Legendary warrior women: The history of the Amazons
They're said to have cut off their breasts to better draw their bows and even to have killed their male offspring. What is the history
They're said to have cut off their breasts to better draw their bows and even to have killed their male offspring. What is the history behind the myths surrounding the Amazons? Their reputation among the ancient Greeks wasn't exactly the best: The Amazons were regarded as ruthless and fearless warriors who rode into battle on horseback armed with bows and arrows. They wore pants, sported tattoos and got high on drugs during orgies — or so the story went. In short: "The Greeks were shocked because the ancient Greeks had a paternalistic society, dominated by men," US historian Adrienne Mayor tells DW. "Women were kept in the home, weaving and taking care of children." A society where women had equal rights would've been hard for the patriarchy to process. That's why the Amazons were demonized by claims that they enslaved men and murdered male offspring. But the Greeks also held them in great fascination, immortalizing the warrior women in statues, murals and on vases. There were even Amazon dolls for children. The painting on this vase is dated to around 380 B.C. Image: André Held/akg-images/picture alliance The best way for an ancient Greek hero to prove his bravery was to defeat a powerful Amazon queen. Take Theseus, King of Athens, said to have kidnapped the chief Amazon, Hippolyta, and made her his wife — a story taken up 2,000 years later by the English playwright William Shakespeare in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Or Achilles, said to have slain Penthesilea in battle, only to fall in love with her when he removed her helmet as she lay dying and to be ultimately remorseful for his action. There are many variations of these stories — yet from the male narrators' perspective, the outcome is always clear: in the end, the men prevail. A 2nd-century marble relief depicting a Greek male holding an Amazon by her hair Image: Prisma Archivo/picture alliance Fact or fiction: Did the Amazons really exist? The first written mention of the Amazons came from the Greek poet Homer in his epic "The Iliad" about the Trojan War (ca.
8th century B.C.), and others followed. For a long time, the Amazons were widely dismissed as mythological figures born from the imaginations of ancient storytellers. But according to Mayor, recent spectacular archaeological finds in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and other parts of Central Asia provide evidence that female warriors did indeed exist at the time and in the places where Greeks set their mythical tales. "More than 300 graves of females buried with arrows, battle-axes, and swords, some with battle injured, have been excavated so far," says Mayor who authored the book, "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World." During the battle for the ancient city of Troy, the Amazons are said to have fought with the Trojans against the Greeks Image: United Archives/picture alliance The inspiration for the Amazons were the mounted archer women of various Scythian tribes who lived around the Black Sea and in the steppes of Eurasia, Mayor explains: "The Greeks began to learn about Scythian women as they explored and set up colonies around the Black Sea. The Nomad tribes had an egalitarian lifestyle, and women participated in the same activities as men." The origin of the name "Amazon," however, remains uncertain. Mayor speculates that it could have come from the Old Persian "ha-mazon," which means "female warrior." Another possibility is that it's derived from the Circassian word "Amezane," meaning "mother of the forest or moon." A historian named Hellanicus (5th century B.C.) attempted to give the foreign word a different meaning in Ancient Greek and translated it as "without a breast." This fueled the widespread misconception that Amazons removed their right breast to facilitate drawing a bow or throwing a spear. Complete nonsense, says Mayor: "This bizarre idea was criticized even in antiquity, and no ancient artist ever depicted one-breasted Amazons." US historian Adrienne Mayor has conducted extensive research on the history of the Amazons Image: Adrienne Mayor Lesbian 'man-haters' who kill little boys? Scholars of antiquity nevertheless continued to spin wild tales about the Amazons. Thus, the notion spread that in their all-female community, they tolerated only female children and abandoned, mutilated or even killed boys after birth.
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