Editing Amazons (section)

== Late Antiquity, Middle Age, and Renaissance literature ==
[[File:Mattei-type Amazon at the Numismatic Museum of Athens on October 1, 2021.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Clay statue of a Mattei-type Amazon, [[Numismatic Museum of Athens]], [[Greece]].]]

[[Stephanus of Byzantium]] (7th-century CE) provides numerous alternative lists of the Amazons, including  for those who died in combat against Heracles, describing them as the ''most prominent of their people''. Both Stephanus and Eustathius connect these Amazons with the placename ''Thibais'', which they claim to have been derived from the Amazon ''Thiba's'' name.<ref>{{cite journal |url= https://brill.com/view/journals/mnem/49/5/article-p612_14.xml?language=en  |title= From Political Architecture to Stephanus Byzantius. Sources for the study of the ancient Greek polis |date=  January 1996| publisher= Brill | author= D. WHITEHEAD   |journal= Mnemosyne |volume= 49 |issue= 5 |pages= 612–615 |doi= 10.1163/1568525962610509 | access-date= February 2, 2021}}</ref> Several of Stephanus' Amazons served as [[eponym]]s for cities in Asia Minor, like ''Cyme'' and ''Smyrna'' or ''Amastris'', who was believed to lend her name to the city previously known as ''Kromna'', although in fact it was named after the historical [[Amastrine|Amastris]]. The city Anaea in Caria was named after an Amazon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qB9dKo_i-QIC&q=Anaea+greek+city&pg=PA158|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology|first=William|last=Smith|date=26 April 1844|publisher=Taylor and Walton|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Pritchett| first = W. Kendrick| title = Studies in ancient Greek topography: Passes| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N7AVAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA276| access-date = 30 September 2010| year = 1998| publisher = University of California Press| isbn = 978-0-520-09660-8| page = 276 }}</ref>

In his work ''[[Getica]]'' (on the origin and history of the [[Goths]], {{circa|551 CE}}), [[Jordanes]] asserts that the Goths' ancestors, descendants of [[Magog (Bible)|Magog]], originally lived in Scythia, at the [[Sea of Azov]] between the [[Dnieper]] and [[Don River (Russia)|Don Rivers]]. When the Goths were abroad campaigning against Pharaoh [[Vesosis]], their women, on their own successfully fended off a raid by a neighboring tribe. Emboldened, the women established their own army under [[Marpesia]], crossed the Don and invaded eastward into Asia. Marpesia's sister [[Lampedo]] remained in Europe to guard the homeland. They procreated with men once a year. These women conquered Armenia, Syria, and all of Asia Minor, even reaching [[Ionia]] and [[Aeolis]], holding this vast territory for 100 years.

In ''[[Digenes Akritas]]'', the twelfth century medieval epic of ''Basil, the Greco-Syrian knight'' of the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] frontier, the hero battles and then commits adultery with the female warrior Maximo (killing her afterwards in one version of the epic), descended from some Amazons and taken by Alexander from the Brahmans.<ref>{{cite journal |url= https://www.academia.edu/30353289  |title= Digenis Akritis, the Two-Blood Border Lord.pdf |date=  January 2016| publisher= Academia | author= Corinne Jouanno   |journal= Fictional Storytelling in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond | access-date= February 3, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Akritis1998">{{cite book|author=Vassílios Digenís Akritis|title=Digenis Akritis: The Grottaferrata and Escorial Versions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gd4ifVQxKtwC&pg=PR14|date=7 May 1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-39472-7|pages=xxvii}}</ref>

[[John Tzetzes]] lists in ''[[Posthomerica]]'' twenty Amazons, who fell at [[Troy]]. This list is unique in its attestation for all the names but [[Antianeira]], [[Andromache (mythology)|Andromache]], and Hippothoe. Other than these three, the remaining 17 Amazons were named as [[Toxophone (mythology)|Toxophone]], [[Toxoanassa (mythology)|Toxoanassa]], [[Gortyessa (mythology)|Gortyessa]], [[Iodoce (mythology)|Iodoce]], [[Pharetre (mythology)|Pharetre]], [[Andro (mythology)|Andro]], [[Ioxeia (mythology)|Ioxeia]], [[Oistrophe (mythology)|Oistrophe]], [[Androdaixa (mythology)|Androdaixa]], [[Aspidocharme (mythology)|Aspidocharme]], [[Enchesimargos (mythology)|Enchesimargos]], [[Cnemis (mythology)|Cnemis]], [[Thorece (mythology)|Thorece]], [[Chalcaor (mythology)|Chalcaor]], [[Eurylophe (mythology)|Eurylophe]], [[Hecate (mythology)|Hecate]], and [[Anchimache (mythology)|Anchimache]].<ref>Tzetzes, ''Posthomerica'' 176-182</ref>

Famous medieval traveller [[John Mandeville]] mentions them in his book:

{{blockquote|Beside the land of Chaldea is the land of Amazonia, that is the land of Feminye. And in that realm is all woman and no man; not as some may say, that men may not live there, but for because that the women will not suffer no men amongst them to be their sovereigns.<ref>''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', Dover publications, Mineola, New York, 2006, cap. XVII, p. 103-104</ref>}}

Medieval and Renaissance authors credit the Amazons with the invention of the [[Corded Ware culture|battle-axe]]. This is probably related to the ''[[sagaris]]'', an axe-like weapon associated with both Amazons and Scythian tribes by Greek authors (see also [[Thracian tomb of Aleksandrovo kurgan]]). [[Paulus Hector Mair]] expresses astonishment that such a "manly weapon" should have been invented by a "tribe of women", but he accepts the attribution out of respect for his authority, [[Johannes Aventinus]].

[[Ludovico Ariosto|Ariosto]]'s ''[[Orlando Furioso]]'' contains a country of warrior women, ruled by Queen Orontea; the epic describes an origin much like that in Greek myth, in that the women, abandoned by a band of warriors and unfaithful lovers, rallied together to form a nation from which men were severely reduced, to prevent them from regaining power. The Amazons and Queen Hippolyta are also referenced in [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]]'' in "[[The Knight's Tale]]".

[[File:Francisco de Orellana1.JPG|thumb|right|[[Francisco de Orellana]]; he coined the name "[[Amazon River]]".]]
[[File:Amazone Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2342.jpg|thumb|Amazon in [[Scythia]]n attire, [[Attica|Attic]] vase, {{circa|420 BCE}}, [[Staatliche Antikensammlungen]], Munich]]
Amazons continued to be subject of scholarly debate during the European Renaissance, and with the onset of the [[Age of Exploration]], encounters were reported from ever more distant lands. In 1542, [[Francisco de Orellana]] reached the [[Amazon River]], naming it after the ''{{ill|Icamiabas|pt|Icamiabas}}'',<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2018-07-20|title=New Frog Species Named After Fabled Female Warriors|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/news-frogs-brazil-culture-history/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721013819/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/news-frogs-brazil-culture-history/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 21, 2018|access-date=2021-01-27|website=[[National Geographic]]|language=en}}</ref> a tribe of warlike women he claimed to have encountered and fought on the [[Nhamundá River]], a tributary of the Amazon.<ref>It has been suggested that what Orellana actually engaged was an especially warlike tribe of Native Americans whose warrior men wore long hair and thus appeared to be women. See Theobaldo Miranda Santos, ''Lendas e mitos do Brasil'' ("Brazil's legends and myths"), Companhia Editora Nacional, 1979.</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://chiaroscuro-studios.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Yearbook_2018_LENDAS_Versao_livro_DIGITAL.pdf |title=Lendas |publisher=Chiaroscuro Studios |page=14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://chiaroscuro-studios.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Yearbook_2018_LENDAS_Versao_livro_DIGITAL.pdf |title=Lendas |publisher=Chiaroscuro Studios |year=2018 |page=14}}</ref> Afterwards the whole basin and region of the Amazon (''Amazônia'' in Portuguese, ''Amazonía'' in Spanish) were named after the river. Amazons also figure in the accounts of both [[Christopher Columbus]] and [[Walter Raleigh]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.britannica.com/place/Amazon-River  |title= Amazon River   |date=   | publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica | author=Raymond E. Crist    | access-date= February 4, 2021}}</ref>