The
Amazons (in
Greek,
?µa???e?) were a mythical ancient nation of all-female warriors.
Herodotus placed them in a region bordering
Scythia in
Sarmatia. Speculation based on archaeological evidence that some Sarmatian women may have participated in battle has led scholars to suggest that the Amazonian legend in
Greek mythology could have been inspired by real warrior women,
[1] though this remains a minority opinion among classical historians.
This word is probably derived from the Iranian ethnonym *ha-mazan-, originally meaning "warriors". A connected word is probably the Hesychius of Alexandria gloss ?µa?a???a?· p??eµe??. ???sa? ("hamazakaran 'to make war' (Persian)", containing the Indo-Iranian root kar- "make" also in kar-ma).
The Greek variant of the name was connected by popular etymology to a- (privative) + mazos, "without breast", connected with an aetiological tradition that Amazons had their right breast cut off or burnt out, so they would be able to use a bow more freely and throw spears without the physical limitation and obstruction; there is no indication of this practice in works of art, in which the Amazons are always represented with both breasts, although the right is frequently covered. Other suggested derivations were a- (intensive) + mazos, breast, "full-breasted"; a- (privative) masso, touch, "not touching" (men); maza, a Circassian word said to signify "moon", has suggested their connection with the worship of a moon-goddess, perhaps the Asiatic representative of Artemis. According to John Colarusso,[2] the Circassian word a-maz(?)-áh-na, pronounced like the Greek Amazon (stress on the last syllable), means 'mother-of-the-forest', but could also be interpreted as 'moon mother'.[3]
Amazons were said to have lived in Pontus, which is part of modern day Turkey near the shore of the Euxine Sea (the Black Sea), where they formed an independent kingdom under the government of a queen, often named Hippolyta ("loose horse"). They were supposed to have founded many towns, amongst them Smyrna, Ephesus, Sinope, and Paphos. According to the dramatist Aeschylus, in the distant past they had lived in Scythia, at the Palus Maeotis ("Lake Maeotis", the Sea of Azov), but later moved to Themiscyra on the River Thermodon (the Terme river in northern Turkey). Herodotus called them Androktones ("killers of men"), and he stated that in the Scythian language they were called 'Oiorpata', which also has this meaning. In some versions, no men were permitted to have sexual encounters or reside in Amazon country; but once a year, in order to prevent their race from dying out, they visited the Gargareans, a neighbouring tribe. The male children who were the result of these visits were either put to death, sent back to their fathers or left in the wilderness to fend for themselves; the females were kept and brought up by their mothers, and trained in agricultural pursuits, hunting, and the art of war (Strabo xi. p. 503).
