Warrior women — if there was ever a need to hear about them!
Who doesn’t know them, who hasn’t heard the echo of that mythical name? Some have heard of the Amazon River — we’ll get there. It’s not clear exactly when this exclusively female society was founded, but they were involved with the god Dionysus, with Theseus, with Heracles, and even with Priam. So placing them in a precise historical time is impossible. It becomes easier when we try to locate them in a specific territory, or even when we attempt to trace their origins.
Were they a mythological people or a real one? That’s a difficult question to answer, but we’ll try.
Today, every one of us deals daily with an online shopping company whose name recalls that of the Amazons — though I doubt they have anything in common. The name of this ancient people is also used today to describe a horsewoman who competes in equestrian sports. And here we start reasoning: what characterizes the Amazons are both women and horses. So let’s delve into the subject and try to shed light on this mysterious people.
Let’s start with the name. Some trace the etymology to the Greek a- (a privative, meaning “without”) and mazos (“breast”). We’re talking about a female society where men were not allowed. These women would spend two months a year with a neighboring people, the Gargareans, in order to reproduce. The children born from these unions, if female, were kept and raised among the Amazons; if male, they were returned to their fathers.
But we’ve omitted to say where this people came from. They were of Caucasian origin and had settled in Asia Minor on the banks of the Thermodon River, where they founded the city of Themiscyra — in Pontus, near the Black Sea. So there is indeed a geographical basis, and perhaps even a historical one.
Without a breast — as we’ve seen, that’s the most widely accepted origin of their name. But what does it mean? The young warrior women had their right breast removed to make it easier to handle a bow and spear (though one wonders how the left-handed ones managed!). Some authors say a heated copper disk was applied to the breast in early childhood — indeed, at that time, a mastectomy would have been very dangerous.
Others suggest a different etymology, from the Caucasian masa meaning “moon,” thus “priestesses of the moon,” since in many representations the Amazons are shown with full breasts. Another theory traces it to the Persian ha-mazan, meaning “warrior woman” — and that fits! (No sculptures of Amazons missing a breast have ever been found.)
The activity of the Amazons in mythology appears in many contexts. Heracles visited them to obtain, as one of his labors, the belt of their queen Hippolyta. He seduced her — she could not resist the hero’s strength — and after taking her belt, he killed her. The Amazons invaded Attica in the time of Theseus. They fought Bellerophon and also Priam, king of Troy, later rushing to defend the city’s high walls after Hector’s death. Their queen Penthesilea was killed in a duel by Achilles, who fell madly in love with her at her last breath and, it is said, possessed her after death (no comment).
A separate chapter concerns the god Dionysus, who saw them at his side in Egypt. During the god’s wanderings in the East — instigated by Hera — the Amazons opposed him. Consumed by lasting anger, the god pursued and slaughtered them.
There was also a legendary encounter between Alexander the Great and the Amazons — somewhere between history and myth (Alexander was, after all, a great communicator).
In literature, the victory of Theseus over the Amazons represents the triumph of the West over the East, serving as a prelude to the two Persian Wars. The deities they worshipped were Ares, god of war, and Artemis, goddess of the hunt — how could it be otherwise? Their favorite activities were war and hunting.
Well, I’d say that’s a first-rate myth!
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