AMAZON
WOMEN WARRIORS PART - 6
![](512px-Amazzone_ferita_-_Musei_Capitolini.jpg)
Wounded
Amazon of the Capitoline Museums, Rome
![](AmazonBattle.jpg)
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 were a tribe of warrior women believed
to live in Asia
Minor. Apollonius Rhodius, in his Argonautica, mentions that
the Amazons were the daughters of Ares and Harmonia (a nymph of
the Akmonian Wood), that they were brutal and aggressive, and their
main concern in life was war. Lysias, Isocrates, Philostratus
the Elder and Bacchylides also said that their father was Ares.
Herodotus,
Strabo and Bacchylides place them on the banks of the Thermodon
River. According to Diodorus, giving the account of Dionysius
of Mitylene (who in turn drew on Thymoetas), the Amazons inhabited
Ancient Libya long before they settled along the Thermodon.
Migrating from Libya, these Amazons passed through Egypt and
Syria, and stopped at the Caïcus in Aeolis, near which they
founded several cities. Later, Diodorus maintains, they established
Mytilene a little way beyond the Caïcus. Aeschylus, in Prometheus
Bound, places the original home of the Amazons in the country about
Lake Maeotis, and from which they moved to Themiscyra on the Thermodon.
Homer tells that the Amazons were sought and found somewhere near
Lycia (Lycia was a geopolitical region in Anatolia in what are
now the provinces of Antalya and Mugla on the southern coast of
Turkey).
Notable
queens of the Amazons are Penthesilea, who participated in the Trojan
War, her sister Hippolyta, whose magical girdle, given to her by
her father Ares, was the object of one of the labours of
Heracles and their mother, Otrera, consort of Ares and the first
(and perhaps the most well-known) Amazonian queen.
The
Amazons fought on the side of Troy against the Greeks during the
Trojan War. Diodorus mentions that the Amazons traveled from
Libya under Queen Myrina. Amazon warriors were often depicted
in battle with Greek warriors in amazonomachies in classical art.
From the early modern period, their name has become a term for female
warriors in general. Amazons were said to have founded the cities
and temples of Smyrna, Sinope, Cyme, Gryne, Ephesus, Pitania, Magnesia,
Clete, Pygela, Latoreria and Amastris; according to legend, the
Amazons also invented the cavalry.
Palaephatus,
who was trying to rationalize the Greek myths in his On Unbelievable
Tales, wrote that the Amazons were probably men who were mistaken
for women by their enemies because they wore clothing which reached
their feet, tied up their hair in headbands and shaved their beards,
and in addition, because they did not exist during his time, most
probably they did n?t exist in the past either.
Archaeological
discoveries of burial sites with female warriors on the Eurasian
Steppes suggest that the Scythian women may have inspired the Amazon
myth. In 2019 a grave with multiple generations of female Scythian
warriors in golden headdresses was found near Russia's Voronezh.
Also
Click
here to see Gargareans for Amazon.
Etymology
and origins :
Etymology :
![](623px-Departure_of_the_Amazons_MET_DP318355.jpg)
Departure
of the Amazons, by Claude Deruet, 1620, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York
The origin of the word is uncertain. 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 ("hamazakaran: 'to make war' in Persian"),
where it appears together with the Indo-Iranian root *kar- "make".
It
may also be derived from *n-mn-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.
The
Hittite researcher Friedrich Cornelius assumes that there had been
the land Azzi with the capital Chajasa in the area of the Thermodon-Iris
Delta on the coast of the Black Sea. He brings its residents in
direct relation to the Amazons, namely based on its name (woman
of the land Azzi = 'Am'+ 'Azzi' = Amazon) and its customs (matriarchal
custom of promiscuous sexual intercourse, even with blood relatives).
The location of that land as well as his conclusions are controversial.
—
Gerhard Pollauer [self-published source?]
Among Classical Greeks, amazon was given a folk etymology as
originating from a- (?-) and mazos, "without breast",
connected with an etiological tradition once claimed by Marcus Justinus
who alleged that Amazons had their right breast cut off or burnt
out. There is no indication of such a practice in ancient works
of art, in which the Amazons are always represented with both breasts,
although one is frequently covered. Adrienne Mayor suggests that
the false etymology led to the myth.
Origins
:
![](345px-Amazon_trousers_BM_VaseB673.jpg)
Amazon
wearing trousers and carrying a shield with an attached patterned
cloth and a quiver. Ancient Greek Attic white-ground alabastron,
c. 470 BC, British Museum, London
Herodotus, Strabo and Bacchylides placed the Amazons on the banks
of the Thermodon (today's Terme river) and Themiscyra (probably
close to the modern city of Terme). Herodotus also mentions that
some Amazons lived in Scythia because after the Greeks defeated
the Amazons in battle, they sailed away carrying in three ships
as many Amazons as they had been able to take alive, but out at
sea the Amazons attacked the crews and killed them, then these Amazons
landed on Scythian lands. Strabo writes that the original home of
the Amazons was in Themiscyra and the plains about Thermodon and
the mountains that lie above them, but that they were later driven
out of these places, and during his time they were said to live
in the mountains above Caucasian Albania (not to be confused with
the modern Albania). But he also states that some others, among
them Metrodorus of Scepsis and Hypsicrates, say that after Themiscyra,
the Amazons traveled and lived on the borders of the Gargarians,
in the northerly foothills of those parts of the Caucasian Mountains
which are called Ceraunian.
Aeschylus,
in Prometheus Bound, places the original home of the Amazons in
the country about Lake Maeotis and they later moved to Themiscyra
on the Thermodon. Homer had placed the Amazons much closer to the
Greek world of his times, saying that the Amazons were sought and
found somewhere near Lycia.
Diodorus
Siculus, giving the account of Dionysius of Mitylene, who, on his
part, drew on Thymoetas, states that before the Amazons of the Thermodon
there were, much earlier in time, the Amazons of Libya. These
Amazons started from Libya passed through Egypt and Syria, and stopped
at the Caïcus in Aeolis, near which they founded several cities.
Later, he says, they established Mitylene a little way beyond the
Caïcus.
![](576px-Amazon.jpg)
Amazons monument in Samsun, Turkey
Plutarch mentions that the campaigns of Heracles and Theseus
against the Amazons took place on the Euxine Sea (the modern Black
Sea). According to Pseudo-Plutarch, the Amazons lived in and about
the Tanais river (modern Don river), formerly called the Amazonian
or Amazon river, because the Amazons bathed themselves therein.
The Amazons later moved to Themiscyra (speculated to be modern Terme,
though no ruins exist) on the River Thermodon (the Terme river in
northern Turkey).
The
Amazons were supposed to have founded many towns, amongst them Smyrna,
Ephesus, Cyme, Myrina, Sinope, Paphos, Mitylene. At Patmos there
was a place called Amazonium. Also, on the island of Lemnos, there
was another Myrina. The cities of Myrina had this name after the
amazon Myrina.
Apollonius
Rhodius, in his Argonautica (third century BC), mentions that at
Thermodon the Amazons were not gathered together in one city, but
scattered over the land, parted into three tribes. In one part dwelt
the Themiscyreians, in another the Lycastians, and in another the
Chadesians.
Other
names :
Greeks also used other descriptive phrases for them. Herodotus used
the Androktones (Androktona) ("killers/slayers of men")
and Androleteirai (Androleteira) ("destroyers of men, murderesses"),
in the Iliad they are also called Antianeirai (Antianeira) ("equivalent
to men") and Aeschylus used the Styganor ("those who loathe
all men") in his work Prometheus Bound and in the Suppliant
Maidens he called them ("the unwed, flesh-devouring Amazons").
In Hippolytus play, Phaedra calls Hippolytus, "the son of the
horse-loving Amazon". Nonnus at Dionysiaca call the Amazons
of Dionysus, Androphonus ("men slaying").
Herodotus
stated that in the Scythian language they were called Oiorpata,
oior meaning "man", and pata meaning "to slay".
Historical
background :
Classicist Peter Walcot 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."
Nevertheless,
there are various proposals for a historical nucleus of the Amazons
of Greek historiography, the most obvious candidates being historical
Scythia and Sarmatia in line with the account by Herodotus, but
some authors prefer a comparison to cultures of Asia Minor or even
Minoan Crete.
Mythology
:
The Amazons and Troy :
![](640px-Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Battle_of_the_Amazons_-_WGA20302.jpg)
Battle
of the Amazons, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1618, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
The Amazons appear in Greek art of the Archaic period and in connection
with several Greek legends and myths. According to the Iliad, Amazons
attacked the Phrygians, who were assisted by Priam, then a young
man. In his later years, however, towards the end of the Trojan
War, his old opponents took his side against the Greeks under their
queen Penthesilea "of Thracian birth", who was slain by
Achilles. The Lycian King Iobates sent Bellerophon against the
Amazons, hoping that they would kill him, but Bellerophon killed
them all.
The
tomb of Myrine is mentioned in the Iliad; later interpretation made
an Amazon of her. According to Diodorus, the Amazons under the rule
of Queen Myrina, invaded the lands of the Atlantians. Amazons defeated
the army of the Atlantian city of Cerne, treated the captives savagely,
killed all the men, led into slavery the children and women, and
razed the city. When the terrible fate of the inhabitants of
Cerne became known among the other Atlantians, they were struck
with terror, surrendered their cities on terms of capitulation and
announced that they would do whatever should be commanded them.
Queen Myrina bearing herself honourably towards the Atlantians,
established friendship with them and founded a city to bear her
name in place of the city of Cerne which had been razed; and in
it she settled both the captives and any native who so desired.
Atlantians presented her with magnificent presents and by public
decree voted to her notable honours, and she in return accepted
their courtesy and in addition promised that she would show kindness
to their nation. Diodorus also mentions that the Amazons of Queen
Myrina used the skins of gigantic snakes, from Libya, to protect
themselves at battle. Later Queen Myrine led her Amazons to victory
against the Gorgons. After the battle against the Gorgons, Myrina
accorded a funeral to her fallen comrades on three pyres and raised
up three great heaps of earth as tombs, which are called "Amazon
Mounds".
![](640px-Otto_van_Veen_-_Amazons_and_Scythians.jpg)
Amazons
and Scythians, by Otto van Veen, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Dealings with the Scythians :
Herodotus mentions that when Greeks defeated the Amazons at war,
they sailed away carrying in three ships as many Amazons as they
had been able to take alive, out at sea the Amazons attacked the
crews and killed them. But the Amazons knew nothing about ships
so they were driven about by waves and winds and they were disembarked
at the land of the Scythians.
There
they met first with a troop of horses feeding, they seized them
and mounted upon these they plundered the property of the Scythians.
The Scythians were not able to understand them because they did
not know either their speech or their dress or the race to which
they belonged, and they thought that they were men.
Scythians
fought a battle against them, and after the battle the Scythians
got possession of the bodies of the dead, and thus they discovered
that they were women. After the battle Scythians sent young men
and told them to encamp near the Amazons and to do whatsoever they
should do. If the women should come after them, they were not to
fight but to retire before them, and when the women stopped, they
were to approach near and encamp.
This
plan was adopted by the Scythians because they desired to have children
born from them. When the Amazons perceived that they had not come
to do them any harm, they let them alone; and the two camps approached
nearer to one another every day: and the young men, like the Amazons,
had nothing except their arms and their horses and got their living,
as the Amazons did, by hunting and by taking booty. One day a Scythian
and an Amazon came close.
They
could not speak to each other because they were speaking different
languages, but the Amazon made signs to him with her hand to come.
Later the young Scythians and the Amazons joined their camps and
lived together, each man having for his wife her with whom he had
had dealings at first. The men were not able to learn the language
of the Amazons, but the women learned Scythian.
The
Amazons in their homeland :
![](610px-Amazone_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_8953.jpg)
A
helmeted Amazon with her sword and a shield bearing the Gorgon head
image, Tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, 510 – 500 BC, Staatliche
Antikensammlungen, Berlin
In some versions of the myth, the Amazons lived always isolated
from men, communicating with them only to reproduce, and raising
only female offspring. As Sue Blundell notes in her modern work,
Women in Ancient Greece, "For... [some] ancient authors the
Amazons, in spite of their separatist habits, were not immune to
the lure of sexual desire", and went on to cite a story from
Herodotus. The article on the Amazons in the 1911 Encyclopædia
Britannica argues—based on the evidence available at that
time—that while men were not permitted to have sexual encounters
or reside in Amazon country, the Amazons visited the Gargareans,
a neighbouring tribe, once a year, in order to prevent their race
from dying out. Strabo, giving credits to Metrodorus of Scepsis
and Hypsicrates, mentions that at his time the Amazons were believed
to live on the borders of the Gargareans. There were two special
months in the spring in which they would go up into the neighboring
mountain which separates them and the Gargareans.
The
Gargareans also, in accordance with an ancient custom, would go
there to offer sacrifice with the Amazons and also to have intercourse
with them for the sake of begetting children. They did this in secrecy
and darkness, any Gargareans at random with any Amazon, and after
making them pregnant they would send them away.
Any
females that were born are retained by the Amazons themselves, but
the males would be taken to the Gargareans to be brought up; and
each Gargarean to whom a child is brought would adopt the child
as his own, regarding the child as his son because of his uncertainty.
Strabo
also stated that the Gargareans went up from Themiscyra into this
region with the Amazons, then, in company with some Thracians and
Euboeans who had wandered thus far, waged war against them. They
later ended the war against the Amazons and made a compact that
they should have dealings with one another only in the matter of
children, and that each people should live independent of the other.
In addition, he states that the right breasts of all Amazons
are seared when they are infants, so that they can easily use their
right arm for every needed purpose, and especially that of throwing
the javelin and using the bow.
Apollonius
Rhodius, in his Argonautica, mentions that Amazons were the daughters
of Ares and Harmonia (a nymph of the Akmonian Wood). They were brutal
and aggressive, and their main concern in life was war. According
to him, the Amazons were not gathered together in one city, but
scattered over the land, parted into three tribes. In one part dwelt
the Themiscyreians, in another the Lycastians, and in another the
Chadesians. Also, he mentions that on an island, the Queens of the
Amazons, Otrere and Antiope, built a marble temple to Ares. On this
desert island there were ravening birds, which in countless numbers
haunt it. The island mentioned is the Aretias. Argonauts passed
by Themiscyra on their journey to Colchis. Zeus sent Boreas (the
North Wind), and with his help the Argonauts stood out from the
shore near Themiscyra where the Themiscyreian Amazons were arming
for battle.
Battles
with Hercules and Theseus, dealings with Alexander the Great :
One of the tasks imposed upon Hercules by the king of Tyrins, Eurystheus,
was to obtain possession of the girdle of the Amazonian queen Hippolyta.
He was accompanied by his friend Theseus, who carried off the princess
Antiope, sister of Hippolyta, an incident which led to a retaliatory
invasion of Attica, in which Antiope perished fighting by the side
of Theseus. First Hippolyta had been favorable to gift the girdle
to Heracles, but Hera, disguised as Hippolyta, started the war.
Sthenelus was killed during the war. In some versions, however,
Theseus marries Hippolyta and in others, he marries Antiope and
she does not die; by this marriage with the Amazon Theseus had a
son Hippolytus. In another version of this myth, Theseus made this
voyage on his own account, after the time of Heracles.
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.
In The Eumenides, Athena says to the citizens of Attica that Amazons
used the Areopagus as a camp during their campaign against Athens
and Theseus. Plutarch, in his Parallel Lives (The Life of Theseus),
mentions that Bion said that the Amazons, were naturally friendly
to men, and did not fly from Theseus when he touched upon their
coasts.
Amazons
are also heard of in the time of Alexander, when some of the king's
biographers make mention of the Amazon Queen Thalestris visiting
him and becoming a mother by him (the story is known from the Alexander
Romance). 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?"
Battles
with and against Dionysus :
![](640px-Johann_Georg_Platzer_-_Thalestris_im_Lager_Alexander_des_Gro%DFen.jpg)
The
Amazon Queen, Thalestris, in the camp of Alexander the Great, by
Johann Georg Platzer
According to Plutarch, when the god Dionysus and his entourage
fought the Amazons at Ephesus, the Amazons fled to Samos. Dionysus
pursued them and at Samos he killed a great number of them on a
spot which was, from that occurrence, called Panaema, which means
blood-soaked field. 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.
In
another myth Dionysus united with the Amazons to fight against Cronus
and the Titans. Polyaenus writes that after Dionysus had subdued
the Indians, he formed an alliance with them and the Amazons, and
took them into his service. He later used them in his campaign against
the Bactria. Nonnus in his Dionysiaca writes about the Amazons of
Dionysus, but he says that they were not from Thermodon.
Afterlife
of a myth :
Magnes, a poet from Smyrna had sung of the bravery of Lydians in
a cavalry-battle against the Amazons.
Virgil's
characterization of the Volscian warrior maiden Camilla in the Aeneid
borrows heavily from the myth of the Amazons. Philostratus, in Heroica,
writes that the Mysian women fought from 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 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.
Jordanes'
Getica (c. 560 CE), purporting to give the earliest history of the
Goths, relates that the Goths' ancestors, descendants of Magog,
originally dwelt within Scythia, on the Sea of Azov between the
Dnieper and Don Rivers. After a few centuries, following an incident
where the Goths' women successfully fended off a raid by a neighboring
tribe, while the menfolk were off campaigning against Pharaoh Vesosis,
the women formed their own army under Marpesia and crossed the Don,
invading Asia. Her 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 endured 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.
Maximo
and Brahmans :
Maximou,
a female warrior, appears as a character in Digenes Akrites, in
a rather unlikely passage in which the hero first defeats her in
combat and then is seduced by her. From Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons:
Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World:
One episode describes single combat between Digenes and an Amazon
named Maximou ("Daughter of the Greatest"). She was "a
descendant of the Amazon women brought back from among the Brahmins
of India by the emperor Alexander." Leading a band of male
rebel fighters, Maximou rides a milk-white horse with red mane,
tail, and hooves (dyed with henna, a Persian custom brought to India).
But for the duel she arrives on a black warhose (see chapter 11
for color choice of war horses). Wearing a green turban embroidered
in gold and a breastplate over a tunic of purple silk, the Amazon
carries a shield with an eagle device and an Arab spear and sword.
They clash and fight strenuously. After Digenes kills Maximou's
horse, they retreat to the woods where the Amazon removes her armor.
Her "gossamer-thin silk shift reveals her lovely limbs and
breasts", and the hero is smitten with lust. They have sex.
In some versions Digenes later stalks and murders "the promiscuous
creature" for seducing him. In this, Digenes seems to revert
to the old Greek mythic script of killing the foreign Amazon. Some
modern scholars believe that Maximou was originally the heroine
of an earlier oral legend (perhaps about Amazons who returned with
Alexander?), and that she was rather clumsily incorporated into
this Christian moralizing epic.
(Here,
they are talking about Brahmans of India. In India Brahman is a
caste and they have ancient old alliance with warriors).
Source
:
https://literature.stackexchange.com
/questions/5963/maximou-female-
warrior-in-greek-literature
Names
:
![](640px-Orient_m%E9diterran%E9en_de_l%27Empire_romain_-_Mosa%EFque_byzantine_-5.jpg)
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
There are several lists of names of Amazons.
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.
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.
Justin
is the only who mentions another queen, Minithya or Thalestris,
who shared the bed of Alexander the Great in order to conceive,
while Paulus mentions Sinope, successor of Lampedo and Marpesia.
![](606px-Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_The_Battle_of_the_Amazons_-_WGA20272.jpg)
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.
Perhaps
the most important is Queen Otrera, consort of Ares and mother by
him of Hippolyta and Penthesilea. She's also known for building
a temple to Artemis at Ephesus.
Valerius
Flaccus :
Another different set of names is found in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica:
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.
John
Tzetzes :
John Tzetzes in Posthomerica enumerates the Amazons 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. For almost all the names on the list,
except Antianeira and Andromache, this is a unique attestation.[citation
needed]
Stephanus
of Byzantium and Eustathius :
Stephanus of Byzantium provides an alternate list of the Amazons
who fell against Heracles, describing them as "the most prominent"
of their people: Tralla, Isocrateia, Thiba, Palla, Coea (Koia),
Coenia (Koinia). Eustathius gives the same list minus the last two
names. 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.
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. In addition,
the city Anaea in Caria was named after the Amazon.
• 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.
Other names :
Other names of Amazons from various sources include :
•
Aegea, queen
of the Amazons who was thought by some to have been the eponym of
the Aegean Sea.
• Ainia,
presumably accompanied Penthesilea to the Trojan War, killed by
Achilles; known only from an Attic terracotta relief fragment.
• Ainippe,
an Amazon who confronted Telamon in the battle against Heracles'
troops.
• Alce,
who was said to have killed the young Oebalus of Arcadia, son of
Ida (otherwise unknown), with her spear during the Parthian War.
• Andromache,
an Amazon who fought Heracles and was defeated; only known from
vase paintings. Not to be confused with Andromache, wife of Hector.
She was portrayed by Charlize Theron in the film The Old Guard.
•
Antianeira, succeeded Penthesilea as Queen of the Amazons. She was
best known for ordering her male servants to be crippled "as
the lame best perform the acts of love".
• Areto
and Iphito, two little-known Amazons, whose names are only attested
in inscriptions on artefacts.
• Clete,
one of the twelve followers of Penthesilea. After Penthesilea's
death she, in accord with the former's will, sailed off and eventually
landed in Italy, founding the city of Clete.
• Eurypyle,
queen of the Amazons who was reported to have led an expedition
against Ninus and Babylon around 1760 BC.
• Gryne,
an Amazon who was thought to be the eponym of the Gryneian grove
in Asia Minor. She was loved by Apollo and consorted with him in
said grove.
• Helene,
daughter of Tityrus. She fought Achilles and died after he gravely
wounded her.
• Hippo,
an Amazon who took part in the introduction of religious rites in
honor of the goddess Artemis. She was punished by the goddess for
not having performed a ritual dance.
• Latoreia,
who had a small village near Ephesus named after her.
• Lysippe,
mother of Tanais by Berossos. Her son only venerated Ares and was
fully devoted to war, neglecting love and marriage. Aphrodite cursed
him with falling in love with his own mother. Preferring to die
rather than give up his chastity, he threw himself into the river
Amazonius, which was subsequently renamed Tanais.
• Molpadia,
an Amazon who killed Antiope.
• Myrto,
in one source, mother of Myrtilus by Hermes (elsewhere his mother
is called Theobule).
• Pantariste,
who killed Timiades in the battle between the Amazons and Heracles'
troops.
• Sanape,
who fled to Pontus and married a local king. "Sanape"
means "from wine country" in Circassian. According to
a commentary, it was purported to mean "drunkard" in the
local language.
• Themiscyra,
the eponym of the Amazon capital.
Hero cults :
According to ancient sources (Plutarch, Theseus, Pausanias),
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 Skotousa, in Cynoscephalae, and
statues of Amazons are all over Greece. Stephanus of Byzantium,
quoting Ephorus, mention that the tomb of the amazon Anaea was at
the city of Anaea, which also has this name after the amazon.
At
both Chalcis and Athens, Plutarch tells us that there was an Amazoneum
or shrine of Amazons that implied the presence of both tombs and
cult. At the entrance of Athens there was a monument to the Amazon
Antiope. On the day before the Thesea at Athens there were annual
sacrifices to the Amazons. In the Axiochus, mention about an Amazonian
stele near the Itonian Gate at Athens. In historical times Greek
maidens of Ephesus performed an annual circular dance with weapons
and shields that had been established by Hippolyta and her Amazons.
They had initially set up wooden statues of Artemis, a bretas (Pausanias,
(fl. c. AD 160): Description of Greece, Book I: Attica).
Harpokration
mention that Ammonius of Athens in his book "On Altars and
Sacrifices" writes that the Amazons founded the Amazoneion
sanctuary at Athens.
In
art :
![](Gladiatrix_relief.jpg)
Two
female gladiators with their names Amazonia and Achillea
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 natural beings. Amazons were therefore
depicted in the manner of Scythian or Sarmatian horsemen. 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 in the Greek mind had 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. This depiction
of Amazons demonstrates just how closely, in the Greek mind, the
Amazons were linked to the Scythians.
Their
manner of dress has been noted to bear a striking similarity to
the traditional dress of nomadic peoples from the Crimea to Mongolia.
Amazons were described by Herodotus as wearing trousers and having
tall stiff caps. [citation needed] The double-sided axe was the
most emblematic of their weapons. Amazons 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.
In
the Essays in Portraiture, Lucian of Samosata ask Polystratos which,
he think, is the best work of Phidias and Polystratos respond "The
Lemnian Athene, which bears the artist's own signature; and of course
the Amazon leaning on her spear."
The
Suda write that one of the plays of the ancient Greek dramatist
Cephisodorus was called Amazons.
Later
in the Renaissance, as Amazon myth evolved, artists started to depict
warrior women in a new light. Queen Elizabeth was often thought
of as an Amazon-like warrior during her reign and was sometimes
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."
Peter
Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel depicted the Battle of the Amazons
around 1598, showing many attributes of Renaissance-styled paintings.
Amazons also appear in the Rococo period in another painting titled
Battle of the Amazons by Johann Georg Platzer. As a part of the
Romantic period revival, German artist Anselm Feuerbach painted
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.”
In
historiography :
![](563px-S03_06_01_020_image_2552.jpg)
Amazon
in combat, infl. [further explanation needed] Polyclitus, Rome,
now in the Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection
Herodotus reported that the Sarmatians were descendants of Amazons
and Scythians, and that their wives observed their ancient maternal
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 BC.
Xenophon
in Anabasis writes that Democrates of Temnus captured a man with
a Persian bow, a quiver and a battleaxe of the same sort that Amazons
carry.
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."
Amazons
came to play a role in Roman historiography. Caesar reminded the
Senate of the conquest of large parts of Asia by Semiramis and the
Amazons. Successful Amazon raids against Lycia and Cilicia contrasted
with effective resistance by Lydian cavalry against the invaders
(Strabo 5.504; Nicholas Damascenus). Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus pays
particularly detailed attention to the Amazons. The story of the
Amazons as deriving from a Cappadocian colony of two Scythian princes
Ylinos and Scolopetos is due to him. Pliny the Elder records some
surprising facts pointing to the valley of the Terme River as possibly
being their home: a mountain named for them (the modern Mason Dagi),
as well as a settlement Amazonium; Herodotus (VI.86) first mentions
their capital Themiscyra, which Pliny locates near the Terme. Philostratus
places the Amazons in the Taurus Mountains. Ammianus places them
east of Tanais, as neighbouring the Alans. Procopius places them
in the Caucasus. Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca historica III, chapter
52) mentioned that besides Pontus Amazons existed much older race
(at that time entirely disappeared) of Amazons from western Libya,
and retells their mythological story which includes Atlantis and
Greek mythology.
![](582px-Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Amazons_XXVIIIv.jpg)
Amazons as depicted in the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle
Although Strabo shows skepticism as to their historicity, the Amazons
in general continue to be taken as historical throughout Late Antiquity.
Several Church Fathers speak of the Amazons as of a real people.
Solinus embraces the account of Pliny. Under Aurelianus, captured
Gothic women were identified as Amazons (Claudianus). The account
of Justinus was influential, and was used as a source by Orosius
who continued to be read during the European Middle Ages. Medieval
authors thus continue the tradition of locating the Amazons in the
North, Adam of Bremen placing them at the Baltic Sea and Paulus
Diaconus in the heart of Germania.
Pausanias
at the Description of Greece writes that near Pyrrhichus there were
sanctuaries of the gods Artemis, called Astrateia, and Apollo, called
Amazonius with images of the gods said to have been dedicated by
the women from Thermodon.
Medieval
and Renaissance literature :
![](Dahomey_amazon1.jpg)
Dahomey
Amazons were so named by Western observers due to their similarity
to the mythical Amazons
Niketas Choniates wrote that when the Germans attacked 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.
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 a tribe of warlike
women he claimed to have encountered and fought on the Nhamundá
River, a tributary of the Amazon. 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.
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".
Archaeology
:
Scythians and Sarmatians :
![](623px-Amazone_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_2342.jpg)
Riding
Amazon in Scythian costume, Attic red-figure vase, c. 420 BC, Staatliche
Antikensammlungen, Munich
Speculation that the idea of Amazons contains a core of reality
is based on archaeological findings from burials, pointing to the
possibility that some Sarmatian women may have participated in battle.
These findings have led scholars to suggest that the Amazonian legend
in Greek mythology may have been "inspired by real warrior
women".
Evidence
of high-ranking warrior women comes from kurgans in southern Ukraine
and Russia. David Anthony notes, "About 20% of Scythian-Sarmatian
'warrior graves' on the lower Don and lower Volga contained women
dressed for battle similar to how men dress, a phenomenon that probably
inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons."
Up
to 25% of military burials were of armed Sarmatian women usually
including bows. 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 based his accounts on fact.
Before
modern archaeology uncovered some of the Scythian burials of warrior-maidens
entombed under kurgans in the region of Altai Mountains and Sarmatia,
giving concrete form at last to the Greek tales, the origin of the
Amazon story had 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 Rhea 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. Viirtheim (De Ajacis
origine, 1907), the Amazons were of Greek origin. 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 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 Euxine and the barbarism of the native inhabitants.
Minoan
Crete :
When Minoan archeology was still in its infancy, nevertheless, a
theory raised in an essay regarding the Amazons contributed by Lewis
Richard Farnell and John Myres to Robert Ranulph Marett's Anthropology
and the Classics (1908), placed their possible origins in Minoan
civilization, drawing attention to overlooked similarities between
the two cultures. 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.
Modern
legacy :
![](Amazone_auf_Sondermarke.jpg)
Amazon
on a special stamp promoting German horse races in the 1930s
![](622px-Juliusz_Kossak_-_Amazonka.jpg)
Juliusz
Kossak, An Amazon, 1878
Francisco de Orellana gave the Amazon river its name after reporting
pitched battles with tribes of female warriors, whom he likened
to the Amazons.
The
city of Samsun in modern-day Turkey features a recently constructed
"Amazon Village" museum, created to bring attention to
the legacy of the Amazons and to generate both academic interest
and popular tourism. A festival is also held every year in the Terme
district of Samsun Province to celebrate the Amazons.
In
Greece, female equestrians are also called "Amazons".
Amazons
became an important subject of the fine arts around 1900, especially
in the work of the Munich painter and sculptor Franz Stuck (1863–1928).
In
Nazi Germany open air events called "Nacht der Amazonen"
(Night of the Amazons) were performed at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich
between 1936 and 1939. These revues with bare-breasted girls presented
an allegedly emancipated female role as part of the "new race"
intended to be realized by racial fanatics.
In
psychology :
This
section does not cite any sources.
The study by Carl Jung of the sexual archetypes has been studied
extensively under the collective title of the Jungian archetypes.
The sexual archetypes, which include feminist archetypes depicted
by Amazonian cultural portrayals, are used to elaborate and clarify
various academic and sociological approaches taken to interpret
both human sexuality and feminist views on sexuality.
In
literature and media :
Literature :
• Amazon
Queen Hippolyta appears in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer
Night's Dream and also in The Two Noble Kinsmen, which Shakespeare
co-wrote with John Fletcher.
• The
Amazon queen Penthesilea, and her sexual frenzy, are at the center
of the drama Penthesilea by Heinrich von Kleist in 1808.
• The
Amazon queen Antiope and War Leader, Eleutheria, known to history
as Molpadia, appears in Steven Pressfield's novel Last of the Amazons
published in 2002.
• William
Moulton Marston, alongside his wife and their lover, created their
rendition of the mythical Amazons, whose members included the superheroine
Wonder Woman, for DC Comics.
• In
Marvel Comics fictional universe Hippolyta (a villain like Thanos)
and Delphyne Gorgon are Amazons.
•
In Rick Riordan's The Heroes of Olympus, the Amazons appear in The
Son of Neptune and The Blood of Olympus. They are the founders and
owners of the Amazon corporation.
• In
Philip Armstrong's historical-fantasy series, The Chronicles of
Tupiluliuma, the Amazons appear as the Am'azzi.
• In
the Stieg Larsson novel The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the
Amazons appear as the transitional topics between sections of the
book.
• Last
of the Amazons is a novel by Steven Pressfield that recounts the
legend of Theseus and the Amazons, set before the threshold of recorded
history, a generation before the Trojan War.
• Garci
Rodríguez de Montalvo created the fictional queen Calafia,
who ruled over a kingdom of black women, living in the style of
Amazons, on the mythical Island of California.
• Amazon
Gazonga is a short comic series created by the Waltrip brothers
in 1995. The comic centres around on a young amazon named Gazonga
living in the Amazon rainforest.
Film and television :
• Franchises
involving Tarzan have featured Amazon tribes :
• A
tribe of Amazons were in the film Tarzan and the Amazons.
• A
tribe of Amazons appeared in the Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle episode
"Tarzan and the Amazon Princess."
• In
the animated series The Mysterious Cities of Gold, a tribe of Amazons
appeared in episodes 21 ("The Amazons") and 22 ("The
Mirror of the Moon").
• Frank
Hart, portraying a sexual bigot, is kidnapped by Amazons in the
1980 film of sexual conflicts titled 9 to 5.
• In
the 1960 film The Loves of Hercules, a tribe of amazons lead by
Queen Hippolyta serve as minor antagonists.
• In
the 1973 film Battle of the Amazons, a tribe of amazons raid nearby
villages for young men used for breeding and slavery.
• In
the 1973 film War Goddess (also known as The Amazons) centres around
a tribe of Amazons in the age of swords and chariots. The film has
heavy influences from Greek mythology.
• In
the 1983 film Hundra the titular character is the last survivor
of a tribe of Amazons.
• In
the 1986 Amazons movie, Amazons are featured prominently.
• The
sequel to the original film, Deathstalker II 1987 features a tribe
of amazon warriors.
• In
the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Young Hercules,
and Xena: Warrior Princess, several tribes of Amazons are featured,
with numerous recurring characters including Gabrielle, Atalanta,
and Amarice.
•
In the television series The Legend of the Hidden City, Princess
Kama's bodyguards are Amazons led by Commander Nefret.
• In
the animated series Huntik: Secrets & Seekers, Queen Hippolyta
and the Amazons appear in the episode Ladies' Choice.
• In
the 2011 animated film Ronal the Barbarian, two of the male main
characters are captured by a tribe of Amazons.
• In
the 2014 Hercules movie, a character named Atalanta is depicted
as an Amazonian archer and a member of Hercules' traveling band
of mercenaries.
• In
the season 7 episode 'The Slice Girls' of Supernatural, Amazons
appear, as they kill their fathers. One of them seduces Dean Winchester
and has a child, who quickly ages to a teenager and attempts to
kill him, only to be shot by Sam Winchester.
• The
myth of the Amazons features prominently in the 2017 hit DC film
Wonder Woman portrayed by an immortal Amazon warrior goddess called
Diana.
• In
DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Helen of Troy is taken out of her time
and left with the Amazons to train and becomes one of them.
Games :
• In
the Diablo video games, in the realm of Sanctuary, Askari people,
also called Amazons, exist in the Realm of the Skovos Isles.
• In
Heroes Unlimited and Aliens Unlimited text roleplaying games, there
is a race called the Atorians who can be considered Amazons.
• In
Amazon: Guardians of Eden (which is a tribute to retro b-movies)
a secretive tribe of Amazons is found in the Amazon basin.
• In
Flight of the Amazon Queen a tribe of Amazons is found in a lost
world somewhere in South America, kidnapped by a German mad scientist
to be used as his army.
• In
Rome: Total War the Amazons exist as a rebel sub-faction in a remote
region on the north side of the campaign map. The capital of this
region is Thermiskyra.
• In
Final Fantasy IV the kingdom of Troia has matriarchal society, where
women fill roles, traditional for males.
• In
Age of Wonders Planetfall, one of the playable factions are a group
of terraforming genetically altered all female scientists called
"Amazons".
• In
the Legend of Zelda series, NPCs called Gerudo are heavily inspired
by the Amazons.
• In
Yu-Gi-Oh games, there are an arquetype called "Amazoness".
Military units :
• Grigory
Potemkin, a Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite
of Catherine the Great created an Amazons Company in 1787. Wives
and daughters of the soldiers of the Greek Battalion of Balaklava
were enlisted and formed this unit.
• The
Dahomey Amazons were an all-female military regiment of the Kingdom
of Dahomey in present-day Benin – the nickname was given by
western observers.
• HMS
Amazon
Movements :
• During
the period 1905–1913, members of the militant Suffragette
movement were frequently referred to as "Amazons" in books
and newspaper articles.
• In
Ukraine Katerina Tarnovska leads a group called the Asgarda which
claims to be a new tribe of Amazons. 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.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Amazons