German "Welt" analyzes the famous myths about the Amazons. Today these characters are more from sexual fantasies than from historical works. However, there is evidence that the Amazons really existed, and they lived in the territory of modern Eastern Europe, the German author writes, referring to Herodotus, as well as the famous researcher Harald Haarmann.
Who were these warriors about whom the ancient authors wrote? Archaeologists periodically find graves with the remains of women, with which their weapons are buried. Traces lead to the steppe - and to psychology.
The "father of history" Herodotus during his travels heard about the Amazons who lived north of the Black Sea. There, according to him, they encountered the wild Scythians, who called them the word Oiorpata, which can be translated as "murderers of men." By capturing the ship and killing all of its crew, the Amazons immediately proved that this nickname is true.
For a long time, ancient stories about the Amazons were considered only myths - harmless, albeit rude and obscene stories about female murderers of men. Men shared these stories with each other during rampant orgies. At the same time, according to Herodotus, they "diluted" their stories with a fair amount of eroticism. Because usually the Amazons, being alone or three, offered sexual pleasures to the Scythians. In the end, they persuaded the Scythians to go with them to the lands north of Lake Meotius, as the ancient Greeks called the Sea of Azov. There they kept their habits, "went with men or even alone to hunt, go to war, and also dress like men."
However, it turned out that the Amazons were not just a figment of someone's fantasies. In his new book "Forgotten Cultures of World History" (Vergessene Kulturen der Weltgeschichte), the world famous linguist Harald Haarmann set out in search of a mysterious people. Eventually, he found the Amazons among the nomads in the Pontic steppes north of the Black Sea. Where in the 5th century BC. Iranian nomads-Sarmatians lived, archaeologists actually discovered women's graves with weapons.
The fact that women were buried not with ritual weapons, but with real military weapons, is proved by the damage to the bones and skulls on many skeletons. "Such female graves with weapons are typical of the burials of nomads in the Pontic steppes," concluded Haarmann. Similar burial mounds, towering over the steppe, are found in vast territories from the borders of modern China to Hungary.
These findings prove, according to Haarmann, that the warriors really existed, and after death they were buried "with military honors." The scientist does not even exclude that there were separate horse detachments of the Amazons, whose main weapon, according to the stories of ancient authors, was a bow and arrow. This formidable weapon made up for the difference in sheer physical strength between men and women.
However, Haarmann considers the statement about the existence of the whole "empire of the Amazons" to be only a guess. "A well-trained warrior could, from a long distance, kill male warriors with a bow, far superior in strength." It is not for nothing that Homer in his Iliad called the Amazons the word antiáneirai, that is, "equal to men."
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The Greeks managed to defeat the Amazons in the battle for Troy only because the superhero Achilles was able to kill their mistress Penthesileia. At the same time, Achilles was so impressed by the strength and beauty of his victim that he handed her body over to the Trojans, so that they would bury her with the honors due to her. At least, this is the story of the epic Ethiopis, written in the days after Homer.
Rumors about the warlike riders who lived north of the Black Sea and maintained close trade relations with the inhabitants of the steppe reached Greece itself on the shores of the Aegean Sea. From this point of view, the Amazons appear to be opponents of the Greeks, and in no way their allies.
In the ninth book of Herodotov's "History", dedicated to the victorious battles with the Persians in 479 BC. e., it is said that the Athenians ranked the Amazons as enemies, against whom they “fought bravely”. Many Greek heroes, such as Hercules, Theseus, Achilles - up to Alexander the Great - were especially distinguished in battles with the Amazons.
This opposition is partly due to dualism, which laid an insurmountable barrier between the Greeks and the barbarians. In addition, the image of the enemy in the person of a self-confident and militant woman could have, in particular, socio-psychological roots. The ancient Greeks believed that the Amazons were a danger to both the polis and its male inhabitants.
In addition, the Amazons probably aroused erotic fantasies in Greek men. When in 440 BC. the consecration of the huge temple of Artemis in Ephesus, on the coast of Asia Minor, four famous architects were instructed to create a statue of the Amazon: they were credited with the construction of a cult structure of the goddess, traditionally depicted as "many-breasted". The winner of the competition was Polycletus - copies of his "wounded Amazon" have survived to this day.
The linguist Haarmann did not miss the opportunity to correct the rather widespread interpretation of the word "amazon": because of a- (removal) and mastos (chest), the Greeks still believed that warriors removed their right chest so that it would not interfere with their shooting from a bow, pulling the bowstring … This has nothing to do with reality, Haarmann is sure. After all, ancient painters and sculptors have always portrayed Amazons as attractive women with full breasts.
Berthold Seewald