There are legends that in antiquity there was matriarchy, and then the era of patriarchy came. But is it really true or fiction? Who are women and men? What is the difference between them, besides physical sex characteristics? Can a man replace a woman and a woman for a man? Are there professions that are only suitable for a particular gender? Or is it a myth? Here are how many questions arise immediately when we hear only one word - Amazons, female warriors.
For female warriors, there are no borders and nations, as well as a specific historical date.
According to legend, the Amazons descended from the god of insidious, treacherous war, Ares and Harmony, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, and they worshiped the god of war Ares and the goddess of the hunt Artemis. There is a version that they lived in Asia Minor, on the Black and Azov seas, in the Caucasus. Herodotus wrote about them. They, according to legend, built Ephesus and the capital - Themiscira. It is believed that the word "Amazon" comes from the word "chestless". Researchers suggest that perhaps the whole point is that the warriors burned one breast to make it easier to shoot from a bow, although in none of the ancient images they are not depicted without a breast. There is one version - they did not breastfeed children. Once a year, the Amazons spent time with men from neighboring tribes or with those whom they conquered, and then, if a girl was born, they left her, raised her as a warrior, they either killed the boys,or given to the fathers.
It is believed that the ancient queen of the Amazons offered herself to Alexander the Great in order to give birth to a magnificent warrior. Later, there were versions that a detachment of Amazons fought with this conqueror, it was a difficult battle for the Macedonians, or, conversely, joined him and fought side by side with Alexander the Great. By the way, since ancient times in the countries of the East and in the Germanic tribes, female warriors fought on a par with men and they were willingly taken into the army. In India, under the famous king Ashoka, there was an army of guardians, consisting only of women with bows, who were the king's personal guard.
The Amazons even attacked Athens, but were defeated, although Herodotus says that these tribes often won victories. And in the myth it is said that Theseus stole the queen of the Amazons Antiope, brought her to Greece, where he married, and her faithful friends, deciding that her life was bad, came to her aid. It all ended with the fact that the queen died, the Amazons left the city, and Theseus was inconsolable. According to another version of the same myth, Theseus took Antiope with him, and then wanted to marry another, but when the offended woman tried to interfere with the wedding, Hercules, Theseus' protector, on his order, killed the unfortunate loving Amazon. Where to look for the truth?
Is there not in the second version of the myth of a man's desire to show a woman his place by distorting history? In myths, legends, in the Iliad - everywhere there are meetings with the Amazons. By the way, the Amazons also participated in the Trojan War. Nowadays, Amazons are for some reason perceived only as lesbians, especially after the 1920s, when Roumain Brooks portrayed Natalie Berney as an Amazon. The lesbians later adopted the Amazons' ax as their emblem. But the Amazons weren't the only warriors.
In the same Greece, Amastris of Heracluria built her metropolis, conquering four cities and rallying them. Another Greek woman - Artemisia I (480 BC), the ruler of the state of Halicarnassus, became an ally, taking the Salamis attack by the famous Persian king Xerxes. She was the head of the battleship. And Telesilla in the 5th century BC. with the help of battle songs, she united the women in the occupied Argos and accompanied them to defend their homeland against enemies.
In ancient Sparta, women were respected, giving them freedom. For example, two princesses in the 3rd century BC. - Arachidamia, who controls the detachments of women, fought with Pyrrhus at Lacedaemon, and Helidonis, the defender of the native city walls, are vivid examples of female valor.
Promotional video:
Moving on to another cradle of ancient civilization - Rome - we see a different picture. Where bread and circuses were demanded, gladiatorial fights flourished, and patricians demanded more and more sophisticated fights. Therefore, along with men lived women gladiators. These warriors fought not only with their own kind, but also with men, shooting them down on war chariots, as well as with wild animals. The Roman poet Martial even has a verse about a woman gladiator who killed a lion with a short sword. But, having seen the successes of their sisters, the famous courtesans, and later even noble matrons, began to enter the arena at will, and not in the struggle for freedom, as the gladiator slaves did.
In 200, Emperor Alexander Sever promulgated a law prohibiting women from fighting in the Colosseum. But women's battles were not out of the ordinary in Rome. The weaker sex accompanied the army on a par with men. In the 1st century. AD Triaria, the wife of the Emperor Zitellius, in combat ammunition fought to the last drop of blood with her husband.
And Caligula's mother Agripinna gave birth to a daughter in a battle tent when she went on a military campaign with Germanicus.
It was a woman who once drove the Romans from the British Isles. In 61, Boudicca, a Celtic warrior, with a female army, over and over again defeated the Romans. She never took people prisoner. Later, men joined her army.
In ancient Babylon, Queen Shamirmad (Semiramis) went down in history as a great warrior, after whom the gardens were later named, and not in honor of the current queen.
And China is famous for its empress Tsi-si, who periodically resisted even the pressure of the Europeans. In the east, women led more than half of the uprisings. And in the war with North Vietnam, the army of South Vietnam fought, and both armies were female.
In the 19th century in Africa, a women's battalion guarded the king in Dahomey, and in Nigeria, the king openly admired his warrior bodyguards.
The most famous woman of the Middle Ages, the national pride of France is Jeanne d'Arc, the liberator of her native land. In the same country lived the well-known Jeanne de Belleville, who rebelled against the king, as well as the murderers of her husband, and, having accepted 3 ships for help from the English king, became a pirate at sea. In the same France, under the Sun King, female duels were common.
In knightly times, women fought in armor. So, one woman, the daughter of a man who was called to a duel, but who fell ill, replaced her father in a duel. And while she, fully equipped with weapons, did not knock the enemy off the horse, no one knew that this was a woman. Now the coat of arms of this Dadley family depicts a woman in a knight's helmet. Women were also fond of hunting on a par with men, they learned to fence and shoot from guns.
But let's not think that there were no Slavic women among the heroines. So, in 1602, Prince John of Denmark came to Moscow, surprised by the cavalry detachments of women warriors. And even earlier in the epics, it is said that the heroes married women heroes - Polyanitsa. Pole is when a fighter was looking for an opponent for a fight, and when he fought, he brought his head as proof
enemy. The men were called the fields-forging, and the ladies were called the fields. Bogatyrs married them, children were born from them, they were conquered, and sometimes killed. There are several epics that tell about the famous three heroes and Polyanitsa. The salvation of Kiev from Tugarin, disguised as a man, was the wife of Ilya Muromets, Polyanitsa Savishna.
The same Herodotus talked about the Sarmatian women warriors, whom the Greeks called the Iorpats - male killers. They lived on the territory of modern Russia and Ukraine, especially in the Black Sea region. The historian called them the Amazons. From VI to IV centuries BC find many graves where women found rest in full combat ammunition, with weapons, and some of them were badly wounded, even the remains of arrows remained in their bodies. One of them, 14-year-old, was also found with a weapon, but already at this age her legs were twisted from constant stay on a horse. Men of that era are found without battle armor and weapons, and there is also a grave where a man lies with a child in his arms. Scientists believe that there was matriarchy, women fought, and men watched over the children, the household. But since the 6th century, the graves of only male warriors have already been discovered, which suggests thatthat women have stopped fighting. But what made you switch to a completely different way of life? Here's a riddle. Women have lost power. And in Rostov-on-Don, they found the grave of a woman, and in it was a one and a half meter sword, which, it is believed, was needed to protect against these very Sarmatians, or rather the Sarmatians, who felt at ease here.
Female warriors are not just mere mortals. They were originally goddesses. For example, if Ares was more often identified with war for the sake of war, then Pallas Athena - with a wise war. The following warrior goddesses were also worshiped; Artemis, Nike, in Rome Bellona (in her temple there was a declaration of war), the warlike Valkyries and their leader Freya were revered in German-Scandinavian mythology. They worshiped Morrigan - the goddess of the Celts, the Indo-Aryan Durga, whose manifestation is the goddess Kali, the Virgins-Perunits - companions of Perun, as well as the goddess of Dawn among the ancient Slavs who worshiped the Sun. In Christianity, the virgin-warrior is the Mother of God herself - a formidable intercessor, merciful and forgiving.
The desire of women to become as respected and free as men has manifested itself from time immemorial. But as there is no light without darkness, so there can be no feminine without masculinity. Each person has both. A man gives a woman strength, and a woman gives a man a feminine energy, which is often expressed as inspiration, the repose of insane anger. Hindu wisdom echoes: "Shiva without Shakti-shava (corpse)."
Source: “Miracles. Puzzles. Secrets No. 3 (14). E. Mochnova