Thalestris was described in all the sources as a ruler, but “princess” and “queen” were Greek and Latin labels. Could she have been the daughter of a Scythian chieftain later promoted to “Amazon queen” by popular folklore? This possibility is suggested by Alexander’s letter to Antipater cited by Plutarch, above, and other accounts discussed below. Thalestris was clearly an acclaimed warrior leader in her own right. Whether such a visitor came on her own or as a representative of her people to propose a marriage alliance or to become pregnant by the great world conqueror, a Saka-Scythian-Sarmatian woman would arrive on horseback well armed, dressed in distinctive nomad attire, and with an armed escort of women. (Curtius reported that “a troop of women on horseback attended the Persian queens” when they were captured after Darius’s defeat in 333 BC.) As some modern scholars suggest, the “most likely historical explanation” is that Thalestris was a woman “of Saka stock accustomed to ride and shoot, who came with a mounted group of females also carrying weapons.” It was “highly likely that there were nomadic Scythian women who practiced these customs.” Many tribes sent envoys, women, gifts, and pledges of fealty to Alexander as he advanced east. Primed by mythology and travelers’ tales, Alexander’s men (and his later historians) might very well jump
To the conclusion that such an entourage was composed of Amazons and that their leader was their queen.13
Thalestris had distinguished herself in battle among her own people, noted Diodorus, and now she sought a worthy mate for sex and offspring. Whether or not Thalestris really existed, this sequence has the ring of authenticity. From Herodotus on, writers tell how Scythian “man-killers” demonstrated their mettle and then were at liberty to enjoy sex and have children with men of their own choosing, often males outside of their immediate tribe. The three hundred women who accompanied Thalestris would also have been proven warriors, and they may well have had the same idea of consorting with Alexander’s soldiers. Might some of the Amazon leader’s companions have remained with the Macedonian soldiers, or did they all depart after thirteen days.? The usual Amazon way was to move on after mating, but Herodotus and others also refer to some lasting unions. At any rate, even though it took the Greeks by surprise, there was nothing extraordinary about a party of young warrior women inviting a group of battle-hardened men to frolic with them for a couple of weeks with the aim of going home pregnant with robust offspring. Herodotus told of a Scythian tribe that sought to reinforce their bloodlines through sex with strangers perceived to have excellent characteristics (chapter 3). More than two millennia later, Turkoman storytellers in the vicinity of Alexander’s Hyrcanian camp still tell a traditional tale of “fairy tribe of Amazon women who capture unwary men for use as studs.” A number of peoples living along Alexander’s path of conquest across Asia claim to have descended from his soldiers. It is even said that Alexander’s horse Bucephalus left equine descendants. (Bucephaus died at age thirty in Afghanistan; Alexander buried him with great honors and named a city for him.)14
The Amazon queen’s name poses a curious riddle. In a fragment of the earliest known account, by Cleitarchus (who was with Alexander, cited by Strabo), the Amazon’s name was “Thalestria”; Diodorus calls her “Thallestris.” Justin added another name from an unknown source, Minythyia. We don’t know her true name, of course, since both of these names are clearly Greek. “Thallestris” means “She Who Makes Bloom or Grow,” while “Minythyia” means the opposite, “She Who Diminishes.” Possibly Thalestria/Thallestris was a translation or Hellenization of her real barbarian name. But the pairing of this name with its opposite is suggestive. Joking names with double meanings abounded in antiquity. For a modern analogy, consider the wordplay inherent in “lady-killer” for an irresistibly attractive but ruthless cad and “man-killer” for a femme fatale. Perhaps similar wordplay surrounded “man-killer” after Herodotus introduced the Scythian word to describe Amazons to the Greeks in the fifth century. The opposition of Minythyia, “The Shrinker,” and Thalestris, “The Grower,” for an attractive but dangerous Amazon lover hints that there was a long-standing joke about Alexander and the Amazon queen, a sly double entendre playing on the erotic ambivalence aroused by strong women. Such a sexual innuendo might also have alluded to Curtius’s claim, above, that Thalestris was unimpressed by Alexander’s physique.15
World History
