From Homer’s Iliad until the present day, Amazons occupy a central place in various narratives ranging from Greek mythology, history and fiction to gender studies and entertainment. As Blok succinctly comments, “the interpretations of the Amazon myth appear to situate these women at the point of intersection of history and mythology”. Who were the Amazons?
Women Warriors
Amazons are first mentioned in Homer’s Iliad as Amazones antianeirai, or Amazons equivalent to men. During the seize of Troy by the Greek army, the Amazons led by their queen, Penthesilea, sided with the Trojans and the warrior queen was killed by Achilles who was reputedly in love with her. Since the Iliad, the Amazon myth has been elaborated on.
In Greek mythology the Amazons were a race of women warriors, expert in horse riding and skilled in the use of the bow and arrow and the battle axe. They needed men only to propagate and when they bore male offspring they killed it, maimed it or condemn it to a life of servitude. Amazons were often, but not always, depicted as single-breasted for they removed one breast so they could use their bows unobstructed.
These fierce women warriors were involved in multiple stories and were confronted in battle by heroes, such as Achilles, Priam, Bellerophon and Hercules. Hercules’ Amazonomachy, or Amazon Battle, in particular, became one of the Greek hero’s most famous triumphs and is depicted in Attic vases.
Origin of Amazons
In Greek mythology and ancient Greek narratives, Amazons were assumed to have a non-Greek background. First they were said to originate from Thrace (today northeast Greece) as the Thracians were famous for their temper (Boreas, the fierce god of north wind also hailed from Thrace). In the 6thC BC the women warriors were said to originate from Scythia (modern Crimea) and then finally from Themiskyra on the river Thermodon (today northern Turkey).
Amazons were said to be present in different parts of Greece and also in Libya and Asia Minor. There is a disputed report that their queen proposed to mate with Alexander the Great. The Macedonian general accepted. In a monograph in 1911, W. Leonhard suggested that the Amazons were associated with the Hittite culture. Indeed there are many examples of women warriors in the ancient world but no all-female warrior race.
Who Were the Amazons?
The dress of the Amazons reflects the different perceptions about their origin. They were depicted as wearing the patterned sleeves and trousers of the Scythians of the south Russian steppes and later the dress of the Persians. Their horseback riding skills were befitting their nomad origin as was their eastern bow case and battle axe which was not a common Greek weapon. Amazons were also depicted dressed as Greek warriors with lighter helmets and sometimes with corselets.
So who were the Amazons? Believed to be historical figures in the 19th century, the Amazons were probably inspired by real-life warrior women who fought alongside men in places like Albania and Anatolia. Today the Amazons provide “a modern battleground for iconographers, anthropologists and feminists”.
Related Articles
Amazons Warrior Clothing: Weapons and Ancient Dress of the Women Warriors
Sources
Josine Blok, The Early Amazons. Modern and Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth, E.J.Brill: Netherlands 1995.
John Boardman, “Imaging the Past: The Hero and the Heroic” in his The Archaeology of Nostalgia: How the Greeks Re-created their Mythical Past, Thames & Hudson: London 2002.
On the Amazons see also Emusuem website
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