Archaeological evidence shows that Eurasian women fitting the description of mythic Amazons were contemporaries of the ancient Greeks. Warlike women of the steppes also appear in the traditions of non-Hellenic cultures. Yet the idea that Amazons were fantasy figures conjured up by Greek men to reflect anxiety-fraught aspects of their own Hellenic culture still holds sway. Amazons in Greek art are interpreted as illustrations of myth, not reality. This view is expressed in a recent off-the-cuff comment by a leading art historian: “It is useless to say anything about what the Amazons really were, because they were not really anything.”15
So many diverse meanings are projected onto Amazons that it is impossible to do them all justice here. Amazons have been interpreted as negative role models for Greek women; as repulsive monsters or “Others” who threatened the Greek masculine ego; as figures justifying gender inequality or expressing fears of female rebellion against male oppression; as enemies of civilization; as symbols of wild, animal-like sexuality; as women who refuse to grow up and accept marriage and childbirth; as asexual “un-women”; as political stand-i ns for inferior barbarians, “effeminate” Persians, or foreign wives of Athenian citizens; as representations of pubescent Greek girls or teenage Greek boys; and as an inside-out, upside-down mirror of Hellenic culture.16
Some interpretations are incompatible with ancient and modern evidence. For example, Amazons have been paired with Centaurs as unruly forces of uncivilized Nature. But unlike the drunken, priapic half-horse-half-men of myth whose crude weapons were boulders and uprooted trees, Amazons were said to tame horses, form orderly warrior societies, use iron weapons, wear tailored clothing, control their own sexuality, manifest historical progress, carry out strategic warfare, and found important cities. Amazons as loathsome “Others” is hard to reconcile with the positive ways they were actually portrayed in antiquity. Greeks imagined many truly repugnant female monsters—Medusa, Echidna, Scylla, Harpies—but Amazons were consistently depicted as admirable, athletic, beautiful, sexually desirable, valiant women who embodied the same traits that distinguished heroic Greek males. Seeking unconscious metaphors in mythological stories can spark insights about ancient Greek psychology. But explaining Amazons as wholly make-believe figures created by Greeks for Greeks has resulted in a logjam of competing theories. to archaeology, the tide is beginning to turn and Amazons are at last achieving “historical respectability.”17 Yet many still believe that the Greek psyche summoned mythic Amazons into existence so they could be killed off. Amazons “exist [only] in order. . . to be defeated”; they have no history, “no future,” and the heroic warrior status to which they aspire is “impossible.”18 It’s true that Amazons do end up killed by Greek heroes in the major myths. But is it any wonder that Greek national myths would show their own heroes triumphing over powerful foreign enemies.? Greek heroes crush foes, male and female alike, from Medusa to the Trojans. More significant is that the myths invariably feature equally matched Greek and Amazon antagonists. Akin to the noble heroes of Troy bested by Greek champions in the Iliad, each Amazon fighter is just as brave as the hero she confronts. In Greek vase paintings, the outcome is often suspenseful: Amazons are shown fighting and dying courageously, and some are even shown killing Greek warriors. Amazons in Greek art are always depicted running toward danger, never fleeing (as Persians sometimes were). Out of more than 550 vase paintings of fighting Amazons, fewer than 10 show Amazons gesturing for mercy. Combat with an Amazon foe requires a fair match; otherwise there can be no honor for the ultimate Greek victor.19
World History
