Background

• Breastless Warriors

• Amazons in Libya

Breastless Warriors

The mythological woman warrior with a leopard hide on her head, holding either a spear and shield or a drawn bow, has remained etched in our memory. These warriors were known as the Amazons, and that has its place permanently in a dictionary.

Really, little is known about the customs, traditions and religions of the Amazons, but they appeared in many scenes in Greek mythology.

Their homes were usually said to be at the mouth of the river Themiscyra, in Pontus, a region in Asia Minor (northern Anatolian Turkey). However, in the Aethiopis (Epic Cycle), the unknown author said that the Amazons under Penthesileia came from Thrace (modern European Turkey, and mostly in Bulgaria), instead of Asia Minor.

The Amazons were a warlike and dangerous tribe. According to the Argonautica, Jason and the Argonauts avoided Themiscyra when Zeus sent a north-west wind, so the Argo would not land on the Amazonian shores. Apollonius further wrote that there were three different tribes of the Amazon race. These Amazons, who would have fought the Argonauts, were the Themiscyreans. The Amazonian Queen Hippolyte ruled the Themiscyreans. The other two tribes were the Lycastians and the Chadesians, the javelin-throwers.

According to Pindar, the Amazons were the "archer-host" (Olympian 13:89) and the "fine horse women", which indicated that they preferred the bow as their weapon of choice, and riding horseback into war.

The Amazons constantly raided the kingdom of Lycia. The hero Bellerophon defeated the Amazons when he was a guest of King Iobates of Lycia. Jason and the Argonauts avoided the land of the Amazons on their way to Colchis. The Amazons fought a war against the Mygdonians. The Amazons lost this war because young King Priam of Troy was an ally of the Mygdonians.

The Amazons were said to have lived in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, and were said have erected an image to Artemis beneath an oak trunk.

Heracles had to fetch the girdle of Queen Hippolyte. Although the queen would have freely given the girdle to Heracles, the goddess Hera stirred up a rumour that the hero intended to abduct Hippolyte, so the Amazons attacked their guests. The hero Theseus may have accompanied Heracles on this trip. Either Theseus abducted Antiope, the sister of Hippolyte, or she betrayed the Amazons by fleeing with the hero. In either case, the Amazons invaded Athens. Though Theseus and the Athenians defeated the Amazons, Antiope was killed in battle. But it is also uncertain whether the Amazons had come to rescue Antiope or to kill her for treason, and whether Antiope was fighting with Theseus or she was attempting to escape and fight with the Amazons.

There were several women named Hippolyte, who were queens. One of them was the sister of Penthesileia. Penthesileia accidentally killed her sister when they were hunting deer. King Priam purified Penthesileia for the killing, in return for future aid. Penthesileia came to help the Trojans in their great war against the Greeks, in the last year of the war. The hero Achilles killed Penthesileia in single combat.

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Though the Amazons were warlike, and some of the queens were daughters of Ares, they worshipped the Asiatic Artemis, the moon-goddess of the wild.

One of the customs of the Amazons that most people are aware of, was that whenever a woman gave birth to a girl, they would sear the right breast of the infant. This would allow them to wield bows more effectively without being hindered by their right breasts, when releasing (or loosing) their bowstrings.

Apollodorus, on the other hand, wrote that their right breasts were pressed down, while the left breasts remained untouched, and if the Amazons had children, they could suckle their babies with their left breasts. This is more plausible than searing the breasts off with a hot iron.

The Amazons seemed to have the warlike culture of the hunter and the warrior.

There are uncertainties whether the Amazons existed historically or not, because some historians included accounts of these fierce women warriors in their works.

Herodotus, a 5th century Greek historian, wrote that the Amazons were linked to some members of the Scythians, a nomadic tribe that had created a large empire north of the Black Sea, from Ukraine to Thrace. The Scythians themselves were noted for their skills in horsemanship and archery. Rather than live in houses, their houses were their wagons.

According to Herodotus, the first encounter between the Scythians and the Amazons was uneasy. Herodotus said that the Scythians called them Oior-pata, which probably means "man-slayers".

Herodotus gave an account of how the Greeks defeated them in battle, and how they had three ships of captives. The Amazonian prisoners rose up and killed all of the crew on board. However, none of the Amazons knew how to pilot the ships, because the rudders, sails and oars were foreign to them. So the ships were left to drift. Eventually the ships drifted off and landed on a place called Cremni. The Scythians inhabited the land.

The Amazons either stole horses or captured wild horses before they set about raiding and plundering the Scythian territories. The Scythians thought they were men, so they fought them in battle. However, the Scythians discovered the truth when they found that all of the enemies that had been killed were women.

So the Scythians decided not attack these strange women warriors. Whenever the Amazons came near them, the Scythian horsemen would retreat instead of fight. Neither side could speak the tongue of their enemy. The Scythians always cautiously approached the Amazons from a distance, in a non-threatening way, particularly the young Scythian men, because they desired to marry and have children from these strange women.

Eventually, the Amazons realised that the Scythians didn't want to fight with them, so they no longer raided the Scythian lands. Gradually the two groups began to live in one camp. Eventually the Amazons and the young Scythians managed to communicate in a rough way, with hand signs, and then soon the Amazons managed to learn the language of the Scythians (Scythian belonged to the ancient Indo-Iranian family of languages).

Soon, the Amazons learned of the desire of the Scythian young men to marry them. However, the Amazons told them that they couldn't accept the customs and duties of Scythian wives, like taking care of their houses, sewing, cleaning, cooking and looking after the children. The Amazons were accustomed with an outdoor life of riding, hunting and fighting, the usual customs of the Scythian men.

The Amazons told them that if they wished to take them as wives, then they must leave their families or clans and live among them. The Amazons then persuaded the men to leave the land, and they moved to the land beyond the Taranis, in which we now call Ukraine, a region of the former Soviet Republic.

The Scythians and the Amazons' interracial marriage produced a new group of people known as the Sauromatae (whom the Romans later called them the Sarmatians). The husbands and wives generally rode on horseback while hunting or fighting. Unlike the Scythian women, the Sarmatian women enjoyed the same roles, privileges and customs as their husbands. Leadership of the family or clan could often fall upon the women, as well as the men. Their customs were generally the same. Most of their work was done on horseback, and they still had a nomadic way of life as the Scythians did, living in wagons instead of permanent settlements.

The languages of the Scythians and the Sarmatians were similar. However, the Amazons' adoption of Scythian was imperfect, so their languages still differed from one another.

It is for this reason that modern historians and anthropologists believe that the Sarmatians were descended from the Amazons, or that if the Amazons resembled any group of people, then it would be the Sarmatians.

However, Herodotus gave an interesting account of the origin of the Sarmatians. Whether it is true or not, it does give an indication of the role and privilege of the women in their society.

Historically, the Scythian empire began to wane, and the Sarmatians, who produced superb cavalry, were more than a match for the Scythians. They left their homeland in the Ukraine, sweeping aside the Scythians and conquering their territories. Most of the lands of the Scythian empire were then theirs. The Sarmatians displaced their predecessors and soon they came into contact with the Roman Empire in the 2nd century AD.

The Romans admired the horsemanship of the Sarmatians, and began employing their services in their cavalry. The Sarmatian power began to decline in the 3rd century from outside tensions with the Germanic tribes, and collapsed in the 4th century when the Huns drove many groups of people from their lands.

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According to Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian from Sicily who flourished in the first century BC, the Amazons originated from Libya instead of in Asia or Thrace. See the Amazons in Libya for more information.

Amazons in Libya

According to the Library of History, a historical account of the world written by Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC, the Amazons' original home was in western Libya. They were said to have lived in the land called Hespera, which lay in the marshes of Tritonis and near Mount Atlas. The city of Cherronesus was the capital of the Amazons. Where Cherronesus actually was, remains uncertain.

Diodorus described their customs and warring ways that were similar to Herodotus' account in the 5th century BC. It was the women who were trained in combat and warfare, while the men (husbands?) looked after the homes and children.

Diodorus' description of Amazon tactics was similar to those of the Parthian cavalry archers. The Parthians were superb horsemen who had developed the skills of firing their arrows as they retreated from their enemies. Obviously Diodorus was influenced by the Roman defeat under their general Crassus, in the Battle of Carrhae (53 BC).

At the beginning of Myrina's campaign, she was said to be able to muster 30,000 foot-soldiers and 3000 strong cavalry, which was quite formidable.

During the reign of their queen, Myrina, the Amazons encountered another race of women warriors known as the Gorgons.

The Gorgons were usually known as monsters with snakes on their head, instead of hair. Looking directly into their faces could turn almost any living creature into stone. Diodorus scoffed at this myth, and claimed that the Gorgons were nothing more than fierce tribal women in Libya, skilled in warfare.

The Amazons clashed with the Gorgons; the former crushing the later in battle. See Perseus for the alternative legend of the Gorgons.

After this, the Amazons conquered many territories as far east as Syria, and in the north in Asia Minor and a few islands in the Aegean, including Lesbos and Samothrace.

Myrina's empire crumbled at her death, when the Thracians and the Scythians defeated her army. Myrina was killed in battle. After a series of losses, the Amazons withdrew back into Libya.

See Myrina about more on this alternative legend of the Amazons.