by Cathe Alfrey
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Greek men were fascinated with the idea of the Amazon—a
forbidden, different, “other” woman. Some questions that come to mind when
studying Amazons are: “Where did they come from.” And “Where were did they
live?” Although there is no definite date or time that the first Amazon
nation was established, we will explore what ancient authors had to say
about where they were established.
Stephanus of Byzantium, a geographer, and Justin, a
historian from 3 c. CE, agree that the beginning of the Amazons was most
likely the result of war. All the men had gone to fight and left the women
to tend to and protect their homes, children, livestock, and each other.
Although our sources for information about the Amazons
are not truly primary, since they are not from within Amazon culture, we
refer to them that way, because there is no information written by any
Amazon. This is not surprising since men were the historians, geographers,
and orators in Greek society. The most detailed descriptions of early
settlements of Amazons come from four of these sources: Diodorus, Lysias,
Strabo and Herodotus.
Image courtesy AMU |
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Primary Sources
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus gives us a very detailed account of the existence
of Amazons along the Thermodon river, led by a Queen whom he never names. She
“possessed the royal authority, was remarkable for her prowess in war and her
bodily strength, and gathering together an army of women drilled it in the use
of arms and subdued in war some of the neighboring peoples.” As her valor and
fame increased, she made war upon the people in the neighboring lands and having
won these battles gave herself the appellation, “Daughter of Ares.” She
assigned the men the job of spinning the wool and other domestic duties “as
belong to women.” She established laws; led forth the women to contests of
war. Upon the men “she fastened humiliation and slavery.” In general, this
queen was remarkable for her intelligence and her ability as a general, and she
founded a great city named Themiscyra at the mouth of the Thermodon river and
built there a famous palace. She also devoted much attention to military
discipline and subdued all her neighbors as far as the Tanais river. She was
succeeded by her daughter who emulated her excellence, subdued a large part of
Asia and extended her power as far as Syria.
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Libyan Amazons
Diodorus also tells us of Amazons in Libya with a history
much older than those of the Thermodon river area. In his account of the Libyan
Amazons, Diodorus stresses the point that his audience might not believe him
because he realizes that the “history of this people will appear to be a thing
unheard of and entirely strange.” He tells of a race which was ruled by women
who “followed a manner of life unlike that which prevails among us,” who lived
in the western parts of Libya on the bounds of the inhabited world. The custom
was that the women practiced the arts of war and were required to serve in the
army for a fixed period. Upon leaving service, they “kept in their hands the
administration of magistracies and of all the affairs of the state.” Diodorus
also says that their home was an island which, because it was in the west, was
called Hespera, and it lay in the marsh Trironis. This marsh was near the
ocean, near Ethiopia, and near the mountain that the Greeks called Atlas.
Diodorus tells us that the Amazons subdued all
the cities of this island, except one called Mene, which was sacred. They then
proceeded to conquer much of the world around them. Their queen, Myrina,
collected an army of thirty thousand foot soldiers and three thousand cavalry,
which she used to wage wars and conquered much of the surrounding area. She was
later slain in battle along with the larger part of her army, the remnants
withdrawing again into Libya.
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Lysias
Lysias says that in “ancient times were the Amazons,
daughters of Ares, dwelling beside the river Thermodon; they alone of the people
round about were armed with iron, and they were first of all to mount horses.”
He also says that they were “accounted as men for their high courage rather than
as women for their sex; so much more did they seem to excel men in their spirit
than to be at a disadvantage in their form.”
Lysias also states that they ruled over many nations and
enslaved them and were moved by “increase of glory and high ambition to attack
[Athens].” They lost this battle and “rendered their own country nameless.”
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Strabo
“The Amazons, also, are said to live in the mountains of
Albania. Now Theophanes, who made the expedition with Pompey and was in the
country of the Albanians, says that the Gelae and Legae, Scythian people, live
between the Amazons and the Albanians, and that the Mermadalis River flows
there, midway between these people and the Amazons.” Strabo also says that
other travelers say that the Amazons live on the borders of the Gargarians, in
the northerly foothills of the Caucasian Mountains. Strabo also says that the
Amazons are off to themselves, performing tasks such as plowing, planting,
pasturing cattle and training horses, but the bravest engage in hunting on
horseback and practicing warlike exercises.
Strabo also quotes other contemporaries of his who tell of
a queen, Thalestria, with whom Alexander associated and had intercourse for the
sake of offspring.
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Herodotus
Herodotus describes the beginnings of the Sauromatians from
the remnants of the Amazons and the Scythians. This story will be more fully
discussed below.
|
Author |
Time Frame |
Amazon Beginnings |
|
Herodotus (Historian) |
5th c. BCE |
Amazons/Scythians mate and live together;
Sauromatae are their progeny |
|
Diodorus Siculus (Historian) |
1st c. BCE |
Founded Themiscyra, along the Thermodon River;
led by a queen; Libyan Amazons |
|
Lysias (Orator) |
4th-3rd c. BCE |
Daughters of Ares; Dwell beside the Thermodon
River |
|
Strabo (Geographer) |
1st c. BCE |
Scythian people “live between the Amazons and
Albanians.” |
|
Stephanus and Justin |
1st c. BCE |
Men killed in war, women took over
responsibilities |
Putting it Together
The Similarities are:
So, what are we to gather from all these different accounts
of where and when the Amazons lived? Let’s examine the similarities in the
ancient sources.
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Herodotus and Strabo talk of the Scythian people and the
Amazons’ relationship with them
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Diodorus and Lysias tell us that the Amazons were in the
Thermodon river region
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All agree that the Amazons kept to themselves, rode
horses, hunted on horseback, and waged war.
The differences are:
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Herodotus never mentions the Thermodon river
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Herodotus does not talk of a queen
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Strabo mentions a queen, Thalestria, but attributes this
to other sources, and does not believe it Herodotus doesn’t mention the
Thermodon river
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Herodotus does not talk of a queen
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Strabo mentions a queen, Thalestria, but attributes this
to other sources, and does not believe it
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Strabo and Diodorus do not explain the beginnings of the
Amazons; the later sources (Stephanus and Justin) say absent men led to Amazon
origins
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What do Secondary Sources Say?
Diodorus’ account is punctuated with expressions such as
“tradition has it that,” whereby the narrator declines responsibility and hides
behind what other people say. He also struggled between defining Amazons as
barbarians versus citizens. Strabo expressed explicit and detailed doubts about
the very existence of Amazons “After reporting, in the most skeptical of terms
what Metrodorus and Hypsicrates said about Amazons living close to Gargarians,
Strabo rejects all the traditions concerning the Amazons in a text that
considers both the extent to which such stories, whether about the
“archeological” Amazons or the ones said to exist near his own time, should be
believed and the extent to which they are in fact believed without
justification. Few Greeks worried about the origins of this nation of women:
it was enough to say that they were daughters of Ares (J. Carlier).
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Some Modern Interpretations of Amazons
- “The Amazon, we must keep in mind, lies between myth and
history. While she is outside of both, yet she is grounded in each. As a
warrior she is embedded in myth but the battleground is grounded in history in
the evolutionary biological conflict of the sexes” (Smith).
- "There is no way, through modern historical methods, to
affirm or deny the Amazon's existence, since the evidence we have pertains
only to myth and not to the Amazons qua Amazons….The existence of the
Amazons remains moot… The war of the sexes begins with the origin of the
species and will have no end so long as the species lives." (Tyrell).
- The Amazons existed; their tribes were a basic primitive
form of female social pattern; and if there are so many legends of female-only
islands, it is because the Amazon tribes often lived on islands (Weinbaum).
As we can see, there is conflict about the
very existence of Amazons, so there is no wonder that our primary sources are
not totally in agreement about their beginnings. As for the end of the Amazon
societies, our sources are also ambiguous.
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The End of the Amazons
Diodorus Siculus: Diodorus tells us that Herakles,
embarking upon his labor to get the girdle of Hippolyte, completely crushed the
Amazonian nation. But, in the same breath, he mentions that the queen of the
remaining Amazons fought in the Trojan War on the side of the Trojans.
Lysias: Lysias states that because of greed for others’
land, the Amazons justly lost their own.
Strabo: Strabo avers, “only a few writers make assertions
as to where they are at the present time, but their assertions are without proof
and beyond belief.”
Herodotus: Herodotus gives the fullest account of the end
of the Amazons. He infers that the Amazons disappeared by mating with the
Scythians and metamorphosing into a new nation, the Sarmatians. Herodotus begins
his discussion of the Amazons with a battle between the Greeks and Amazons. The
Greeks won the “battle of the Thermodon” and captured the remaining Amazons.
They then set out to sea with the Amazons aboard three of their ships. The
Amazons “rose up against the crews, and massacred them to a man.” Unfamiliar
with sailing, they drifted wherever the winds and waves sent them. Eventually
they came to a place called Cremni or “the Cliffs,” which was in the country of
the free Scythians. They went ashore and proceeded by land, seized the first
horses they found and plundered the Scythian territory.
After some time and much effort on the part of the Scythian
men, they became friendly and then merged camps. The Scythians wanted the
Amazons to live with them on their land, but the Amazons refused saying, “We
could not live with your women – our customs are quite different from theirs.”
The young Scythian men went to their parents, and received their portion of
goods. They returned to the Amazons and crossed a stream called the Tanais, and
marched three days eastward and three days to the north and took up abode
there. Their progeny were the Sauromatae who preserved their customs of hunting
on horseback, waging war, and dressing like their men.
“The Sauromatae speak the language of Scythia, but never
talked it correctly, because the Amazons learnt it imperfectly at the first.
Their marriage-law lays it down that no girl shall wed till she has killed a man
in battle.”
So, even our primary sources are very undecided when it
comes to the end of the Amazon nations. I believe our conclusions must be ours
alone, since belief is personal. Ancient authors were only repeating what had
been written or told to them by others. Therefore, no one is an authority.
Bibliography
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