Amazons

Amazons, that is, female warriors of yore (not the river, or the company) were part of Greek myth. In many stories, Greek warriors battled female warriors who were as strong and brave as men. These women warriors became a part of Western culture--there was one in Shakespeare, and of course many of us associate the image with Wonder Woman.

For many years, Amazons were thought to be mythical, but in recent years archaeological discoveries have shown that they did exist. They were Scythians.

Scythia was a name the Greeks gave an empire that stretched from the Black Sea to Mongolia, roughly from the 11th century B.C. to the 2nd century AD. There height of power was around the 7th century B.C., just about the time of the greatest period of Greek culture. They were nomads, and not much is known about them.

Stories of female warriors pepper Greek myths. Theseus kidnapped one (Antiope) and made her his queen, although Shakespeare changed her to Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of Heracles' labors was to steal the girdle of a Hippolyta. They appeared in Homer's Iliad. They served as fierce opponents of Greeks, although they always lost. Greek society, which was very patriarchal, kind of marveled at the notion of women being equal on the battlefield, as well as in the household.

Discoveries of burial mounds in the steppes of Europe revealed many skeletons buried with the accouterments of battle. Only recently, with advancements of DNA technology, has it been found that many of these skeletons were women.

Research indicates that Scythian women were taught warfare right along with the men. They were not, as some myths have told us, an all-female or man-hating society. Evidence suggests they were mothers as well as warriors. It is also not true, given evidence in artwork from the period, that they cut off a breast to improve their archery.

The image of the Amazon has persisted, often as a symbol of feminism. Although the original creator of Wonder Woman, William Moulton Marston, had kinkier notions of Amazons when he created Wonder Woman, often strong, or in some cases, uppity woman have been called Amazons, such as the suffragettes of the women's vote movement. When they are reinterpreted in the Greek myths, they are usually not presented as terrifying, but an inspiration to women, particularly in the recent film version of Wonder Woman. But my favorite reincarnation of Amazons is in the work of Rick Riordan, he of the Percy Jackson series. portrays the women warriors in his Heroes of Olympus series. They are the founders and operators of the Amazon corporation. Clearly, Jeff Bezos is just a front.