Posted on 11/01/2014 3:18:49 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The article tries hard to separate fact from fantasy, the facts being that a large percentage (30%?) of Sythian women were buried with warrior tools, and that Greeks considered many "barbarian" women to be warriors.
This was a scandal to civilized Greeks, but then one needs to wonder about their own warrior goddesses, Athena and Artemis (Diana) and also Jason's companion, Atalanta.
So the basic idea of women warriors was not entirely myth.
There were some.
The Romans had a goddess of war, Bellona. So did the ancient Semitic civilizations of Assyria, Babylon, etc.
The moment of an original invention may not have gone down in the history books, but stirrups and some way to attach them are a very common-sense invention; any number of people in ancient times who had ever ridden bareback, might have imagined it, and invented it - and their community have kept it as a useful tool.
Little pockets of people often know things that the BIG CITY people dont know. Eventually, discoveries get around, and finally go down in the history books as the invention of some civilization - when actually, to steal awkwardly from Yeats, it actually began in the mind of some shepherd boy, lighting up his eyes for a moment....
Im certain that stirrups at least were imagined and invented by one of the first dozen or so people who ever sat on the back of a horse! along with saddles, and probably all kinds of tack; and re-imagined and invented many times over, for centuries, in different places.
Widespread implementation would depend upon local need and usefulness; but the knowledge in an area would not have been completely lost.
-JT
Well, she appears to somewhat possess the lower body attributes to ride bareback effectively......
-JT
Amazon Warrior Women
PBS | Current | PBS
Posted on 8/4/2004, 11:51:53 PM by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1185293/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.