AMAZONS.
     A legendary (or, as some maintain, wholly mythical) race of warrior women, the Amazons were said to live at the boundaries of the known world. Their realm was usually placed in the east, particularly on the Thermodon River, which empties into the Black Sea. Amazons’ primary activities were hunting and fighting from horseback; their weapons were bow, ax, and javelin. To perpetuate their race, they would from time to time mate with men of another race and afterward keep only their female children. The Amazons’ name is said to mean “breastless,” deriving from their custom of destroying their daughters’ right breasts to enable them to use their weapons without interference. Diodorus Siculus writes of an earlier race of Amazons from Libya, who shared many of the attributes of their more famous counterparts in Asia; for example, both were led by fierce queens.
     Amazons are mentioned in Greek literature as early as Homer’s Iliad, and other poems of the epic cycle. In the Iliad they are said to have batded Bellerophon in Lycia and King Priam of Troy. In Arctinus’s Aethiopis they come to Priam’s aid after the death of Hector and in the fray lose their queen, Penthesilea, at the hands of Achilles. One Hellenistic legend suggests that an Amazon queen met Alexander the Great on the border of India.
     Another queen, Hippolyta, figures prominently in one of the twelve labors of Heracles, who was sent to capture her girdle. It is said that the hero Theseus either joined Heracles in this expedition or launched his own campaign against the Amazons, taking Hippolyta or her sister Antiope as his wife. In response, the Amazons attacked him in Athens, but were defeated in a great battle.
     A popular theme in archaic and classical art from the end of the seventh century bce, Amazons are usually depicted in battle scenes, wearing short tunics; from the fifth century bce, they are shown with one breast exposed, sometimes wearing trousers, and bearing light arms. In postclassical art, numerous “Battles of the Amazons” that follow this tradition are sometimes said to depict Heracles’ or Theseus’s combats with Amazons, although in most cases they are nonspecific frays. The idea of warrior women has long entranced poets as well, and many authors have invented their own so-called Amazon heroines out of whole cloth. The term has also become generalized, referring in some cases to any independent, bellicose, or even equestrian woman.

    Further Reference. Kleinbaum, Abby W. 1983. The War against the Amazons. New York: McGraw-Hill.
    See also Heracles, Girdle of Hippolyta; Penthesilea; Theseus, and the Amazons.