk are diverted to the right shoulder and right arm." But experts agree that the Amazons would not have had the medical knowledge to manage the inevitable massive hemorrhage or infection if such ablation of the breast actually occurred. Others claim that amputation of the breast followed by cauterization could have been performed with instruments specifically designed for this purpose. (See also breast ironing, a current practice in which breast growth is deliberately stunted.)

Both Herodotus' and Hippocrates' accounts inform us the Sarmatians took interest in turning their women into strong-armed huntresses and fighters. Archaeological evidence seems to confirm the existence of Women-Warriors, as Sarmatian women's active role in military operation and social life. Burial of armed Sarmatian women comprise about 25 percent of the military burial in the group, and are usually buried with bows.^[1]

Russian archaeologist Vera Kovalevskaya points out that when Scythian men were away fighting or hunting, nomadic women would have to be able to defend themselves, their animals and pasture-grounds competently. During the time that the Scythians advanced into Asia and achieved near-hegemony in the Near-East, there was a period of twenty-eight years when the men would have been away on campaigns for long periods. During this time the women would not only have had to defend themselves, but to reproduce and this could well be the origin of the idea that Amazons mated once a year with their neighbours, if Herodotus actually intended to base this on a factual base.^[1]

Before modern archaeology uncovered some of the Scythian burials of warrior-maidens entombed under kurgans in the region of Altay Mountains and Sarmatia,^[6] giving concrete form at last to the Greek tales of mounted Amazons, the origin of the story of the Amazons has been the subject of speculation among classics scholars. In the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica speculation ranged along the following lines:

While some regard the Amazons as a purely mythical people, others assume an historical foundation for them. The deities worshipped by them were Ares (who is consistently assigned to them as a god of war, and as a god of Thracian and generally northern origin) and Artemis, not the usual Greek goddess of that name, but an Asiatic deity in some respects her equivalent. It is conjectured that the Amazons were originally the temple-servants and priestesses (hierodulae) of this goddess; and that the removal of the breast corresponded with the self-mutilation of the god Attis and the galli, Roman priests of Cybele. Another theory is that, as the knowledge of geography extended, travellers brought back reports of tribes ruled entirely by women, who carried out the duties which elsewhere were regarded as peculiar to man, in whom alone the rights of nobility and inheritance were vested, and who had the supreme control of affairs. Hence arose the belief in the Amazons as a nation of female warriors, organized and governed entirely by women.

According to J. Vurtheim (De Ajacis origine, 1907), the Amazons were of Greek origin: "all the Amazons were Dianas, as Diana herself was an Amazon". It has been suggested that the fact of the conquest of the Amazons being assigned to the two famous heroes of Greek mythology, Heracles and Theseus — who in the tasks assigned to them were generally opposed to monsters and beings impossible in themselves, but possible as illustrations of permanent danger and damage — shows that they were mythical illustrations of the dangers which beset the Greeks on the coasts of Asia Minor; rather perhaps, it may be intended to represent the conflict between the Greek culture of the colonies on the Black Sea and the barbarism of the native inhabitants. It's very likely that they tried to portray Greek culture as the center of civilitzation, portraying the inhabitants in the surrounding of their territories as barbaric.

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 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.

[edit] Alternative origin hypotheses

P. Walcot spoke for most mythographers when he wrote, "Wherever the Amazons are located by the Greeks, whether it is somewhere along the Black Sea in the distant north-east, or in Libya in the furthest south, it is always beyond the confines of the civilized world. The Amazons exist outside the range of normal human experience."^[7] Thus it is unexpected to find them placed by a modern writer in Crete, in the heart of the Aegean world. When Minoan archeology was still in its infancy, nevertheless, a theory raised in an essay regarding the Amazons contributed by L.R. Farnell and J.L. Myres to Marett,'s Anthropology and the Classics, 1908,^[8] placed their possible origins in Minoan civilization, drawing attention to overlooked similarities between the two cultures. According to Myres, (pp. 153 ff), 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.

Recent archaeological finds^{[citation needed]} unearthed on the island of Lemnos, which is part of the Lesbos Prefecture islands, brings to light similarities that are found in Greek mythology between the Amazons and the Argonauts who came across this island and found it inhabited only by women, naming it Gynaikokratumene ("reigned by women"). The city of Poliochni dating back to the Early Bronze Age makes it one of the oldest in Europe. Excavations show that Poliochni was a rather wealthy city, twice the size of contemporary Troy and had large houses arranged in blocks with main roads, wells and drainages. The city had a 5 meter high stone wall surrounding it with what seem to be slots for archers. Poliochni is also the only place were arrowheads have been found during this time period. Some theorize that the city's uniformed large houses demonstrates there existed a society with very little social differences that one would associate with a society of matriarchy, similar to that a society of Amazons would have had. Another interesting theory raised between the island and the Amazons of Greek mythology is the name of the ancient city of Myrina, a striking coincidence that one of the earliest Amazon queens was named Myrina who could muster 30,000 foot-soldiers and 3000 cavalry. It was during her reign that the Amazons encountered another race of woman warriors known as the Gorgons. Interestingly the island of Lesbos has a church dedicated to a Panagia Gorgona.

The archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball found evidence of the existence of women-warrior tribes on the Russian steppes who conceivably could have corresponded to the legendary Amazons.^[9] Genetic tests of 2,300-year-old skeletal remains of a nomadic woman buried with weapons in southern Russia, who could have been a warrior priestess and part of a group of nomadic warrior women, showed a match with DNA sequences of a present-day girl of Mongolia.^[10]

[edit] Amazon cults and tombs in Ancient Greece

According to ancient sources, (Plutarch Theseus^[11], Pausanias^[12]), Amazon tombs could be found frequently throughout what was once known as the ancient Greek world. Some are found in Megara, Athens, Chaeronea, Chalcis, Thessaly at Scotussa, in Cynoscephalae and statues of Amazons are all over Greece. At both Chalsis and Athens Plutarch tells us that there was an Amazoneum or shrine of Amazons that implied the presence of both tombs and cult. On the day before the Thesea at Athens there were annual sacrifices to the Amazons. In historical times Greek maidens of Ephesus performed an annual circular dance with weapons and shields that had been established by Hippolyte and her Amazons. They had initially set up wooden statues of Artemis, a bretas, (Pausanias, (fl.c.160): Description of Greece, Book I: Attica^[13]). With the fall of the Minoan civilization, other than the mythological Amazons, there has yet to be discovered a culture which historically was known to exist, their social infrastructure so well organized and somewhat familiar to scholars which was dominated by women the way Minoan culture was.

[edit] Amazons in Greek and Roman art

In works of art, battles between Amazons and Greeks are placed on the same level as and often associated with battles of Greeks and centaurs. The belief in their existence, however, having been once accepted and introduced into the national poetry and art, it became necessary to surround them as far as possible with the appearance of not unnatural beings. Their occupation was hunting and war; their arms the bow, spear, axe, a half shield, nearly in the shape of a crescent, called pelta, and in early art a helmet, the model before the Greek mind having apparently been the goddess Athena. In later art they approach the model of Artemis, wearing a thin dress, girt high for speed; while on the later painted vases their dress is often peculiarly Persian – that is, close-fitting trousers and a high cap called the kidaris. They were usually on horseback but sometimes on foot. They can also be identified in vase paintings by the fact that they are wearing one earring. The battle between Theseus and the Amazons (Amazonomachy) is a favourite subject on the friezes of temples (e.g. the reliefs from the frieze of the temple of Apollo at Bassae, now in the British Museum), vases and sarcophagus reliefs; at Athens it was represented on the shield of the statue of Athena Parthenos, on wall-paintings in the Theseum and in the Stoa Poikile. There were also three standard Amazon statue types.

[edit] In later literature and popular culture

Further information: List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture

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 their regaining power.

The DC Comics superhero, Wonder Woman reflected this mythology. Princess Diana's name is reflective of the mythological character, Diana or Artemis. Her mother is Queen Hippolyta, or Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons. When Diana leaves the Amazons to travel to the world outside, she is known as both Wonder Woman, and as Diana Prince.

[edit] See also

• Wonder Woman
• History of women in the military
• Timeline of women in ancient warfare
• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
• Dahomey Amazons
• Valkyrie
• Themis
• Artemis
• Liburnians (according to Pseudo-Scylax ruled by women)
• Virago
• Matriarchy
• Terra Feminarum
• Sitones
• Amazon Feminism
• Feminism
• Anarcho-Feminism

[edit] Sources and notes

[edit] Bibliography

• A. D. Mordtmann, Die Amazonen (1862)
• W. Stricker, Die Amazonen in Sage und Geschichte (1868)
• A. Klugmann, Die Amazonen in der attischen Literatur und Kunst (1875)
• H. L. Krause, Die Amazonensage (1893)
• F. G. Bergmann, Les Amazones dans l'histoire et dans la fable (1853)
• P. Lacour, Les Amazones (1901)
• articles in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie, and W. H. Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie
• George Grote, History of Greece, pt. i. ch. 11.
• J. A. Salmonson, The Encyclopedia of Amazons (1991), ISBN 0-385-42366-7
• Josine H. Blok, The Early Amazons: Modern and Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth (1995)

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

[edit] External links

• Herodotus on the Amazons
  • Herodotus via Gutenberg
  • Perseus
• Man-Handlers: Feminism in Ancient Greece by Declan Jenkins, New College, Oxford, in The Owl Journal
• Straight Dope: Amazons
  • Religious cults associated with the Amazons
• The Amazons in Greek Legend
• Amazons of Mythology
• Amazon Research Center
• Straight Dope
• The Amazon Connection
• Amazon Nation
• Secrets of the Dead: Amazon Warrior Women (PBS)
• The Women Warriors - the Sarmatians
• Women Warriors Art, Stories, Links. Lots of Amazon material.

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