FR Canteen ~ Part I of Women Warriors: The Amazons ~ January 20, 2004

Part I: The Amazons

The Greeks, Romans and other early civilizations wrote about or depicted the Amazons in their art. The name Amazon has survived through the ages as a generic term for women warriors. But until recently most of the historians who accepted these same ancient authors and artists as credible sources for information on other aspects of their society dismissed their descriptions of the Amazons as myth.

There is a growing body of evidence that the Amazons were as real as the civilizations who wrote of them. They governed large areas of Europe, Asia Minor and Africa.

Cities named Amazonium were established on Pontus and the Island of Patmos and numerous ancient cities in Europe, Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean Sea, including Smyrna and Ephesus, claimed to have been founded by Amazons.

A number of these cities stamped coins commemorating their Amazon founders and built statues and temples in their honor.

An Amazon saying her
prayers in front of an altar.

This picture shows the earliest, largely accepted representation of Amazons. It dates back to 700 BC.

The two figures on the right side are interpreted as Amazons, at least they are female warriors, because little circles on the chest indicate their breasts. They are armed with spear and shield and they wear a long patterned gown and a very broad girdle.

Most probably it depicts the fight between Heracles and the Amazon Queen Hippolyte.

According to historian Jessica Salmonson the Amazons were actually two different matriarchal empires founded, governed and defended by women. The earlier empire, the Hesperian or Gorgon Amazons, were Libyan women warriors who originated on Tritonia, an island off the African coast which was largely destroyed by volcanic eruption with the surviving portion forming the present day Canary Islands. Herodotus wrote of the Libyan Amazons military power as late as the sixth century BC.

"We are told, namely, that there was once in the western parts of Libya, on the bounds of the inhabited world, a race which was ruled by women and followed a manner of life unlike that which prevails among us. For it was the custom among them that the women should practice the arts of war, and be required to serve in the army for a fixed period, during which time they maintained their virginity; then, when the years of their service in the field had expired, they went in to the men for the procreation of children, but they kept in their hands the administration of the magistracies and of all the affairs of state. The men, however, like our married women, spent their days about the house, carrying out the orders which were given to them by their wives; and they took no part in military campaigns or in the exercise of free citizenship in the affairs of the community by virtue of which they might become presumptuous and rise up against the women. When their children were born the babies were turned over to the men, who brought them up on milk and such cooked foods as were appropriate to the age of the infants." -Diodorus Siculus, Biblioteca Historica

"Herodotus is not the only classical writer to point to the Sauromatian women as the direct descendants of the Amazons. In the late fifth century BC Pseudo-Hippocrates claimed that, "Amazon women dislocate the joints of their male children at birth…some at knees, some at hips ... to make them lame … so that the male race might not conspire against the female race." He repeats some of Herodotus's details and embellishes:

And in Europe there is a Scythian race, dwelling round Lake Maeotis, which differs from the other races. Their name is Sauromatae. Their women, so long as they are virgins, ride, shoot, throw the javelin while mounted, and fight with their enemies. They do not lay aside their virginity until they have killed three of their enemies, and they do not marry before they have performed the traditional sacred rites. A woman who takes to herself a husband no longer rides, unless she is compelled to do so by a general expedition. They have no right breast; for while they are yet babies their mothers make red-hot a bronze instrument constructed for this very purpose and apply it to the right breast and cauterize it, so that its growth is arrested, and all its strength and bulk are diverted to the right shoulder and right arm."

Myrene, the Gorgon Amazons greatest Queen, conquered parts of Syria, Egypt, Phygia and lands in the Mediterranean including the islands of Samos, Lesbos, Pathmos and Samothrace. She founded several cities which bore her name including the ancient city of Smyrna.
A description of a North African battle in which she led a cavalry of 30,000 women is believed to be the earliest record of troops riding horses into combat. Some scholars have theorized that the Centaurs, the legendary half human / half horse warriors of Greek mythology were actually descriptions of Amazons on horseback.

Amazon training a horse

After years of warfare the combined armies of the Thracian and Scythian empires retook part of Myrene's colonial conquest. When she died the Gorgon Amazons abandoned their remaining colonies and returned to their base in North Africa. Myrene was buried near Troy and was later named a Trojan ancestress by the Greeks.

Some areas of Asia Minor controlled by Myrene continued to be noted for their tribes of women warriors well into historical times while the tradition of African Amazons continued into the 20th century among the Dahomey Amazons and other tribes.

Though most of the ancient Greek writers report on the Amazons that they once had lived at the river Thermodon in Northern Turkey, beside it there is a tradition that Amazons once had existed in Libya in Northern Africa. However the Libyan Amazons should have lived long before the Amazons from Thermodon!

There exists a picture on a Greek vase which obviously shows a negroid Amazon kneeling in front of an altar. Behind the altar you can see a palm-tree, so it is quite clear that the Greek artist depicted an African Amazon, apparently an Amazon from Libya.

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Centuries later the Thermodontine Amazons again conquered much of the same area Myrene had held. They were a matriarchal bronze age nation of allied city-states located on a plain by the River Thermodon near the Sea of Azov.


Fortress of the Amazons possibly located in the town of Themiskyra.	The nation was founded by Lysippe with Themiskyra as its capital and Lycastia and Chadesia as regional centers. Its sphere of influence extended from Sarmatia (now the Russian steppes) throughout the Tauric Mountains. Through its port of Anatolia knowledge of the Amazons, along with elements of their religious and cultural practices spread around the world.

Salmonson and other authors believe that Lysippe was originally from Scythia, where both men and women were trained for battle. Other sources state that Lysippe and her followers were originally Sarmatians. Graves of priestesses and warriors in ancient Sarmatian cemeteries have included the women's armor and weapons some of which are marked with even more ancient Scythian symbols. Whatever their origin the Thermodontine Amazons were Indo-European but may have included immigrants from other goddess-worshiping city-states.

Thermodontine Amazon government was decentralized with numerous Queens serving as tribal leaders, but by law throughout the empire only women could govern, or engage in warfare and agriculture. After Lysippe's death her daughter ruled the Amazons. Other notable Queens included Lampedo and Marpesia, who was one of the greatest of the Amazon empire builders.

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The Thermodontine Amazon's primary divinities were the Thracian Artemis (Tauric Virgin) and the Artemis of Ephesus who derived from the Phygian and Cretan Great Mothers (Cybele and Rhea) of Scythian and Anatolian origin. This goddess was also worshiped in Sicily at Rhodes, in Pontus and Galatia and throughout North Africa. Her temple at Ephesus, whose site was chosen by the Amazons, was regarded as one of the greatest temples of antiquity. She is mentioned in the Bible as being worshiped throughout the world. The Apostle Paul tried to suppress her followers while Alexander the Great gained popular support by restoring her temple. Both Amazon goddesses predated the Greek Artemis and other Greek divinities by centuries.

Hippocrates wrote of the Scythian Amazons fighting battles in the fifth century BC, Soviet archaeologists date the earliest graves of women warriors discovered near the Sea of Azov to the third century BC which indicates that the matrilineal dynasty founded by Lysippe lasted longer than the combined empires of Cyrus, Charlemagne, Alexander and Napoleon.

Kapru Kale

Near the spring of the Thermodon (today Terme Çay) in the southern mountain area there are the ruins of a fortress, which is extremely inaccessible.

Though very unapproachable and very destroyed, it still represents a mighty monument, which conveys that this fortress must have been an important place.

Was it the last refuge for the hard-pressed Amazons?

Herakles fighting the Amazons, 490 - 480 BC, painted by Douris.

Herakles fighting against the
Amazon Queen Andromache.
Andromache means "Man Fighter."

Next Tuesday, continuation of Women Warriors:
Part II Ancient Greece and Rome

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January 20, 2004
Chicago, IL
Sunrise	7:13 AM (CST)
Sunset	4:48 PM (CST)
Hrs. of Daylight	9 Hrs., 35 Mins