In Greek mythology, a nation of women soldiers, located by Herodotos in Scythia (Russia). Strong and athletic, they were said to mutilate the right breast in order to use the bow. With no apparent basis in fact, this story fascinated the Greeks and was a frequent subject in art, perhaps because of its suggestion of an alternative society.
This article is about the Amazon women of Greek mythology and similar cases. For other uses, see Amazons (disambiguation).In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Αμαζόνες) were either an ancient legendary nation of female warriors or a land dominated by women at the outer edges of their known world. The legends appear to have a nugget of factual basis in warrior women among the Scythians, but classical Greeks never ceased to be astounded at such role-reversals. Women in classical Greek society were expected to be passive and dependent on males.
Etymology
The name Αμαζών is probably derived from an Iranian ethnonym, *ha-mazan-, originally meaning "warriors".
The Greek variant of the name was connected by popular etymology to privative a + mazos, "without breast", connected with an aetiological tradition that Amazons had their right breast cut off or burnt out, in order that they might be able to use the bow more freely (contemporary Greeks drew the bowstring to the sternum); 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.
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, where they formed an independent kingdom under the government of a queen, often named Hippolyta ("she lets her horses loose"). Herodotus, who called them Androktones ("killers of men"), also connects Amazons with Scythia, as ancestors of the Sauromatians.
In some versions, no men were permitted to reside in Amazon country;
In the Iliad, the Amazons were referred to as Antianeira ("those who fight like men").
The Amazons appear in Greek art of the Archaic period and in connection with several Greek legends. later interpretation made of her an Amazon: according to Diodorus, Queen Myrine led her Amazons to victory against the Atlanteans, Libya and much of Gorgon.
They attacked the Phrygians, who were assisted by Priam, then a young man (Iliad, iii. 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 that continued the Iliad.
One of the tasks imposed upon Heracles by Eurystheus was to obtain possession of the girdle of the Amazonian queen Hippolyte (Apollodorus ii. 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.
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. 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.
Scythian origins
Sauromatian - Blyumenfeld culture, 6th - 4th century B.C.
The Sauromatians were the eastern neighbors of the Scythians and both were kindred tribes of Iranian people.
In a recent excavation of Sarmatian sites by Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball, a tomb was found wherein female warriors were buried, thus lending some credence to the myths about the Amazons. Following the excavation in 2003 by Dr. Davis-Kimball, she and Dr. Joachim Burger compared the genetic evidence from the site with the nomadic Kazakhs, and have found a striking genetic link — verified later by the University of Cambridge
Before modern archaeology uncovered some of the Scythian burials of warrior-maidens entombed under kurgans in the region of Altay Mountains, 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.
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; 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. 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;
Herodotus reported that the Sarmatians/Sauromatians were descendants of Amazons and Scythians.
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.
Sarmatian Matriarchy and Amazon Women
The most fascinating feature of Iranian-Sarmatian culture is their women warriors. Herodotus reported that the Sarmatians were said to be the offspring of Scythians who had mated with Amazons and that their female descendants "have continued from that day to the present to observe their ancient [Amazon] customs, frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands;
Both Herodotus and Hippocrates accounts inform us the Sarmatians took interest in turning their women into strong-armed huntresses and fighters. Archaeological materials seem to confirm Sarmatian women's active role in military operation and social life. Burial of armed Sarmatian women comprise large percent of the military burial in the group occupy the central position and appear the be the richest.
Early Sauro-Sarmatian - Prokhorovskaya culture, 4th - 2th century B.C.
The term "Sarmatian" or "Sirmatian" was first mentioned by Greek authors such as Eudox, Pseudo-Skilak, Heraklidus of Pont, and Theophrastus in the 4th-2nd century B.C. According to the researchers, the Early Sarmatian culture most probably developed as a result of the influx of populations from the forest-steppe trans-Urals, northwestern modern Kazakhstan, and the Aral Sea region. From the 4th to 2nd centuries B.C., massive nomadic migrations westward from the southern Ural steppes reached the lower Don River and Kuban River regions and absorbed the local Sauromatiansa. The massive Sarmatian western expansion ultimately brought down Scythian rule in the North Black Sea area between the end of the 3rd century and early 2nd century B.C.
Some of the new burial traits during this time include side niches (podbois), catacombs, grave pits with ledges, and the southern orientation of the deceased.
Middle Sarmatian - Suslovo cultures, late 2nd century B.C.
The Middle Sarmatian culture covered the steppes of Eurasia from the Danube River to the southern Ural Steppes.
Late Sarmatian - the Alan or Shipovskaya cultures, 2nd - 4th century A.D.
Late Sarmatian sites were first identified by P.D. Based on the archaeological material they were one of the Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes began to enter the Sarmatian area between the middle of the 1st and the 2nd century A.D. They continued to rule in the North Black Sea steppes until they were invaded by the Huns in the late 4th century A.D.
One of the most characteristic traits of the Late Sarmatian culture was the artificial deformation of skulls.
Religion and Social Class
The religious practices were consistent among the Sauro-Sarmatian nomads.
The high amount of offensive weapons found in Sarmatian graves indicates a military-oriented nomadic life.
Minoan origins
When Minoan archaeology was still in its infancy, a theory raised in an essay contributed by L.R. 138ff), in regards to the Amazons placed their possible origins in Minoan civilization, drawing attention to overlooked similarities between the two cultures. 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.
Amazon cults and tombs in Ancient Greece
According to ancient sources, (Plutarch Theseus, Pausanias), Amazon tombs could be found frequent 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. 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.
Amazons in Greek & 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 battle between Theseus and the Amazons is a favourite subject on the friezes of temples (e.g. Many of the sculptors of antiquity, including Pheidias, Polyclitus, Cresilas and Phradmon, executed statues of Amazons;
Amazon-like figures in folklore
Armed women have often acted as royal bodyguards throughout history. Chandragupta Maurya (322–298 BC), the first emperor to develop a centralized state in India, had a personal guard composed of giant Greek women. In Europe, Celtic and Germanic tribes often had women fighting with their husbands. Tacitus tells us that Boadicea had more women than men in her army.
There is also a woman in the Old Testament, Deborah, who may be one of the first recorded instances of a woman participating in battle.
Gordafrid, a warlike maid, firm in the saddle, and practiced in the fight, resembling the classic image of an Amazon, appears in Old Iranian tales:
She hid her tresses under a helmet of Roum, and she mounted a steed of battle and came forth before the walls like to a warrior. And none came, for they beheld her how she was strong, and they knew not that it was a woman, and they were afraid.
---Ferdowsi, Shahnameh
Among the Mongols and the ancient Turks were many heroic women. In Jenghiz Khan's army women could fight along men if they wished and some did so, as reported by Muslim writers during the
invasion of Western Iran by Chormagan a Mongol general.
In Scandinavia, women who did not yet have the responsibility for raising a family could take up arms and live like warriors.
Similarly, the Valkyries of Norse mythology are minor female deities, who serve Odin.
A legend which may be based on the Greek Amazons appears in the history of Bohemia. As the story goes, a large band of women, led by a certain Vlasta and her henchwoman Šárka, carried on war against the duke of Bohemia, and enslaved or put to death all men who fell into their hands; In the 16th century the Spanish explorer Orellana asserted that he had come into conflict with fighting women in South America on the Marañón River, which was named after them the Amazon or river of the Amazons, although others derive its name from the Indian amassona (boat-destroyer), applied to the tidal phenomenon known as the "bore".
The armored warrior maiden (whose gender is often unsuspected) is a frequent character in the European chivalric epic. The best known historical Medieval Amazon characters are Sichelgaita of Salerno, Joan of Arc, queen Margaret I of Denmark and Jeanne Hachette.
These epics sometimes contained still closer parallels to the legends of the Amazons. 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 Dahomey Amazons were a 6000 strong military unit of Dahomey (now Benin) in West Africa who were active from the 16th to the late 19th century.
Libya has a long history of Amazon women, which probably pre-dates the Greek Amazons. Other African ethnic groups who used fighting women were the Igbo and Fulani, who integrated the women into their armies.
In the kingdom of Siam in the 19th century, the king had a personal battalion of 400 spear-wielding women. They were chosen from the most beautiful women of the country, and were said to be excellent spear-throwers, though they were regarded as too valuable to be sent to war. Around 400 women secretly took part as soldiers in the American Civil War.
In the Finnish Civil War 1918, the Reds had woman guard units (naiskaarti).
In the 20th century, the states of the Soviet Union and Israel took the initiative to train and utilize women for light infantry and other combatant roles.
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