Editing Amazons (section)

== Mythology ==
[[File:Peter Paul Rubens - The Battle of the Amazons.JPG|thumb|''[[The Battle of the Amazons (Rubens)|Battle of the Amazons]]'', by [[Peter Paul Rubens]], 1618, [[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich]]
According to myth, [[Otrera]], the first Amazon queen, is the offspring of a [[Romance (love)|romance]] between [[Ares]] the god of war and the [[nymph]] [[Harmonia (nymph)|Harmonia]] of the [[Acmonia|Akmonian Wood]], and as such a demigoddess.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheHarmonia.html    |title= HARMONIA |date=  | publisher= Theoi| author=  | access-date= January 14, 2021}}</ref><ref name="theoi.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/AresFamily.html#Amazones|title=ARES FAMILY - Greek Mythology|publisher=theoi com | access-date= January 8, 2021}}</ref><ref name=hin>{{cite web |url= https://www.historynet.com/amazons.htm | title= AMAZONS |publisher= Historynet | date= 20 April 2018| author= Adrienne Mayor, Josiah Ober  | access-date= January 8, 2021}}</ref>

Early records refer to two events in which Amazons appeared prior to the [[Trojan War]] (before 1250 BCE). Within the [[Epic poetry|epic]] context, [[Bellerophon]], Greek hero, and grandfather of the brothers and Trojan War veterans ''Glaukos and Sarpedon'', faced Amazons during his stay in [[Lycia]], when King [[Iobates]] sent Bellerophon to fight the Amazons, hoping they would kill him, yet Bellerophon slew them all. The youthful King [[Priam]] of [[Troy]] fought on the side of the [[Phrygia]]ns, who were attacked by Amazons at the [[Sakarya River|Sangarios River]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/bellerophon.html   |title= BELLEROPHON IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY - Bellerophon and the Amazons |date= February 2, 2017 | publisher= Greek legends and myths| author=Colin Quartermain   | access-date= February 1, 2021}}</ref>

===Amazons in the Trojan War===
There are Amazon characters in [[Homer]]'s [[Trojan War]] epic poem, the ''[[Iliad]]'', one of the oldest surviving texts in Europe ([[Archaic Greece|around 8th century BCE]]).
The now lost epic ''[[Aethiopis]]'' (probably by [[Arctinus of Miletus]], 6th century BC), like the ''Iliad'' and several other epics, is one of the works that in combination form the [[Epic Cycle|Trojan War Epic Cycle]]. In one of the few references to the text, an Amazon force under queen [[Penthesilea]], who was of [[Thrace|Thracian]] birth, came to join the ranks of the Trojans after [[Hector]]'s death and initially put the Greeks under serious pressure. Only after the greatest effort and the help of the reinvigorated hero [[Achilles]], the Greeks eventually triumphed. Penthesilea died fighting the mighty Achilles in single combat.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.livius.org/sources/content/epic-cycle/ | title= Epic Cycle | publisher= Livius org| author=  | access-date= January 13, 2021}}</ref> Homer himself deemed the Amazon myths to be common knowledge all over Greece, which suggests that they had already been known for some time before him. He was also convinced that the Amazons lived not at its fringes, but somewhere in or around [[Lycia]] in Asia Minor - a place well within the Greek world.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021|reason=I want to say "dubious" because it's not known for sure that Homer was a specific person. But there's no citation. Please add one or this passage goes away.}}

Troy is mentioned in the ''Iliad'' as the place of [[Myrina (mythology)|Myrine]]'s death.{{sfn|Homer, Iliad|p=2.45–46}}{{sfn|Homer, Iliad|p=3.52–55}} Later identified as an Amazon queen, according to [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]] (1st century BCE), the Amazons under her rule invaded the territories of the [[Atlantis|Atlantians]], defeated the army of the Atlantian city of Cerne, and razed the city to the ground.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7261&context=gradschool_disstheses   |title= The Amazon Myth in Western Literature |date=  | publisher= Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College | author=Bruce Robert Magee   | access-date= February 1, 2021}}</ref><ref name="EB1911"/>

===In Scythia===
[[File:Terme_Turkey.jpg|thumb|An amazon fighter statue in [[Terme]], [[Turkey]]]]

The [[Lyric poetry|Poet]] [[Bacchylides]] (6th century BCE) and the historian [[Herodotus]] (5th century BCE) located the Amazon homeland in ''[[Pontus (region)|Pontus]]'' at the southern shores of the Black Sea, and the capital [[Themiscyra (Pontus)|Themiscyra]] at the banks of the [[Thermodon]] (modern [[Terme river]]), by the modern city of [[Terme]]. Herodotus also explains how it came to be that some Amazons would eventually be living in [[Scythia]]. A Greek fleet, sailing home upon defeating the Amazons in battle at the Thermodon river, included three ships crowded with Amazon prisoners. Once out at sea, the Amazon prisoners overwhelmed and killed the small crews of the prisoner ships and, despite not having even basic navigation skills, managed to escape and safely disembark at the Scythian shore. As soon as the Amazons had caught enough horses, they easily asserted themselves in the steppe in between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea and, according to Herodotus, would eventually assimilate with the Scythians, whose descendants were the Sauromatae, the predecessors of the [[Sarmatians]].{{sfn|Herodotus, The Histories|p=4.110.1}}<ref name=admay/>

===Amazon homeland===
[[Strabo]] (1st century BCE) visits and confirms the original homeland of the Amazons on the plains by the [[Terme River|Thermodon]] river. However, long gone and not seen again during his lifetime, the Amazons had allegedly retreated into the mountains. Strabo, however, added that other authors, among them [[Metrodorus of Scepsis]] and [[Hypsicrates]] claim that after abandoning Themiscyra, the Amazons had chosen to resettle beyond the borders of the [[Gargareans]], an all-male tribe native to the northern foothills of the [[Caucasus Mountains|Caucasian Mountains]]. The Amazons and [[Gargareans]] had for many generations met in secrecy once a year during two months in spring, in order to produce children. These encounters would take place in accordance with ancient tribal customs and collective offers of sacrifices. All females were retained by the Amazons themselves, and males were returned to the Gargareans.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://faculty.washington.edu/scstroup/Amazonevidence.html| title= Reading on Amazons | publisher= University of Washington| author=  | access-date= January 13, 2021}}</ref> 5th century BCE poet [[Magnes (comic poet)|Magnes]] sings of the bravery of the [[Lydians]] in a cavalry-battle against the Amazons.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://topostext.org/work/240#mu.21   |title= Suda Encyclopedia |date=  | publisher= Topostext | author=   | access-date= February 1, 2021}}</ref><ref name="BlundellBlundell1995">{{cite book|author1=Sue Blundell|author2=Susan Blundell|title=Women in Ancient Greece p. 60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xfx1VaSIOgQC|year=1995|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-95473-1}}</ref><ref name=vul/>

===Heracles myth===
[[File:NAMA - Tyrrhenian Amphora by the Prometheus Painter.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Tyrrhenian amphorae|Tyrrhenian amphora]], depicting  an ''Amazonomachy - Heracles fights Andromache, Telamon fights Ainipe and Iphis fights Panariste'', {{circa|570}} BCE, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]]]
[[Hippolyte]] was an Amazon queen killed by [[Heracles]], who had set out to obtain the queen's magic belt in a task he was to accomplish as one of the [[Labours of Hercules|Labours of Heracles]]. Although neither side had intended to resort to lethal combat, a misunderstanding led to the fight. In the course of this, Heracles killed the queen and several other Amazons. In awe of the strong hero, the Amazons eventually handed the belt to Heracles. In another version, Heracles does not kill the queen, but exchanges her kidnapped sister [[Melanippe]] for the belt.<ref name="Fischer-HansenPoulsen2009">{{cite book|author1=Tobias Fischer-Hansen|author2=Birte Poulsen|title=From Artemis to Diana: The Goddess of Man and Beast|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2garBSREfywC&pg=PA333|year=2009|publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press|isbn=978-87-635-0788-2|pages=333–}}</ref><ref name="Blok1995"/><ref name="duBois1991">{{cite book|author=Page duBois|title=Centaurs and Amazons: Women and the Pre-History of the Great Chain of Being|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hyw9BSzzOwMC&pg=PA49|date=July 1991|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-08153-5|pages=33–}}</ref><ref name=vul>{{cite web |url= https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Boston%2098.916&object=Vase  |title= Boston 98.916 (Vase), from the Vulci necropolis   |date=   | publisher= Tufts University | author= Stéphane Gsell    | access-date= February 4, 2021}}</ref>

===Theseus myth===
Queen [[Hippolyte]] was abducted by [[Theseus]], who took her to Athens, where she was married to him and bore him a son, [[Hippolytus (play)|Hippolytus]]. In other versions, the kidnapped Amazon is called [[Antiope (Amazon)|Antiope]], the sister of Hippolyte. In revenge, the Amazons invaded Greece, plundered some cities along the coast of Attica, and besieged and occupied Athens. Hippolyte, who fought on the side of Athens, according to another account was killed during the final battle along with all of the Amazons.<ref name="duBois1991"/><ref name="Bennett1967">{{cite book|author=Florence Mary Bennett|title=Religious Cults Associated With the Amazons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIM8g-KE9dsC&pg=PT88|year=1967|publisher=Library of Alexandria|isbn=978-1-4655-7683-5|pages=88–}}</ref>

===Amazons and Dionysus===
According to [[Plutarch]], the god [[Dionysus]] and his companions fought Amazons at [[Ephesus]]. The Amazons fled to [[Samos]] and Dionysus pursued them and killed a great number of them at a site since called ''Panaema'' (blood-soaked field).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rboWBAAAQBAJ|title=The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World|first=Adrienne|last=Mayor|date=22 September 2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400865130|via=Google Books}}</ref> The Christian author [[Eusebius]] writes that during the reign of [[Oxyntes]], one of the mythical kings of Athens, the Amazons burned down the temple at [[Ephesus]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.attalus.org/armenian/euseb10.htm|title=Eusebius' Chronicle  | author=Robert Bedrosian |publisher= Attalus | access-date= February 2, 2021}}</ref>

In another myth Dionysus unites with the Amazons to fight against [[Cronus]] and the [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]]. [[Polyaenus]] writes that after Dionysus has subdued the Indians, he allies with them and the Amazons and takes them into his service, who serve him in his campaign against the [[Bactria]]ns. [[Nonnus]] in his ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' reports about the Amazons of Dionysus, but states that they do not come from Thermodon.<ref name="Nonnus, Dionysiaca, § 20.197"/><ref>{{cite web |url= http://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg0616/tlg001/1st1K-grc1/1.1   |title= Strategemata Polyaenus Macedo - Melber and Woelfflin, Teubner, 1887 |date=  | publisher= Read Greek | author=   | access-date= February 2, 2021}}</ref>

===Amazons and Alexander the Great===
[[File:Johann Georg Platzer - Thalestris im Lager Alexander des Großen.jpg|thumb|''The Amazon Queen [[Thalestris]] in the camp of [[Alexander the Great]]'', [[Johann Georg Platzer]]]]
Amazons are also mentioned by biographers of [[Alexander the Great]], who report of Queen [[Thalestris]] bearing him a child (a story in the ''[[Alexander Romance]]'').<ref>Greek ''[[Alexander Romance]]'', [http://www.attalus.org/translate/alexander3c.html#25 3.25–26]</ref>  However, other biographers of Alexander dispute the claim, including the highly regarded [[Plutarch]]. He noted a moment when Alexander's naval commander [[Onesicritus]] read an Amazon myth passage of his ''Alexander History'' to King [[Lysimachus]] of [[Thrace]] who had taken part in the original expedition. The king smiled at him and said: "And where was I, then?"<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Life of Alexander'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Alexander*/6-7.html#46 Chapter 46]</ref>

The [[Talmud]]<ref>Tamid 32a</ref> recounts that Alexander wanted to conquer a "kingdom of women" but reconsidered when the women told him: {{blockquote| If you kill us, people will say: Alexander kills women; and if we kill you, people will say: Alexander is the king whom women killed in battle.}}

===Roman and ancient Egyptian records===
[[File:Amazone Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8953.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Armed Amazon, her shield decorates a [[Gorgon]] head; [[Tondo (art)|Tondo]] of Attic red-figure [[kylix]], {{circa|500}} BCE, [[Staatliche Antikensammlungen]], Berlin.]]
[[Virgil]]'s characterization of the [[Volsci]] warrior maiden [[Camilla (mythology)|Camilla]] in the ''[[Aeneid]]'' borrows from the myths of the Amazons. [[Philostratus]], in ''Heroica'', writes that the [[Mysian]] women fought on horses alongside the men, just as the Amazons. The leader was Hiera, wife of [[Telephus]]. The Amazons are also said to have undertaken an expedition against the [[Snake Island (Black Sea)|Island of Leuke]], at the mouth of the [[Danube]], where the ashes of [[Achilles]] were deposited by [[Thetis]]. The ghost of the dead hero so terrified the horses, that they threw off and trampled upon the invaders, who were forced to retreat.<ref name="EB1911"/> [[Virgil]] touches on the Amazons and their queen Penthesilea in his epic [[Aeneid]] (around 20 BCE).

The biographer [[Suetonius]] had [[Julius Caesar]] remark in his ''[[De vita Caesarum]]'' that the Amazons ''once ruled a large part of Asia''. [[Appian]] provides a vivid description of Themiscyra and its fortifications in his account of [[Lucullus|Lucius Licinius Lucullus]]' ''Siege of Themiscyra'' in 71 BCE during the [[Third Mithridatic War]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://thelastdiadoch.tumblr.com/post/112524176345/the-siege-of-themiscyra-and-bees-used-in-defense   |title= The Siege of Themiscyra |date=  | publisher= The last Diadoch | author=   | access-date= February 1, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Fratantuono2017">{{cite book|author=Lee Fratantuono|title=Lucullus: The Life and Campaigns of a Roman Conqueror|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MLPNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT100|date=30 September 2017|publisher=Pen & Sword Books|isbn=978-1-4738-8363-5|pages=100–}}</ref><ref name="Fischer-HansenPoulsen2009"/>

An Amazon myth has been partly preserved in two badly fragmented versions around historical people in 7th century BCE Egypt. The Egyptian prince ''Petechonsis'' and allied Assyrian troops undertook a joint campaign into the ''Land of Women'', to the ''Middle East'' at the border to India. ''Petechonsis'' initially fought the Amazons, but soon fell in love with their queen ''Sarpot'' and eventually allied with her against an invading Indian army. This story is said to have originated in Egypt independently of Greek influences.<ref name="Mayor2014">{{cite book|author=Adrienne Mayor|title=The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rboWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA15|date=22 September 2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-6513-0|pages=15–}}</ref><ref name="HoffmannQuack2018">{{cite book|author1=Friedhelm Hoffmann|author2=Joachim Friedrich Quack|title=Anthologie der demotischen Literatur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYVVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA419|year=2018|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-643-14029-6|pages=419–}}</ref>

===Amazon queens===
[[File:Archaeological museum, Athens (4976609478).jpg|thumb|right|Caryatid Amazon from the villa of [[Herodes Atticus]], 2nd century CE, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens|National Archaeological Museum]] of [[Athens]].]]

Sources provide names of individual Amazons, that are referred to as queens of their people, even as the head of a dynasty. Without a male companion, they are portrayed in command of their female warriors. Among the most prominent Amazon queens were:

* [[Otrera]], daughter of the nymph Harmonia and god of war, Ares. She is the mother of Hippolyta, Antiope, Melanippe, and Penthesilea and the mythical founder of the [[Temple of Artemis]] in Ephesus.
*[[Hippolyta]], daughter of Otrera and Ares. She is part of the Theseus and Heracles myths, in which Antiope is her sister. Alcippe, the only Amazon known to have sworn a chastity oath, belongs to her entourage.
* [[Penthesilea]], who kills her sister Hippolyte in a hunting accident, comes to the aid of the hard-pressed Trojans with her warriors, is defeated by Achilles, who mourns her.
* [[Lampedo]] and [[Marpesia]], queens of the Amazons mentioned by [[Justin (historian)|Justin]]
* [[Myrina (mythology)|Myrina]], who leads a military expedition in Libya, defeats the Atlanteans, forms an alliance with the ruler of Egypt, and conquers numerous cities and islands.
* [[Thalestris]], the last known Amazon queen. According to legend, she meets the Greek conqueror [[Alexander the Great]] in 330 BCE. Her home is the Thermodon region, or, variably, the [[Gates of Alexander]], south of the Caspian Sea.