“Amazon unions are one-shot affairs” with random men and “no constancy” or attachment, maintains William Tyrrell in his study of Amazon myths.14 In fact many ancient writers describe Amazons’ bonds of friendship, empathy, love, devotion, and companionship, as Herodotus does in his Sarmatian history. In a story about Antiope, for another example, the Amazon treats a young Greek sailor with gentle compassion, and several traditions describe Antiope’s devotion to Theseus (chapter 16). Some versions of the myth of Heracles and Queen Hippolyte begin with the promise of love (chapter 15). Another story, recounted by Philostratus, tells how Amazons captured and planned to kill shipwrecked sailors. One young Amazon felt pity and sexual desire for the youngest sailor. When she pleaded for his freedom, the Amazons decided to release all the men. The sailors chose to stay and “formed close relationships with the women.” (The men also taught the Amazons to sail; chapter 19.)15
Pairs of Amazons frequently appear in Greek vase paintings in scenes intended to show their sisterhood and devotion to their comrades in arms. In many images, the Amazons set off to hunt, fight, or ride together (Plate 13, fig. 7.2). In Amazonomachies, we see Amazons rushing to the aid of beleaguered comrades battling Greek warriors or pairing up to attack the enemy. Several artworks show Amazons supporting wounded companions (Fig. 7.4) or carrying a dead Amazon from the battlefield (the earliest examples are on a vase by Kleitias,
570-560 BC). A frenzied battle between Greeks and Amazons on a frieze from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae shows an Amazon trying to lift her fallen comrade while the fighting surges around them.16 These tableaux parallel scenes depicting Greek warriors aiding companions or carrying their dead, evocations of the pathos of war. Similar images of Amazons in the act of caring for their war dead are striking because they illustrate the profound feelings of comradeship in warfare that were usually reserved for Greek male warriors. It shows that the Greeks could imagine Amazons, “unnatural” women, experiencing deep human emotional attachments.
World History
