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Wonder Women
The idea of the Amazon has evolved through the ages, since
the days of Homer to the present. Their myths have evolved and
have been altered to accommodate the society in which the story
is being told.
What is the significance of the existence of
Amazons, and why are there so many myths of their demise? From
man’s mortal enemy to modern day cult heroes, the idea of the
Amazon is immortal.
Love them, or hate them, their stories will
live on, and new stories will continue to be created.
This
paper will trace the beginnings and culture of these warrior
women and how important they were in classical Greece, in art
and literature.
William Blake Tyrrell gives a view of why Greek myths were
created and more importantly why Amazons came into existence, in
his book Amazons, A Study in Athenian Mythmaking:
Classical Athens was a patriarchy, a social system
organized along the lines of the sexual asymmetry of
male privilege. The cultural ideal, the adult male
warrior, depended upon the imperative that boys become
warriors and fathers, and girls become wives and
mothers of sons. The genesis of the Amazon myth is the
reversal of that is imperative: Amazons go to war and
refuse to become mothers of sons. (xiv)
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Tyrrell also gives a reason for why myths were an important
tool for learning:
Myths tend to deal with sources of conflict and
tension in the social order and human conditions.
Their function is to elicit responses to their
explanations in the minds and emotions of their
receptors in order to obfuscate (to blur), circumvent,
or mediate those conflicts and tensions. […] a myth
manipulates its explanatory techniques in ways that
contradict systematic thought. Its purpose is the
diminution of anxiety and resolution of conflict […].
(xiv)
The Amazons are the Greek male citizens’ ultimate conflict
because they challenge the roles of society.
They are the
opposition of order; thus Amazons, as well as females who
ventured outside their social roles, were viewed as chaotic. In
Tyrell’s context of marriage, women who did not marry upset
societal norms (31).
It is no secret that women in classical
Greece were viewed as wild and sexually promiscuous unless they
married a man who could tame her and teach her how to be a
proper wife.
Textual evidence of Greek male thought on how
women, without the presence of men, acted can be found in Greek
literature such as Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata, Aeschylus’
Orestia, and Euripides’ Bacchae.
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If men feared that untamed women were sexually wild unless
taught to be a proper wife, then the Amazons must have been
beyond what men feared most because the Amazons were women who
used their sexual prowess to their advantage.
Not only did they
shun marriage, but they also assumed the roles that were
strictly male, such as warriors and imperialists.
Untamed women
could be tamed by marriage; Amazons could not be tamed at all.
To do so secured you a spot among heroes.
So who were they? Homer called them the “antianeirai,”
which means, “those who go to war like men.”
Herodotus, a
historian from Halicarnassus, called them “oiorpata” which means
“the killers of males.” They were warrior-women who lived in a
matriarchal society.
They excelled in warfare, had God-given
beauty, and built cities.
They were most famous for their war
practices, which included the cutting of the right breast to
ease the drawing of the bow.
It is believed that the name
“Amazon” derived from the Greek word “amazoi,” which means,
“breast less” or “without breast” (Wilde 14). Hellanicus, an
Ionian historian, describes the Amazons as, “a golden-shielded,
silver-axed, female, male-loving, male-infant-killing host”
(Tyrrell 21).
In ancient vase paintings, the Amazons were depicted as
carrying both heavy and light armor. They carried moon-shaped,
hide-covered shields and wore a cap of leather. Their main
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weapon was the curved Scythian bow; however, they also used
axes, spears, and javelins (Tyrrell 50).
The artists and
authors, who used the Amazons as their subjects, made them in a
way where they would be hated by the Greek male citizen.
“The
bow was reviled from Homeric times as a coward'’ weapon because
with it, one could kill from a safe distance.” The Amazons bow
was to have mirrored the Persians because it was the most
“menacing feature” in their warfare (50).
The ideology of the
Amazons was to use the Greeks real enemies at the time, the
Persians, and make them even more dangerous to men.
When did the first written literature of the Amazon first
exist? The earliest written references of the Amazons can be
credited to Homers’ Iliad. In a conversation with Helen, Priam
tells of his past war experiences:
Years ago I visited Phrygia rife with vineyards, saw
the Phrygian men with their swarming horses there –
multitudes – the armies of Otreus, Mygdon like a god,
encamped that time along the Sangarius River banks.
And I took my stand among them, comrade-in-arms the
day the Amazons struck, a match for men in war. (3:
225-229)
The Amazons are also referred to in Book 6 during the tale
of Bellerophon’s (also known as Bellerophontes) heroics, “Then
for a third test he brought the Amazons down, a match for men in
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war” (6: 219-220).
In both references, Homer does not go into
detail in explaining the story of the Amazons.
The Iliad only
states that the Amazons were "a match for men in war". There is
no mention of the Amazons origins. It is safe to assume that
Homer had intended his audience to already know the story of the
Amazons.
Many authors have retold the origin of the Amazons.
According to Robert Graves’ Greek Myths, the Amazons are
children of Ares, the god of war, and a Naiad, Harmonia.
Lysippe
Their first leader was Lysippe.
She once had a son named
Tanais who offended Aphrodite by detesting marriage and devoting
himself to war.
In revenge, Aphrodite caused him to fall in
love with his mother.
Instead of exposing his love, he flung
himself into the river, now named after him, and drowned.
Lysippe, fearful that her son’s ghost will come back with
vengeance, led her daughters around the Black Sea coast,
settling by the river Thermodon.
Once there, they formed three
tribes, and each tribe founded a city.
Lysippe established the rules among the Amazons. First,
descent is only recognized through the mother.
Secondly, men
must perform all household tasks, while the women did the
governing and fighting.
Thirdly, the arms and legs of infant
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males were to be broken to prevent them from warring and
travelling (Graves 160).
According to Graves, the Amazons were unnatural women and
showed no regard for justice or decency.
These women, however,
were famous warriors and the first to employ a cavalry.
Before
Lysippe died in battle, she built the capital city of Themiscyra
and defeated every tribe as far as the river Tanais. Temples
were built in honor of Ares, and the Amazons chief Goddess,
Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt.
Lysippes’ descendants
would later extend the Amazonian empire to Thrace and Phrygia
and then, “Three famous Amazonian queens, Marpesia, Lampado, and
Hippo, seized a great part of Asia Minor and Syria, and founded
the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyrene, and Myrine.
It was on
this expedition that the Amazons captured Troy, Priam being then
still a child” (161).
impressive.
The military exploits of the Amazons were
These women were able to conquer land and build
working cities without the help of men. “But Amazon imperialists
oppose Athenian imperialists as women opposed men.
Should the
Amazons be victorious, women would rule of men as men ruled in
everyday life over women” (Graves 16.).
In the book, The War Against the Amazons, written by Abby
Wettan Kleinbaum, she states:
The conquest of an Amazon is an act of transcendence,
a rejection of the ordinary, of death, of mediocrity –
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and a reach for immortality.
If the Amazon excels in
military prowess, then the skill of the hero who
defeats her is even more extraordinary.
If she is
beautiful and pledged to virginity, then the sexual
power of the hero who wins her heart and her bed is
without measure.
If she builds powerful armies,
strong cities, great stores of riches, then these
serve as trophies for her male conquerors.
To win an
Amazon, either through arms or through love or, even
better, through both, is to be certified as a hero.(1)
The legend of the Amazons were created by men whose intent
was not to flatter women, but to create an archetype of barbaric
women who needed to be slaughtered. “[…] a man who has never
envisioned harming a woman can freely indulge in fantasies of
murdering an Amazon” (Kleinbaum 1).
There have been many myths
that tell the story of the hero defeating the Amazons.
Penthesilea
One of these stories is the famous one of Achilles in the
Trojan War. Some stories tell of Achilles committing necrophilia
on the corpse of Penthesilea. It has been argued, however, that
the romantic interpretation only appears in works of later poets
and that the classical representations only show the two in
intense fighting (Kleinbaum 23). Versions have been told by many
poets, including Arctinus and Quintus Smyrnaeus. The oldest of
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the romantic interpretation can be traced to an eighth century
B.C epic, Aethiopis, narrated by Arctinus:
The Amazon Penthesilea arrives to aid the Trojans in
the war. She is the daughter of Ares and a Thracian by
birth.
Achilles kills her while she is fighting at
her best, and the Trojans bury her.
Achilles kills
Thersites, who railed at him and reproached him for
loving Penthesilea. (Tyrrell 78)
According to Quintus, who lived around the fourth century
AD, “Though she lay fallen in the dirt and gore, beneath her
lovely eyebrows shone her beautiful face, even in death.” He
continues to describe Achilles reaction to the slain Queen:
Many men prayed that when they came home they would
sleep in the bed of a wife like her. Achilles suffered
greatly in his heart, that he slew her and did not
bring her to Phthia as his shining wife, since in
height and beauty she was blameless and like the
immortals. (Tyrrell 79)
Hippolyte
Another story of hero against Amazon is the one about
Heracles’ Labors. It first appeared around 575 B.C. as paintings
on black-figure vases (Tyrrell 2).
“The earliest written
version of the myth,” according to William Blake Tyrrell, “is
given by Euripides in the Heracles.” Heracles was told by an
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oracle to serve Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, for twelve years.
In return, Heracles would be made an immortal.
Heracles to complete twelve labors.
Eurystheus order
One of these labors was to
fetch golden girdle of Ares from the Amazonian queen, Hippolyte.
When Heracles arrived at the river Thermodon, Hippolyte,
Antiope, and Melanippe ruled the three chief cities.
Hippolyte
saw Heracles and fell in love with his masculinity and offered
him the girdle as a love gift.
But Hera, the jealous wife of
Zeus, was nearby and disguised as an Amazon.
She spread rumors
around the city that these men planned to abduct Hippolyte.
The
women, convinced of the rumors, attacked Heracles and his men.
Heracles slays Hippolyte, thinking she had something to do with
the attack, and steals her girdle and her weapons.
He killed
many Amazons before returning back to Mycenae (Graves 160-163).
Antiope
The most extensive story about the Amazons has to be the
one with Theseus.
He visited the city of the Amazons and the
Queen Antiope (in some versions, Hippolyta) greeted him and his
companions.
As she was bringing him gifts, Theseus abducts her
and takes her back to Athens. In another version, Theseus was
among Heracles’ crew when he took the girdle. As a reward for
helping Heracles in battle, Theseus was given the Amazon queen.
In either story, the common line is that Theseus obtained the
Queen, and as a result, it started the Amazonian invasion of
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Athens, also know as the Amazonomachy. The queen’s sister, whose
goal was to bring the queen back to Themyscira, led the
Amazonian army. During the battle between Athenians and Amazons,
some stories tell of the queen fighting alongside Theseus. This
was a betrayal to the Amazons and their law.
Prior to the
invasion, Theseus consulted the Oracle which told him that the
Athenians must attack first, and it also foretold of the death
of his lover, by his own hands.
The battle lasted for months
until both sides came to an agreement.
This was a great victory
for the Athenians because the Amazons were the best warriors. In
their view, they beat the best, therefore, now Athens was the
best. As time past, Theseus entered an alliance with King
Deucalion the Cretan.
Phaedra.
Theseus was to marry the king’s sister,
This enraged his Amazon lover and during the wedding
festivities, she burst in, fully armed, and threatened to kill
the guests.
Theseus fought her and killed her, as the oracle
had predicted. It is assumed that the queen was in love with
Theseus.
She bore him a son, Hippolytus and had been with no
other man than him.
This story continues in Euripides’ play,
Hippolytus.
Hippolytus was an exceptionally handsome man.
He angered
Aphrodite by worshiping Artemis instead. As punishment,
Aphrodite makes his stepmother, Phaedra, fall in love with him.
When this secret is revealed, Hippolytus is angered at his
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stepmother and the nurse who encouraged Phaedra to come out with
the truth.
Phaedra, crushed by the rejection, commits suicide.
Theseus, curious as to the commotion finds his dead wife with a
note that places the blame of her death on Hippolytus.
wants Hippolytus dead, but exiles him instead.
Theseus
Prior to his
death, Hippolytus forgives Theseus for being the father that he
was and that even as he dies, Theseus will not have to worry
about revenge. Theseus not only loses Phaedra, the woman whom he
killed Antiope for, but he also loses the only son the Amazon
ever had.
If the story of Antiope and Hippolytus teaches
anything, it teaches the audience that women become troublesome
when they follow their heart, and this leads to their deaths.
For Antiope, it was her jealousy, and for Phaedra, it was
getting her heart broken.
All of the stories about the hero versus the Amazon share
the same outcome: the slaughtering of the Amazons and the death
of the Queen.
It is no question that the origins of these
stories are from males who lived in a misogynistic society that
valued aresteia, which means, “the best.” The Amazon represented
the best, their defeat meant man was the now the best.
There are no stories of Amazon succeeding over the Athenian
heroes. Amazons were worse than the Persians because they were
more skilled at warfare, created major cities, and most
importantly because they were female.
They were not fully
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savages, although most descriptions show them as such.
Even the
great Greek heroes have fallen in love with them.
The ideologies of the Amazons have caused fear and
curiosity in classical times and still do today because they are
still mystery.
In today’s world, the Amazon is a positive icon
of female empowerment. Their essence will continue to live on
because their ideologies showed independence. And independence
is greatly valued in today’s society.
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Works Cited
Euripides. Hippolytus. Trans. Robert Bagg. Oxford: Oxford
University Press,
1973.
Graves, Robert. Greek Myths. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1960.
Homer. Iliad. Trans. Fitzgerald, Robert. New York: Anchor Books,
1974.
Kleinbaum, Abby Wettan. The War Against the Amazons
New York:
McGraw-Hill,
1983.
Tyrrell, William Blake. Amazons: A Study in Athenian MythMaking.
Baltimore:
John Hopkins University Press, 1989.
Wilde, Lyn Webster. On the Trial of the Woman Warriors. New
York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1999.