On the first vase (Plate 10), an Amazon wearing high boots, a short dress, and a broad belt with a wide shoulder strap has thrust her two spears into the ground and set down her bow. We see her placing a pebble in the leather pouch of her sling, which would have been braided hemp or wool. This robust, graceful Amazon slinger appears on an oil flask made in about 440 BC. It is one of several engaging images of women in action
Attributed to the artist once known as the Amazon Painter (now sadly rebranded as the Klugmann Painter). This painter was obviously familiar with proper slinging form and technique. The Amazon’s weight is on her right leg, which will shift upon release of the pebble. The painter
FiG. 13.4. Facing page: three bronze swords from “Amazon” hoard, ancient Caucasian Iberia, ca. 1150-850 BC, Melaani (Kakheti) shrine complex 1, eastern Georgia. Above: bronze axe head with animal figure, from ancient Colchis, ca. 580 BC, Ozhora cemetery, Georgia. Photos courtesy of Nino Kalandadze, Georgian National Museum.
Has caught her just as she begins to tense the sling’s cords before the spin, aim, and release of the stone.30
Homer, Xenophon, Thucydides, and Strabo mention slingers, and Pliny described the deadly aim of Scythian slingers (chapter 2). Male
Slingers appear on Greek vases and on coins but this is the only known ancient representation of a female slinger. Like Scythian archers and Thracian peltasts who hurled javelins, slingers were elusive, highly mobile skirmishers who harassed the enemy from afar. Sling bullets of clay and lead have been recovered from many archaeological sites. Notably, piles of sling pebbles have been discovered in the arsenals of several women warriors in Scythian graves; for example, the well-armed Amazon from the Tyasmin River had five “pebble missiles” (above and chapter 4).
The other unique scene is on the lid of a pyxis (women’s cosmetic box) attributed to the Sotheby Painter, about 460 BC. The delicately painted frieze shows two Amazons attacking two Greek warriors. One fighting pair is poorly preserved: a Greek hoplite is about to heave a rock at an Amazon with a spear. The other Amazon is mounted on a galloping horse, looking back over her shoulder at the lasso she is swinging (fig. 13.5). Her target is in front of her, a Greek hoplite crouching under his shield with his spear. The rest of her rope, painted purple like her shoes, is coiled around her waist, and she correctly holds the lariat’s loop near the knot. Her technique is accurate for roping something straight ahead. If she intends to lasso her victim instead of snaring him by dropping the noose over his head as she rides past, she will need to “build” her loop by twirling and letting out more rope. When she is ready to throw the lasso, she will need to turn to look directly at her target (experienced ropers do not usually look back at their lariat). She has her battle-axe ready to dispatch her victim.31
The subject suggests that the painter and his audience were familiar with oral and written descriptions of horse nomads who used lariats. Herodotus, for example, reported that a force of eight thousand Persianspeaking mounted nomads called Sagartians joined Darius’s army in 480 BC. Armed with only daggers and lassos, they cast their looped ropes of braided leather at enemy horses and riders, then dragged them in, easily “killing the victim entangled in the coils of the noose.” The Sarmatians, who traced their origins to Amazons and Scythians, were also said to throw ropes around their enemies and then wheel their horses around to entangle the victim. Pomponius Mela reported that Maeotian horsewomen around the Sea of Azov used lassos. Arrian told of Libyan nomads lassoing wild asses running at full speed. (The tech-
FiG. 13.5. Mounted Amazon about to lasso a Greek warrior (out of sight, cowering behind his shield on the right). Attic red-figure, white-ground pyxis (cosmetic box), Sotheby Painter, ca. 460 BC. University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses, David M. Robinson Memorial Collection 1977.003.0243.
Nique for roping a moving target is different from roping a stationary one; modern ropers secure the lasso to the saddle to absorb the shock when a running victim is brought up short.) Other ancient Greek and Latin authors describe lasso use in battle by several Scythian tribes around the Don River: Alans, Goths, and Parthians, among others. A Scythian roper is shown on a silver vase from a fourth-century BC burial in Ukraine. Lariats are standard gear of ancient mounted warriors in the Persian epic poem Shahnama (chapter 23).32
The animated scene on the pyxis is not only unique for showing an Amazon twirling a lasso; it is also a reversal of expected outcomes. The two Amazons clearly have the upper hand over the weaker Greek warriors, the one cowering under his shield hoping to impale the Amazon’s horse on his spear and the other warrior compelled to defend himself with a rock against the Amazon’s spear.33 The suspenseful scene raises intriguing questions about the attitudes of the painter and the woman who possessed this vase.
World History
