And some mythological legends recounted that they liked battle so much that they even cut off their right breast in order to be able to use a bow more efficiently! To the Greek eye, the Amazons were a great threat. One famous story is that of Theseus, who angered the Amazons by abducting and marrying one of their companions, Antiope.
Theseus and his forces defeated them, but during the battle Antiope was accidentally killed by Molpadia, another Amazon, who, in turn, was killed by Theseus. An even more famous story is the battle between the Amazons and Hercules, the greatest of all Greek heroes. Not an easy task for Hercules: Ares, the God of war himself, had given Hippolyte the belt because she was the best warrior of all the Amazons.
Hercules and his fleet reached the land of the Amazons, killed Hippolyte and took her belt. Yes, the Amazons had lost again… but not before proving their strength and astuteness in a great battle. The Greeks were smart enough to use the Mythological stories of the Amazons to their advantage. The tale could therefore serve the ideological goal of the Greeks and show everyone that they were strong and unbeatable.
That then raised the question: How do they reproduce? They came up with these stories of women agreeing to meet with neighboring tribes to reproduce. But then what did they do with the boys? So there were stories that they either maimed them so that they couldn't participate in warfare or that they actually killed them to get rid of them and only kept the girls. The most common story was that they sent the boys back to the fathers to be raised.
Many modern scholars interpreted this as proof that they abandoned their duties as mothers. They don't take care of their babies! They give them away! Blah, blah, blah. But it turns out that it was a very common custom among nomadic people, called fosterage. Sending sons to be raised by another tribe ensures that you're going to have good relations with that tribe. It's a way of sealing treaties. It was very common in antiquity. Philip the Great was raised by an ally of his father.
It was also common in the Middle Ages in Europe. It's also a way of ensuring you don't have incest within the tribe. The fact that the Scythian and Thracian tribes probably practiced fosterage led to these stories that the Amazons gave their sons to the father's tribe.
That's probably a reality. But there is no archaeological evidence that they maimed boys. There are movies and TV series featuring bold warrior women and even Amazons. The new Vikings TV show has all the shield maidens.
And of course there are strong women in A Game of Thrones. So everyone's really aware of the idea of warrior women. It's sort of fair to say that Amazons, both as reality and as a dream of equality, have always been with us. It's just that sometimes that fiery Amazon spirit is hidden from view or even suppressed.
Right now they're blazing back into popular culture. All rights reserved. We associate the word Amazon with digital book sales these days. Tell us about the real Amazons. Why were they called Amazons? Share Tweet Email. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants.
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They were often kept around to help breed more female children. They were seen in the society as unnecessary except to procreate. They also often removed one of their breasts to make it easier to use their bow. When stories were told about them, they were shown to be strong, dangerous women who were also very beautiful. They were definitely the subject of fascination. In Greek mythology, Amazonian women are present in a myriad of myths, interacting with both Greek heroes and Greek gods.
Theseus, for example, fell in love with Antiope, sister of Queen Hippolyta. Were the Amazons of ancient Greek mythology — fierce female warriors said to have roamed a vast area around the Black Sea known as Scythia — real? Or were they as fictitious as other Greek myths, such as Aphrodite emerging from genitals thrown into the sea or Jason stealing a golden fleece? Modern historians assumed that the Amazons, first documented by the poet Homer in the eighth century B. But then, in the s, archaeologists began identifying ancient female skeletons buried in warrior graves in the same region.
Some skeletons were found with combat injuries, such as arrowheads embedded in their bones, and were buried with weapons that matched those held by Amazons in ancient Greek artwork, according to Adrienne Mayor, a research scholar in the classics department and History of Science Program at Stanford University.
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