The ancient Greeks called Amazons a warlike tribe that consisted exclusively of women. They went on campaigns under the leadership of their queen and created their own warlike state. To preserve the genus, the Amazons entered into contact with men of other peoples. They sent the born boys to their fathers, and according to another legend, they simply killed them, while they kept the girls and raised them as Amazon warriors. They were trained in agriculture, hunting and the arts of war.
The origin of the word "Amazon" is not very clear - either from the Persian word for "warrior", or from the Greek, translated as "without a husband", "unmarried."
Another version was popular among the Greeks - from a … without + mazos chest. According to ancient legends, for the convenience of archery, Amazons burned their right breasts in childhood. However, the same Greeks in their works of art always represent the Amazons with both breasts. And the bow among the steppe peoples, as historians say, was not stretched at chest level, but at ear level.
According to the ancient Greek historian of the 5th century BC Herodotus, the Amazons lived in the Scythian state (modern Crimea) and on the shores of Lake Meotida - as the ancient Greeks called the Sea of Azov. Herodotus reported that the Sarmatians were descendants of the Amazons and Scythians and that their women observed ancient customs, “often hunting on horseback with their husbands; participating in the war; they wear the same clothes as men. " Also, Herodotus reports that among the Sarmatians "no girl will become a wife until she kills a man in battle." After learning the Scythian language, they agreed to marry Scythian men on the condition that they would not be obliged to follow the customs of Scythian women. According to Herodotus, the Sarmatians fought along with the Scythians against the Persian king Darius in the 5th century BC.
Roman historians also write about the Amazons. Caesar reminded the Senate of the Amazons' conquest of significant areas in Asia. The Amazons made a successful raid against the Asia Minor countries of Lycia and Cilicia, as mentioned by the historian Strabo. Philostratus places the Amazons in Tavria. Ammianus - east of Tanais (Don), adjacent to the Alans. And Procopius says that they live in the Caucasus. More original is the Roman historian Diodorus Siculus, who sees the Amazons as descendants of the Atlanteans and writes that they live in western Libya. But Strabo shows skepticism about their historicity. But later, some Church Fathers speak of the Amazons as a very real people.
There is evidence that the Amazons lived in Pontus (now this historical region is the territory of Turkey, or rather, its Black Sea coast). There they formed an independent state, one of whose rulers was Hippolyta, whose name translates as "free, unbridled mare." Perhaps this designation of the Amazons was considered a compliment.
The Amazons, according to legends, founded many cities, among them Smyrna, Ephesus, Sinop and Paphos.
The Amazons first appear in Greek art of the Archaic period in stories associated with several Greek legends. They invaded Lycia but were defeated by Bellerophon. Homer's Iliad mentions Mirin's tomb; according to the ancient Greek historian Diodorus, Queen Mirin led the Amazons until the victorious end of the war against Libya. They attacked the Phrygians, assisted by Priam. One of the tasks assigned to Hercules by Eurystheus was to get the magic belt of the Amazonian queen Hippolyta. Another queen of the Amazons, Pentesilia, participated in the Trojan War. In general, Amazonian warriors were so often depicted in battle with Greek warriors that this popular plot even received its name in classical art - "Amazonomachy". The battles between Athenians and Amazons are immortalized in marble bas-reliefs from the Parthenon and sculptures of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
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Some biographers of Alexander the Great mention the queen of the Amazons, Phalestrida, who visited the famous conqueror and even became a mother from him. However, this story is considered a legend by other biographers of Alexander, including the historian Plutarch. In his work, he mentions the moment when the commander-in-chief of Alexander's fleet, Onesikritus, read this story to the king of Thrace Lysimachus, who participated in the campaigns with Alexander. The king, hearing the story about the meeting of the Amazon and Alexander, only smiled and said: "And where was I then?"
And in the works of ancient Greek art, the battles between the Amazons and the Greeks appear on a par with the battles of the Greeks and centaurs. Belief in their existence, however, was cultivated by national poetry and art. The Amazons' occupation was hunting and war; their weapons are a bow, a spear, an ax, a crescent-shaped shield and a helmet, in early art - the same as that of the Greek goddess Athena, and in later images - like Artemis. On vases of the same late period, their dress is somehow similar to Persian. They were usually depicted on horseback, but sometimes on foot.
In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Amazons are also not forgotten and even credited with the invention of the battle ax.
In the era of great geographical discoveries, a river on the American continent was named after the Amazons. This happened in 1542, when the traveler Francisco de Orellana reached the Amazon River.
Historians of modern times took such amicable testimonies of ancient authors seriously and tried to understand where and when such a tribe of warlike women could live. The most obvious places of their habitation are the Scythian state and Sarmatia, according to the "History" of Herodotus.
But some authors still prefer to look for the legendary Amazons in Asia Minor or even on the island of Crete. Even in the encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1911, it was written with considerable doubt: "While the Amazons are quite a mythical people, some see the historical basis in the reports about them."
The assumption that the legends about the Amazons are based on real ground is based on the results of archaeological research. In particular, the study of the Sarmatian burials, the inventory of the Sarmatian graves, in which weapons are found, suggests that the women of Sarmatian really participated in the battles.
Archaeological evidence seems to confirm the existence of female warriors, as well as the active role of Sarmatian women in military campaigns and social life. Burials of armed women near the Sarmatians comprise approximately 25% of the total number of burials with weapons.
Perhaps the reason for such a high role of women in Sarmatian society, unusual for the ancient world, is explained by the requirements of the harsh life of the nomadic people: men often went to distant lands on a hike or hunting, and women in their absence should have been able to protect their hearth, children, herds animals and nomads. Modern archeology also disposes of the studied burials of the Scythian warriors-maidens buried under the mounds in the Altai Mountains and Sarmatia. Thus, modern science seems to have solved the riddle that troubled ancient and medieval historians, who reported on the warlike women, before whom the ancient kingdoms were in awe.
A. V. Dzyuba. "Secrets and mysteries of history and civilizations"