A race of warrior women. Their kingdom was in the north on the boundaries
of the civilized world.
They conducted their own government; they were ruled by a queen;
they could not stand the presence of men except as servants;
at certain times they had intercouse with strangers to preserve their
race,
keeping only the baby girls. They removed one of the breasts of the
infant girls
so that they should be able to shoot with the bow
or to handle a spear, and it was from this custom that the
Greeks often derived their name from having no breast.
Bellerophon fought the Amazons at the command of Iobates.
Heracles received the mission of taking the girldle of Hippolyta,
the queen of the Amazons. Hippolyta would have been willing to give
him the girdle,
but Hera incited the Amazons to mutiny and Heracles was forced to kill
Hippolyta.
On this expedition he was accompanied by Theseus, who abducted an Amazon
called Antiope.
In revenge the Amazons marched against Athens. They were defeated by
the Athenians led by Theseus.
There was also a story that the Amazons had sent a contingent commanded
by their queen Penthesilea,
to help Priam. Achilles killed her, though her last look around his
love for her.
The goddess worshipped above all by the Amazons was Artemis,
whose myths have so much in common with their lifestyle.
They were sometimes regarded as the founders of Ephesus
and the builders of the great Temple of Artemis.
(from Dictionary of Classical Mythology by Pierre Grimal)
Queens
& Amazons
(of today)
Stories
of the Past