In the Greek myths Amazons always die young and beautiful. But a short, splendid life and violent death in battle was the perfect heroic ideal in myth. Indeed, this destiny (kleos aphthiton, “imperishable glory”) was what every great Greek hero craved for himself—the “beautiful death” was supposed to guarantee eternal fame and glory. The heroic spirit—“If our lives be short, let our fame be great”—was also the choice of the heroes and heroines in the Nart sagas of the Caucasus. The many wounded and dead Amazons depicted in classical Greek art are invariably beautiful and brave (the only difference is that they are not shown “heroically nude” like male heroes; see chapter 7).20 One cannot help but notice that in the Greek myths and in semihistorical accounts, nearly every Amazon we know by name displays exemplary heroic attributes and achieves honor by dying heroically in battle.
In fact, what is truly surprising about Amazons is the realization that these non-Greek women actually surpass the Greek mythic heroes in the manner of their deaths. Despite their vaunted courage and might, not one great Greek hero manages to achieve a glorious death on the battle-field.21 Perseus, the slayer of Medusa, dies of old age. Bellerophon, thrown by his flying horse, Pegasus, into a thornbush, ends up a blind, lame hermit. Theseus, Athens’s founding hero.? Shoved off a cliff by an elderly king. Odysseus? Accidentally done in by his son, stabbed with a stingray spine. The superhero Heracles perishes ignominious ly, wrapped in a poisoned tunic, a gift from his wife. The mighty Achilles is felled by an arrow in the heel, shot from behind. Jason, leader of the Argonauts— crushed in his sleep by a rotten beam from his old ship, the Argo.
The quintessentially heroic credentials of Amazons make it difficult to see them as objects of contempt or victims in a tragedy of ancient misogyny. Instead, Amazons of myth represented worthy human adversaries for Greek heroes. The heroic status of Amazons is evident in a striking painting of the Trojan War on an Etruscan vase (ca. 330 BC). The Etruscans, a mysterious Italian civilization that flourished from about 700 BC until they were absorbed by the Romans in what is now Tuscany, were very familiar with Greek myths, but they also had their own tales. Etruscan women enjoyed relatively liberated lives compared to Greek women. On one side of the vase Achilles is killing a Trojan.
The other side shows an Amazon mourning as the ghosts of two bandaged and cloaked Amazons enter the Underworld as heroes. They are labeled “Pentasila” (Penthesilea) and “hinthi (A)turmucas.” Hinthi is Etruscan for “soul or shade”; {A)turmuca is the Etruscan version of either Andromache (“Manly Fighter”) or Dorymache (“Spear Fighter”). The Amazons’ bandages are artistic shorthand for their having died violently and honorably in battle. Andromache is a known Amazon name, but this would be the only instance of an Amazon named Atur-muca/Dorymache (although there is an Amazon named Enchesimar-gos, “Spear Mad”).22 Was there once a popular Greek or Etruscan story, now lost, that associated this heroine with Penthesilea’s band of Amazons at Troy?
A stunning discovery in 2013 suggests that warrior women existed among the Etruscans. Inside a rock-cut tomb in ancient Tarquinia (ca. 620 BC), archaeologists found a skeleton holding a spear; the burned remains of another person lay nearby. Jewelry, a bronze sewing box, and a painted Corinthian perfume/oil flask accompanied the pair. The spear led the archaeologists to identify the skeleton as a warrior prince buried with his cremated wife. But DNA bone analysis soon revealed that the lance belonged to a woman aged 35-40 and the ashes belonged to a man of 20-30. (Preconceptions about “masculine” and “feminine” grave goods have led archaeologists to make a host of similar errors; scientific osteological testing is overturning these biases; see chapter 4).23
Amazons in classical literature were human, with desires, flaws, virtues, ambitions, and vulnerabilities similar to those attributed to mortal Greek heroes. Moreover—like the greatest Greek heroes—each famous Amazon queen was the protagonist of her own mythic biography, which generated multiple alternative versions. Like the tales of Theseus, Heracles, Achilles, and Atalanta, the many different stories of individual Amazons were filled with great challenges, adventures, victories, and loss.
World History
