Assignments

Thursday, Dec. 5: Project Discussions

Crucial information about due dates Portfolios Final Exam (complete) See below for people who need to get me revised articles, projects or electronic copy:  BRING DISKS TO APPT!   Web Board Discussion : Our posting problems should be resolved -- or so they tell me.

I need electronic copy and/or final revisions of Book reports from:

• Megan (1, electronic copy)
• David G (electronic copy)
• Jason (3 electronic copy)
• Pauline (1 electronic copy)
• Ashley S. (2 Tyrrell chapters)

I need final reports & final copy edit from:

• David G (send revisions)
• Ashley S. (reschedule)
• Dawn (send revisions)
• Lauren V

Portfolios:  A reminder to bring these in also by Monday 3-6 pm.  You should include:

• your written work (book reports, project)
• comments given to you by other students, noting if some were particularly valuable
• anything else you want to add to demonstrate how brilliant your work has been
• if you want, narrative comment about your research or anything else you want me to consider in grading it.

Crucial information about due dates:

• All work from the course needs to be in to me no later than 3 pm Monday Dec. 16.  I prefer to get it by Thursday Dec. 12.  That way, if there is a problem, you aren't stuck with it.
• All work needs to be copy-edited before it is considered done.  That means you have to come to me with your final version on a disk, and go over it with me, and wait while I save it for inclusion on the Web page.  (Then you can have your disk back!)
• Since you need to spend time with me, you need to make an appointment.  I will be very busy (mostly with other students from this course) so do not assume you can walk in, see me, and walk out.  Make an appointment now.

Final exam:

The final consists of three parts:

IN CLASS PART:

 A multiple choice section (20%).  This will cover material mostly since the midterm.  Be familiar with the terms, names and ideas that I gave you for work since the midterm (see old assignments).  I've put a more specific list of what you should know for this section, below.

Come in on the day of the exam to take this (Monday Dec. 16, 3-6 pm); or you may come Friday 12/13 8-11 AM or Wednesday 12/18 11:30-2:30 PM; I am trying to set up a time Saturday 12/14 3-6 PM also.  Let me know by Wednesday 12/11 which day you will take the multiple choice section!

TAKE HOME PART (80%) Bring this in by Monday 3-6 pm, LH 104 Hard copy and electronic format (email is fine for electronic).

(2) Essay 1: 40 %.  Were the Amazons real?  And what is an Amazon anyway?  Use this as your opportunity to discuss the historicity of the Amazons described by the ancient Greeks.  You may include your posts from our message board and also responses to other posts.  You may include excerpts from primary sources or quotes from other authors.  This essay must be submitted both in hard copy and in electronic format (Word or in the body of an email).

(3) Essay 2: 40%: Commentary on Quotes.  This "essay" must be submitted both in hard copy and in electronic format (Word or in the body of an email).

Instructions:  Choose 3-5 quotes from this collection for comment (choose the smaller number if you have a lot to say about one or more of the quotes.)  If you like, you may use a quotation of your own choice as one of your selections.  In your discussion, do not rephrase what the quote is saying; instead, comment on the perspective, validity, implications, etc. of the quote based on yoru own expertise in the field of “Amazon studies.”  (Note: Two of the “quotes” are actually artifacts.)

1. Zina Vishnevsky, from a review of Batya Weinbaum:

Weinbaum organizes Amazon myths into three types. First is "a collective horde of fighting women," which believers write as historical reality. Queen Isabella of Spain "offered rewards to her explorers for discovering Amazons in the new World,". . .

This contrasts with the second type of myth "in which the Amazon appeared as an individuated anima figure," as, for example in 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' and in the beat culture of the 1950s, when "men wrote about her as an interior psychic phenomenon of themselves." In the third form there is a redefining of the Amazon archetype as a "collective entity of women." It occurs in 19th and 20th century feminist fantasy and science fiction with "fantasy islands" in which the women procreate with the wind or live on colonized planets that they heroically protect.

2. Jeannine Davis-Kimball (Archeology article):

[In] Early Iron Age Pokrovka females held a unique position in society.  They seem to have controlled much of the wealth, performed rituals for their families and clan, rode horseback, ans possibly hunted . . . In times of stress, when their territory or possessions were threatened, they took to their saddles, bows and arrows ready, to defend their animals, pastures and clan . . . Because the Pokrovka nomands lived 1,000 miles east of the Don and Volga Sauromatians, and the Amazons known to the Greeks lived even father west, they cannot have been the same people . . .

3. Sue Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece:

There can be little doubt that, in a society like that of Classical Athens, one of the [Amazon] myth’s functions was a provision of a negative role model. . . It would be interesting to know whether the Amazon myth was always “correctly” decoded by the Athenian women who encountered it.  It is possible that some of them would have found these assertive females inspiring, in spite of their failure.  But of course we have no inkling of women’s reactions.  Presumably the role invented for the Amazons – that of vanquished barbarian invader – would have insured that the majority of women subscribed to the prevailing view and rejected the warrior women’s example.

4. Sara Matousek, overview of interpretations of Amazons:

According to the Amazon myths, men must marry to prevent this pollution [of illegitimate children]. Not only do these legends force men to protect the patriarchy, but also "a man who has never envisioned harming a woman can freely indulge his fantasies of murdering an Amazon" (Kleinbaum, 1). Men also reduce strong women to nubile girls and mothers by murdering and raping Amazons. They feel that they are in control of women because of these myths and that this type of control is natural and justified. The Amazon myths, therefore, not only illustrate the need for women to marry and remain subservient members of society, but also reflect the male desire for domination and power.

5. Ilse Kirk, Images of Amazons

[T]he Amazons were liminal [i.e., in-between]: they were androgyne, (females and warriors0; they lived on the borders of the known world; they were neither virgins nor married; they desired men but did not want male babies – they were like initiates, who [exist in limbo] . . . Marginal and ambiguous, Amazons were either killed or made inot proper women through marriage.

6. Strabo, Geography

But as regards the Amazons, the same stories are told now as in early times, though they are marvellous and beyond belief. For instance, who could believe that an army of women, or a city, or a tribe, could ever be organized without men, and not only be organized, but even make inroads upon the territory of other people, and not only overpower the peoples near them to the extent of advancing as far as what is now Ionia, but even send an expedition across the sea as far as Attica? For this is the same as saying that the men of those times were women and that the women were men. Nevertheless, even at the present time these very stories are told about the Amazons, and they intensify the peculiarity above-mentioned and our belief in the ancient accounts rather than those of the present time.

7. Palaiphatos, Peri Apistoon (c. 360-320) (Blok 30):

This is my view of the Amazons, that they were not women who waged war, but barbarian men, and that they wore clothing which extended over their feet, like that of the Thracian women, and that they bound their hair in hair-braids and shaved off their beards like [ . . . ]And that is why they were called women by their opponents.  The Amazons were a people that excelled in fighting.  But fighting was never for women, nor is it so anywhere today.

8. Scholiast on Il. III 189 (Blok 175):

The Amazons live near the Thermodon.  They are daughters of Ares and Harmonia, the nymph and Naiad.  The most famous are Hippolyte, Antiope, whom Theseus abducted, Anaia, Andromache, Glauke, Otrere, and Penthesileia, her daughter.  In the time of Mygdon, son of Akmon, and Otreus, son of Dymas, they plundered the neighboring districts, riding on their fire-breathing horses, and later overran Phrygia for booty.  They were so called because they lacked one breast – for they cauterized it to prevent it from getting in the way when they used their bows – or, because they did not eat bread (maza), but tortoises, lizards and snakes.  Some say that they are the same as the Sarmatian women.  [Antaineirai] means equal to or hostile to men. . .The Amazons are said to be antaireirai in the use of the bow.             

9. Black-figure neck amphora:

10. Amazon Coin 3:

Terms, names and Ideas for the Exam:

Terms, Names and Ideas: Dahomey Amazons

• Basics of social organization: kingship, palace, roles of women in society as a whole
• Who became Amazons and what they did . . .

Terms, Names and Ideas: Amazons in Cult

• Locations of Amazon-related sites in Greece & Asia Minor (esp. where Amazon cult is attested)

Terms, Names and Ideas: Sparta and Gortyn

Terms, Names and Ideas: Amazons and Heroes:

Sources for Illustrations:

• Vroma  Click on Images and you can search the database.  This is a huge repository of Classical  images available for academic use -- there is not too much specifically on Amazons, but you may be able to find other depictions of women and other motifs (horses, wariors, heroes, etc.)
•  

Images for use on our page

Updated Amazon Sources

Primary Source Information Chart

Old Assignments

Upcoming Assignments    (Note: These may change somewhat based on what happens in class so always double check assignments from the Upcoming page.)