In Greek mythology, the Amazons (pronounced AM-uh-zonz) were a nation of fierce female warriors, descendants of Ares (pronounced AIR-eez), the god of war. The legendary Amazons lived in an all-female society in southern Russia or northern Asia Minor. Occasionally, the women had children with men from surrounding tribes. The Amazons kept and raised only the girls, killing or making slaves of the male children or sending them to live with their fathers.
Scholars disagree on the meaning of the name Amazon. Some say it means “breastless.” This comes from the Greek belief that the Amazons cut off the right breast of each girl so she could handle a bow and arrow more easily. Other scholars believe that the name may mean “without grain” (or bread) and may have come from the Greek word for barley, maza. They reason that the Amazons, as hunters, ate only meat and did not make bread. The word “Amazon” may also come from the name of an Iranian ethnic group meaning “warriors.”
The Amazons appeared frequently in Greek myth and legend. One of the twelve labors of Heracles (known as Hercules to the Romans) was to capture the belt of the Amazon queen Hippolyta (pronounced hi-PAHL-i-tuh). When Heracles reached the land of the Amazons, Hippolyta received him warmly and agreed to give him her belt. But Hera (pronounced HAIR-uh), queen of the gods, convinced the rest of the Amazons that Heracles was kidnapping Hippolyta, so they attacked him. Believing the queen had tricked him, Heracles killed her before sailing back to Greece with the belt. In another Greek tale, the hero Theseus (pronounced THEE-see-uhs) attacked the Amazons and carried off their queen. The Amazons responded by going to war against Athens, but Theseus defeated them after a terrific struggle.
During the Trojan War, the Amazon queen Penthesilea brought extra troops to help the Trojans after the warrior Hector was killed. For this, the Greek hero Achilles killed her. Afterward, it is said that he fell in love with her corpse and regretted taking her life. The Amazons also appear in works by the Greek writers Herodotus and Apollodorus.
The legend of the Amazons lived on long after the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In the 1500s, the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana claimed to have met a tribe of female warriors while exploring the Maranon River in South America. He supposedly renamed the river the Amazon in their honor.
World History
