1. Relations-etymology of their name

The Amazons are said to be daughters of the god Ares (Mars) and the nymph Armonia.¹ There is no safe etymology of the name “Amazon”, which is first mentioned in the Iliad and has a non-Greek provenance. Most of the later authors believe that their name comes from the alpha privative and “mazos” (= breast), because it is said that Amazons would cut one or both breasts in their infancy so tthat heir military activities would not be hindered.² Another version recognizes as the second component of their name not the word “mazos”, but “maza” (= barley bread), a possible reference to the habit of the Amazons to eat mostly meat, particularly lizards, snakes, scorpions and tortoises.³

2. Homeland

Most of the ancient sources locate the kingdom of the Amazons in the region of ancient Bithynia, near the river Thermodon.⁴ According to them, the kingdom comprises all the valleys and mountains around the river, with Themiskyra as its capital.⁵ Other sources seek their kingdom at the north-eastern coasts of the Black Sea, near the lake Maiotis,⁶ or east of the river Tanais,⁷ or to the region of Caucasus, in the foot of the Keraunian Mountains,⁸ or vaguely in the area between Pontus and the Caspian Sea.⁹ It is also located in the area of ancient Scythia,¹⁰ or ever further west, in Thrace,¹¹ or even Illyria.¹²

Another independent Amazon kingdom appears to be the one in Africa, in Libya¹³ or Ethiopia, on the coast of the Red Sea,¹⁴ which is also mentioned as being older than the one at Thermodon. This tribe of Amazons had, allegedly, already vanished many generations before the Trojan War.¹⁵ The kingdom of the Amazons in Africa first appears in the myth with the great victorious expansive campaign of their Queen Myrina in the eastern and western Mediterranean.

3. Society- population -relation with men

Homer calls the Amazons “antianeiras”, a term stating either that they were similar or even equal to men, either that they were their foes and adversaries.¹⁶Aeschylus also characterizes the Amazon army “styganor”, an army who hates the male sex, whereas in other points he calls them “anandrous”, because they have no men.¹⁷Herodotus reports that the Scythians called the Amazons “oiorpata”, which in their language means “slaughters of men”.¹⁸ Furthermore, personal names of Amazons, as preserved by later authors and as –mainly- preserved on vase painting as early as in the 6th c. BC, allude to their hate and constant warfare against men, but also their warlike fury and supremacy.

The Amazon society was dominated by women. The majority or the entire population consisted of women only. This prevalence of women is explained in many ways. Ptolemy believes that since Bithynia, Phrygia and Colchis were connected mainly to the constellation of the Cancer and to the Moon men became compliant and women manly, dominant and warlike.¹⁹ Stephanus Byzantius believes that in Scythia Sauromatike, where the Amazons’ homeland was located, women were born with a stronger body than that of men. The same author, however, suggests that the following story told by the neighbours of the Sauromatians was much more plausible: once the Suaromatians campaigned in Europe and were all killed, leaving their women alone in power back home. When their male children grew up, they mutinied against women, but women defeated and annihilated them. Fearing retribution from younger men they decided to neutralize them by severing their body members while they were still young.²⁰ An older variant of this story, documented by Ephorus (4th c. BC) narrates that the Amazons, having had enough of the men’s offending behaviour, planned to exclude them by taking advantage of their absence in a military operation: everyone left behind was murdered, whereas whoever came back from war was banned from the country.²¹ Apart from Stephanus Byzantius other authors too mention the presence of men in the Amazon society, they always, however, verify that men are abused, blinded or mutilated, to be rendered weak, whereas their position is lower and auxiliary, and activities that were traditionally performed by women are entrusted to them.²² A different view suggests that the Amazons would totally dismiss men from their society. They would not have any relation with them and they would not seek them except to ensure their reproduction. According to an account the copulation of the Amazons with men was fixed in regular intervals and after a deal with the neighbouring people of Gargareans. For two months each Spring Amazons and Gargareans would climb on a nearby mountain and copulate with whomever they found, secretly and in the dark. Female children were kept by the Amazons, whereas male children were sent to the Gargareans to be raised. With this agreement the two people ended the war between them, deciding to live independently and limiting their interactions in this collaboration concerning reproduction.²³ Another narration mentions that the Amazons of Ethiopia sailed the Red Sea to copulate with the local men, keeping only the girls and leaving the boys to them. The legend about Alexander the Great and the Amazons is connected with this habit of the Amazons to copulate, according to their needs, with men aiming only to procreation. Diodorus documents that when the king was in Hyrkania, Thallestris, Queen of the Amazons, arrived, oustanding in beauty, vigour and bravery, escorted by a detachment of 300 Amazons. When she was asked what the purpose of her visit was, Thallestris answered that since he was proven to be the best amongst men and she the best amongst women in strength and bravery, the offspring of such parents would inevitably excel every mortal. Alexander accepted her proposal and after passing thirteen nights making love to her, gave her opulent presents and sent her back to her kingdom.²⁴Arrianus narrates the same story in a somewhat different manner: the satrap of Media Atropates presented to Alexander 100 women on horses, claiming they were Amazons. Alexander, fearing incidents with his men, sent them away, with the promise that he would go and visit their queen to have children with her.²⁵ Arrianus of course questions the possibility that Amazons would have survived until the age of Alexander or even that they would have ever existed at all, and supposes that they were women of barbarian origin who knew how to ride horses and which were presented by Atropates to Alexander bearing the equipment of the Amazons (axes and pelte shields). Historians contemporary to Alexander are divided in their willingness to recognize the fact that Alexander actually met with the Amazons,²⁶ a fact also questioned by later ancient authors, like Strabo and Plutarch.²⁷

Whoever did not accept the existence of men in the society of the Amazons sustained that the Amazons would occasionally copulate with strangers and from the children they had they would only keep the girls, raising them as hunters and warriors and with the same principles of indifference towards the male gender.²⁸ Whoever accepted the existence of men ascribed them the positions traditionally held by women in Greece, with many differences though from region to region. The Amazons would serve in the army for a certain period, during which they would keep their virginity. After that they would copulate with men only to have children, which were left in their care. Men remained home occupying themselves, under the control of women, exclusively with the administration of the household and with the upbringing of the children. They would not take part in public administration at all. Women possessed every office and they undertook military action.²⁹

4. Way of life-habits

Amazon girls would cut off or cauterize and stop the development of their right or of both breasts in a young age, so not to be hindered when pulling the bow and hurling the javelin.³⁰ Later, in the battlefield, they would strip their mutilated breast in a display of their “manlike” nature.³¹ Strabo notes some kind of labor division among the Amazons. Some would occupy themselves with agriculture and animal-breeding, especially horse breeding, whereas the braver ones exercised in martial arts and hunting.³² The Amazons had a special relation with the horses in and out of the battlefield. They were famous for their riding skills and their beautiful horses.³³ It is alleged they were the first to have gone to war on horseback.³⁴ Many personal names of Amazons comprise the word horse (hippos) as a component, whereas others are associated to their extraordinary hunting skills.

Although the occupation of the Amazons with agriculture is mentioned elsewhere too, at least the Amazons of Ethiopia are described as not knowing how to cultivate grain and basing their nutrition only with on fruit-bearing trees and the meat and milk of goats and sheep.³⁵ In many sources the peculiar diet of the Amazons, rich in reptile meat is also mentioned.³⁶ There are many testimonies for their relation to dancing. Callimachus (3rd c. BC) documents that the mythical Pleiades, who were the first to organize dances and celebrations lasting all night, were the daughters of the queen of the Amazons.³⁷ The poet also describes the ritual war dance of the Amazons: they danced around the wooden statue (xoano) that was dedicated to Artemis at her sanctuary in Ephesus: initially armed, then in a great circle, stumping upon the ground with force, under the acute sound of the flutes and the rattling of their quivers.³⁸ A later source mentions a kind of a face-to-face dance called “pecten Amazonicus”, during which one or more rows of dancers would meet and pass next to each other.³⁹

5. Armour-equipment-dress

Sources mention the Amazons as agile archers.⁴⁰ The bow is a basic component of their military equipment.⁴¹ Penthesileia’s bow, as pictured in the Nekyia scene in the Lesche of the Knidians at Delphi, was similar to the Scythian ones,⁴² whereas elsewhere it is mentioned that the Amazons would fill their quivers with Thracian arrows.⁴³ Some Amazon names are associated with their special relation with the bow and the quiver. They would also fight with the single axe, the sagaris,⁴⁴ a weapon mainly used by Scythians and Persians.⁴⁵ Penthesileia is also mentioned as the inventor of the sagaris.⁴⁶ They would protect themselves with a light crescent-shaped shield, the pelte, which was also used by the Thracians and the Persians.⁴⁷ On Greek vessels, especially Attic, which are our most important source of knowledge on contemporary Greek painting, Amazons are initially no different than their Greek male opponents, apart from the white colour of their flesh, a characteristic convention to indicate women on black-figure pottery. They are otherwise similar to the Greek hoplites in dress and armour: short tunic, corselet, helmet, round or eight-shaped shield, spears, sword, even bow. Rarely do they carry the war axe and only towards the end of the black-figured rhythm they start appearing with the pelte. With the red-figure pottery and especially after the Persian Wars similar scenes multiply and the Amazons start acquiring, apart from the hoplites appearance, the oriental (Persian, Scythian) dress and armour: they wear the pointed Scythian cap and the anaxyrides and carry a bow, a pelte and an axe. Some times the two costumes are combined. Their femininity is rarely underlined, with their breast naked or vaguely seen under their tunic, never with any particular emphasis. This happens in later years (Hellenistic/Roman), when they are portrayed dressed with the exomis⁴⁸ and a chance to portray the female body is offered to the artists, especially sculptors. In no known example, however, is the custom of the Amazons to mutilate and display their breast attested.

6. Action-Amazonomachy

The action of the Amazons remains limited to their confrontation in the battlefield with heroes of Greek mythology, like Priamus, Bellerophon, Achilles, but also the greatest Panhellenic heroes Theseus and Hercules. In these battles the Amazons fight gallantly but are always utterly defeated.

The society of the Amazons, with its androgynous character and the exclusion of men from important political, social and military positions which themselves have traditionally monopolized, summarizes the overthrow or undermining of harmony and civilization which men, mainly Greek in origin, represent. Thus a clear political symbolism is attributed to the Amazons in Greece, especially in 5th c. BC Athens (the Amazons as Persians, the Amazonomachy as a parable of the recent clash between the Greeks and the Persians), as attested by a great number of vase paintings but also the iconographical program of the masterpiece edifice of Athenian democracy, the Parthenon.

7. Building and naming cities

The heroic profile of the Amazons is supplemented by the attribution of the foundation and naming of cities to some of them, almost exclusively in Asia Minor and the adjacent areas. They are mostly cities not only of Bithynia-Pontus, where usually the kingdom of the Amazons is located, but mainly of ancient Aeolis. According to the story Heraklides Pontikus (4th c. BC) documents that Hercules granted the area from Pitane to Mykale to the Amazons.⁴⁹ Ephorus also locates the Amazons between Mysia, Lydia and Karia.⁵⁰ Thus the foundation and naming of Smyrna,⁵¹ but also of Ephesus is attributed to the Amazons. Furthermore, adjacent areas appear to have taken their names from names of Amazons, like Sisyrba, Smyrna and Samorna, the later from the queen and priestess of Artemis, mother of Mazous, the first Amazon.⁵² Also Latoreia, a mountain village near Ephesus, was alleged to have been built by an Amazon.⁵³ Myrina or Myrine was built and named from the queen Myrina,⁵⁴ whereas Pitane (or Pitana) and Priene were built also by Myrina and named after her outstanding Amazons,⁵⁵ like Kyme,⁵⁶ which it was also documented as being inhabited by Amazons and earlier named Amazoneion.⁵⁷ When, Myrina, finally, conquered Lesbos, she founded Mytilene and named her after her sister who had taken part in the campaign.⁵⁸

The area of Panaima at Samos took its name from the slaughter of the Amazons that took place there by Dionysus. The Amazons from Ephesus took refuge there; the god chased them and fought with them, killing many. Whoever later saw the blood of the slaughter named the place Panaima.⁵⁹

In other occasion cities or places took their name from the Amazons, because they were associated with their death, their burial or some misfortune, like Gryneia from Amazon Gryne who was raped by god Apollo,⁶⁰ Anaia from Anaia who was buried there,⁶¹ or Thibais from an Amazon who was killed by Hercules.⁶²Sinope was named after an Amazon who got married to the king of Pontus and drank a lot, which is why she took the nickname Sanape.⁶³ Myrleia, as Apameia was initially called, took, according to a view, its name from an Amazon, and so did Amastris.⁶⁴

8. Origins of the myth of the Amazons

Already in ancient times the question of whether the myth of the Amazons was based on historical truth is asked. Was there ever an Amazon society in any sense or capacity? What was the basic core on which this plethora of narratives and variants was based?

One theory rejects the existence of any historical core concerning the myth of the Amazons and seeks the beginnings of the myth in similar political procedures which gave birth to other myths of similar manlike and androgynous women.

Another theory, one which seeks a degree of historicity, recognizes that the source of inspiration for this myth was the participation of women in the armies of tribes of the north coast of the Black Sea, like the Scythians or the Cimmerians, who in earlier times had invaded Asia Minor. For others, the myth started as a misunderstanding: when Greeks came into contact with male warriors of tribes who used to shave their faces, mistook them for women. As such the Scythians have been proposed with whom the Greeks came into contact through trade in the Black Sea, a small tribe, who were also excellent riders, but also the Hittites whom the Greeks encountered during the 12th c. BC colonization. One last theory accepts that the myth was developed under the enactment of war ritual acts, performed by women, like in Libya, or under the model of armed goddesses who sacrificed men.

9. Relations with gods

Due to their warlike nature, the relation of the Amazons with Ares seems obvious. He appears as the father of some Amazons but also as the father of their whole tribe. On a deserted island in the Black Sea the queens Antiope and Otrere build a temple to honour the god,⁶⁵ whereas an anonymous queen founds various sanctuaries of Ares and Artemis from the spoils of her extensive campaigns in the kingdom of Thermodontas and establishes grand festivals to honour them.⁶⁶ Also, during their campaign against Theseus in Athens the Amazons had made their camp on Areopagus and offered sacrifices to the god Ares.⁶⁷ The sacrifices of white horses, said to have been performed by them, were probably also directed towards the same god.⁶⁸

Excellent warriors and sworn maidens, the Amazons are compared with Athena. When they are allied to Dionysus in his battle against Saturn and the Titans, the goddess becomes their leader.⁶⁹ Apart from Ares the Amazons would also fanatically worship the Athena Parthenos.⁷⁰ They never had, though, good relations with Dionysus. The aforementioned slaughter of the Amazons at Panaima of Samos is characteristic.⁷¹ Dionysus had been attacked by them while on his way home from India, but he defeated and pursued them. Others sought refuge as suppliants in the Artemision of Ephesus while others crossed the sea to Samos.⁷²

With regard to their hunting achievements, their hatred against men and their fanatical obsession with the preservation of their chastity, the Amazons are inevitably connected with Artemis. Some Amazons are reported by the myth as hunting companions of the goddess.⁷³ Apart from the foundation of sanctuaries to honour Artemis,⁷⁴ as mentioned above, the constitution of the worship of Artemis Tauropolos is attributed to the Amazons, but also the foundation, according to a view, of the famous sanctuary of the goddess in Ephesus. The Amazons founded it before one of their campaigns against Theseus in Athens.⁷⁵ They dedicated the statue of the goddess under an oak tree, Hippo performed the dedication ritual and the others, along with their queen Oupis, performed a war dance around it.⁷⁶ Authors who accept that the sanctuary was founded by the Amazons note that this was known since ancient times and that they would perform sacrifices to the goddess in every critical moment, not just before the aforementioned campaign, but also when they were saved from Hercules and Dionysus, at least the ones who found asylum in the Artemision.

In the city of Pyrrichos near Mani, Pausanias mentions two sanctuaries associated to the Amazons, one honouring Artemis, the so-called Astrateia, because the military campaign of the Amazons stopped there, and one honouring her brother Apollo, the so-called Amazonios. Their statues were said to also have been dedicated by the Amazons.⁷⁷ Apollo was friendly to the Amazons, but in their wars with Theseus and Hercules he favours, as is expected, the Greek heroes.