AMAZONS
According to Greek mythology, Amazons were a warlike tribe of women descended from the god of war, Ares and the naiad Harmonia. They originated from the area around the Caucasus Range and settled on the bank of the Thermodon River in Pontus, Asia Minor, and founded the town of Themiscyra on the coast of the Euxine (modern Terme in Sinop, on the Black Sea coast of Turkey).
For the continuation of the Amazon race, the women mated with the neighboring Gargarean men for a short period each year. Male children born from these unions were either sent to the Gargareans or killed. Another version of the myth tells of a number of men kept for mating purposes, but had the status of slaves, and were allowed to perform only those tasks executed in other countries by women. Legend also says that the legs and arms of these men were mutilated to prevent their challenging the Amazons' power.
Women entirely ruled their society, and two queens, one for defense and one for domestic affairs, shared the sovereign rule. Whether men were or were not included in the Amazon state, only women bore arms, not only defending their own country, but making conquest expeditions into neighboring territories. They fought both on foot and on horseback, carrying crescent shields and wielding spears, bows and battle axes. In some myths, it is said female children had their right breast seared in order to draw a bow and throw javelins more efficiently as adults.
War, hunting, agriculture and training girl Amazons were their principal pursuits. It was said they were the first humans to ride on horseback. The Amazons were especially devoted to the goddess of hunting, Artemis.
Stories about the Amazons belong to the earliest Greek sagas. Homer mentions them in a way which shows that they were familiar to his audience. When in historical times the Greeks became familiar with the Thermodon region and found no Amazons there, they supposed either Heracles (Hercules) had destroyed them all, or they had been driven away. Thus in later legends, the Amazons were moved further and further away from their original homeland, but they were always located on the fringe of the world as it was then known to the Greeks. They were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis (south of the Caucasus) and there was also supposed to be a race of Amazons in Africa. They were, in any case, always foreign to the Greek homeland, and to the Greeks, like all foreigners, they were viewed as barbarians.
The Amazons were a favorite subject for sculptors and painters. In art of the earliest periods, they are dressed exactly like warriors, but usually with one breast bare. After the Persian Wars (499-448 BC), for example, on Greek vases of the great classical period, they are represented in oriental garb, wearing caps and trousers, and pictures of them relate more to known legends about them. They are never depicted as having lost one breast, in spite of the Greek belief their name meant 'breastless'.
Various explanations of the origins of the legends about the Amazons have been put forward. Some writers trace them to the armed slave-girls who served certain Asian deities. The association of the Amazons with Artemis supports this theory, but the story is more likely to be an imaginative elaboration of reports about matriarchal tribes in Anatolia, or of tribes in which the women led a freer and tougher life than they did in Greece. The persistence of the legend up to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, and its popularity as a theme in the arts show the Amazon myth had a deep appeal to the Greeks.
Another legend says that the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor was founded by the Amazons, and their queen, Ephesia, gave her name to the city.
http://www.allaboutturkey.com/amazon.htm
- Re: AMAZONSposted on 03/25/2005
The real amazons live in modern concrete forest... fueled by coffee and a frutile passion...
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