Women Warriors
by Jeannine Davis-Kimball
Legends of the women warriors known to history as Amazons have been passed down
from generation to generation and seem as popular today as they were 2,000 years ago.
It is the account of the fifth-century B.C. Greek writer Herodotus, who is said to have
visited the entire known world of his time, that is the most commonly told today. According
to Herodotus:
Courageous and bold, Amazons fought with great dignity. They were never portrayed
in art or words as cruel or cowardly. Among their most widely known exploits was their
battle with Scythian warriors who lived along the northern shores of the Black Sea. Mortified
when they discovered that they were fighting women, the Scythians later began to court the
Amazons. In time, the two nations united, but the independent lifestyle of the Amazons did not
allow the women to remain with their Scythian mates. So, the women beseeched their mates
to gather the sheep and horses and leave. The Scythians did so and migrated north and east.
The children they took with them and the generations that followed became known as the
nomadic Sauromatians.
Today, we can imagine Herodotus, known also as the "Father of History," on a visit to
Scythia. We can picture him spending time with caravan drivers as they arrived from trading
forays far to the east. At night around a crackling fire in a caravanserai (an inn or open
court), travelers would exchange tales of the Issedones, who were pushed from their land by
the one-eyed Arimaspians. They also told of the guardians of gold, huge griffins (mythical
monsters), with birds' heads and lions' feet.
Almost certainly, the traders recounted the exploits of the nomadic Sauromatian and
Sarmatian warrior women. They lived along the tributaries of the great Volga River, on the
steppes south of the Ural Mountains—where Europe meets Asia. As these women galloped
away from an enemy, they were said to fire over their shoulders a deadly barrage of arrows
from their bows.
All for a Belt
In recent years, archaeologists have excavated the kurgan (mound) burials of these
people, which date from the sixth to the fourth century B.C. The women's burials have
revealed the belongings of a warrior: bronze and iron arrowheads, daggers and swords, and
occasionally iron armor plates.
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Contrary to Herodotus' account that the Amazons paired on a permanent basis with
the Scythians, the Amazons never married. They dwelt in northern Asia Minor (modern
Turkey), in the area where the Thermodon River spills into the southern Black Sea. Perhaps
Herodotus combined the romance of the Sauromatian and Sarmatian warrior women with the
tale of the Amazons.
In Greek mythology, the Amazons won renown for their heroic battles against such
highly honored Greek heroes as Theseus and Heracles. One such battle took place when
Heracles was living at the ancient religious city of Delphi in north-central Greece. There, the
attending priestess directed him to perform 12 labors. The ninth was to capture the sacred
belt that belonged to the Amazon queen Hippolyte. The queen had received the belt from
Ares, the Greek god of war, and had vowed never to surrender it willingly. The result was
war. Many Amazons were killed before Heracles managed to slay Hippolyte and take his
booty.
A Power Play?
Tradition also informs us that the Amazons founded cities in Asia Minor. Among
these were Cyme and Smyrna, each named for an Amazon queen. Others were Myrine,
named for the queen of the earlier Libyan Amazons in North Africa, and Ephesus. In
Ephesus, the Amazons are credited with building a great temple to the goddess Artemis. The
Amazons honored Artemis as a moon goddess and as the patron of animals. They depicted
her as a huntress with arrows fashioned of gold.
To date, excavations have uncovered no Amazonian (or other) city near the
Thermodon and no Amazonian settlement in the other cities connected with the women
warriors. For this reason, the tales seem to be simply mythological. There are many,
however, who believe that Greek men created these legends to keep their wives under
control. In ancient Greece, women had few rights and remained mostly at home. Amazonian
society was said to be matriarchal (woman-dominated) and egalitarian (equal rights for all).
However, Greek orators advised women not to behave like Amazons or to engage in battle. If
they did so, then certainly they would share the fate of the ancient Amazons—death at the
hands of Greece's masterful warriors. central idea written like a 8th grader
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