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In Greek Mythology , the , Amazons were either an ancient legendary nation of female warriors or a land dominated by women at the outer edges of their known world. The legends appear to have a nugget of factual basis in warrior women among the Scythia ns, but classical Greeks never ceased to be astounded at such role-reversals. Women in classical Greek society were expected to be passive and dependent on males. In early modern usage, the word is often used to refer to strong and independent women, in contrast to conventional stereotypes of women as weak and passive (see " Damsel In Distress "). '', based on Greek literary sources.]] Etymology
The Greek variant of the name was connected by word said to signify "moon", has suggested their connection with the worship of a moon-goddess, perhaps the Asiatic representative of Artemis . Amazons of Greek mythology .]] Amazons were said to have lived in Pontus , which is part of modern day Turkey near the shore of the Euxine Sea , where they formed an independent kingdom under the government of a queen, often named Hippolyta ("she lets her horses loose"). They were supposed to have founded many towns, amongst them Smyrna , Ephesus , Sinope , Paphos . According to another account, they originally came to the Thermodon from the ''Palus Maeotis'' ("Lake Maeotis", the Sea Of Azov ). In some versions, no men were permitted to 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 or sent back to their fathers; 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). In the '' Iliad '', the Amazons were referred to as Antianeira ("those who fight like men"). Herodotus called them Androktones ("killers of men"). The Amazons appear in connection with several Greek legends. They invaded Lycia , but were defeated by Bellerophon , who was sent out against them by Iobates , the king of that country, in the hope that he might meet his death at their hands (''Iliad'', vi. 186). According to Diodorus , Queen Myrine led them to victory against the Atlanteans , Libya and much of Gorgon . They attacked the Phrygia ns, who were assisted by Priam , then a young man (''Iliad'', iii. 189). Although in his later years, towards the end of the Trojan War , his old opponents took his side again against the Greeks under their queen Penthesilea , who was slain by Achilles (Quint. Smyr. i.; Justin ii. 4; Virgil, Aen. i. 490). One of the tasks imposed upon Heracles by Eurystheus was to obtain possession of the Girdle of the Amazonian queen Hippolyte ('' Apollodorus '' ii. 5). He was accompanied by his friend Theseus , who carried off the princess Antiope , sister of Hippolyte, an incident which led to a retaliatory invasion of Attica , in which Antiope perished fighting by the side of Theseus. In some versions, however, Theseus marries Hippolyta and in others, he marries Antiope and she does not die. The battle between the Athenians and Amazonians is often commemorated in an entire genre of art, Amazonomachy , marble carvings such as from the Parthenon . The Amazons are also said to have undertaken an expedition against the island of Leuke , at the mouth of the Danube , where the ashes of Achilles had been deposited by Thetis . The ghost of the dead hero appeared and so terrified the horses, that they threw and trampled upon the invaders, who were forced to retire. Pompey is said to have found them in the army of Mithradates . They are heard of in the time of Alexander The Great , when some of the great king's biographers make mention of Amazon Queen Thalestris visiting him and becoming a mother by him. However, several other biographers of Alexander totally dispute the claim, including the highly regarded secondary source, Plutarch . In his writing he makes mention of when Alexander's secondary naval commander, Onesicritus , was reading the Amazon passage of his Alexander history to King Lysimachus of Thrace who was on the original expedition, the king smiled at him and said "And where was I, then?" The Roman writer Virgil 's characterization of the Volsci an warrior maiden Camilla in the '' Aeneid '' borrows heavily from the myth of the Amazons. Scythian origins In a recent excavation of Sarmatian sites by Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball, a tomb was found wherein female warriors were buried, thus lending some credence to the myths about the Amazons. Following the excavation in 2003 by Dr. Davis-Kimball, she and Dr. Joachim Burger compared the genetic evidence from the site with the nomadic Kazakhs , and have found a striking genetic link – verified later by the University Of Cambridge {Link without Title} Before modern archaeology uncovered some of the Scythian burials of warrior-maidens entombed under Kurgan s in the region of Altay Mountains , giving concrete form at last to the Greek tales of mounted Amazons, the origin of the story of the Amazons has been the subject of speculation among classics scholars. In the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' speculation ranged along the following lines. While some regard the Amazons as a purely mythical people, others assume an historical foundation for them. The deities worshipped by them were herself was an Amazon". It has been suggested that the fact of the conquest of the Amazons being assigned to the two famous heroes of Greek mythology, Heracles and Theseus – who in the tasks assigned to them were generally opposed to monsters and beings impossible in themselves, but possible as illustrations of permanent danger and damage – shows that they were mythical illustrations of the dangers which beset the Greeks on the coasts of Asia Minor; rather perhaps, it may be intended to represent the conflict between the Greek culture of the colonies on the Black Sea and the barbarism of the native inhabitants. Herodotus reported that the Sarmatians / Sauromatians were descendants of Amazons and Scythians. Their Scythian / Saka / Cimmerian / Gomer ian origins are further proved by their origins from Thermodon 's Scythians who invaded there coming from around the Sea Of Azov and their use of the bow and arrow as their primary weapon as well as fighting on horseback. Medieval and Renaissance authors credit the Amazons with the invention of the Battle-axe . This is probably related to the Sagaris , an axe-like weapon associated with both Amazons and Scythian tribes by Greek authors (see also Aleksandrovo Kurgan ). Paulus Hector Mair expresses astonishment that such a "manly weapon" should have been invented by a "tribe of women", but he accepts the attribution out of respect for his authority, Johannes Aventinus . Minoan origins : Another theory raised by scholars (such as Farnell & Myres in ''Anthropology and the Classics'', pp. 138 ff), in regards to the Amazons of which the ancient Greeks spoke and wrote about, is the idea that their origins might have been based in Minoan civilization. This theory is interesting because it draws attention to certain curious facts and similarities between the two cultures usually overlooked by some historians and anthropologists. The idea has been raised that the story origins of the mythological Amazons in early ancient Greece might have been closer to the Greek world than what it has been originally theorized. According to some scholars, (Myres, ''Anthropology and the Classics'', op. cit. pp. 153 ff), the tradition interpreted in the light of evidence furnished by the cults which the Amazons are supposed to have practised, seems to been very similar and may have even originated among the people who built up the finished product of the historic civilisation of the apparently Aegean Minoan culture. The theory that the Amazons originally represented Minoan Cretes females has a strong case based on what Archeologists and historians have been discovering about Minoan culture. Out of all the ancient civilizations which are so far known to archeologists and historians the Minoans seem to fit most of the aspects that classical Greeks and later scholars have come to associate with the Amazonian culture. woman leaping over bull; c. 1500-1450 bce]] : These women are shown enjoying a freedom and dignity unknown elsewhere in the ancient Near East or classical Greece. The women of Minoan civilization, like the Amazons and the women of Sparta , stood in antithesis to Athenian women, who led secluded lives. Images of women occur more frequently than men in the Minoan archaeological record, both on Crete and in the more recent excavations on the island of Thera ( Santorini ). Minoan men were mostly maritimers, spending a great deal of time away from home, at sea. Archeological finds point that this may have encouraged their women to become independent and self-reliant, taking care of the political, military and religious aspects of their civilization. Women are often seen on frescos being saluted by people, and whereas there are many depictions which exist of men showing deference to women, not one shows women deferring to men. Minoan women trained in everything which Minoan males were trained in. They served as priestesses, as functionaries and administrators, and participated in all the physical activities and sports that Cretan males participated in. These were not backyard sports either, the most popular sports in Crete were incredibly violent, very physical and dangerous such as Wrestling , Boxing and Bull-jumping . One of the most revealing images of the status of women in Minoan society is the famous "Toreador fresco" in which young women, shown with the conventional white skin, and darker-skinned men, engage in the dangerous sport that appears to involve somersaulting over the back of a charging bull. In the Minoan culture young girls were initiated and trained in same activities as boys. Women also seem to have participated in every occupation and trade available to men. They were skilled craftswomen and entrepreneurs, the large top-heavy bureaucracy and priesthood seems to have been equally staffed with women. In fact, the priesthood was dominated by women.[http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MINOA/WOMEN.HTM Female figures in Minoan art seem to depict them over their male counterparts, painted twice the size of the Minoan males. Males appear small in scale, compared to the dominant female. Minoan period also seems too suggest that the men hardly ever engaged in wars. It was their female deities and women depicted on frescos and figures with swords and battle-axes. Not until the late Minoan period did a male deity appear. At first he was an agricultural god and later, he began to carry weapons, suggested that the male dominated God religion has been already enforced. : The world of ancient Greece at one point was based on a goddess religion. They belong to an Matrilineal tradition that ancient sources tell us was found through out early Mycenaean and Minoan cultures. The Amazon Serpent-Goddess-Trinity- Athene , a deity, was also present in Minoan culture, her warrior like character being one of their most poweful Goddesses. Their Goddess was in all probability a prototype of such later Greek goddesses as Athena , Demeter , and Aphrodite . Snake Goddess]] In Greek art and stories there have been instances where it shows the Amazons carrying a particular double- found in Jason And The Argonauts who murdered their fathers and husbands. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} symbolic labrys of cave. Of all the Minoan religious symbols, the axe was the holiest]] : As with the tales of the Amazons ruling over their societies with no male counterparts, frescos from Knossos show that Minoan civilization more then likely was ruled by Queen Goddesses. Accoring to Jacquetta Hawkes (1968, p. 76.), the absence of manifestations of the all-powerful male ruler that were so widespread at this time and in this stage of cultural development as to be almost universal suggest Minoan thrones may have been queens. This is given credibility with archeological finds which suggest that unlike royal courts elsewhere, such as in Egypt and the Orient , where one would expect at the very least there to have been two thrones for a King and a Queen, instead in the sacred room at Knossos, and apparently also in the state apartment in the residential quarter, the throne stood single and alone for the Goddess Queen. According to Minoan culture, Minoan priestesses often accompanied their male counterparts into battle. These priestesses dramatized the Minoan goddesses' presence on the battlefield. In their warlike character the Minoan women, like that of the Amazons, are reflexes of the Woman Goddess whom they worshipped. Like the Warrior Goddess who carrys an axe into battle, they too are depicted carrying the Battle-axe and in this they are shown to be closely related to the religion of historic Cretan civilization, of which the weapon is the conspicuous symbol. Their other weapon, the Bow , also seems to have origins in Cretan culture and attributed to the God Apollo whom the Cretans seem to have revered. Prior to the dominance of Patriarchal society in ancient Greece itself, even in Laconia , women enjoyed unusual freedom, and there were stories of their having borne arms for their country. There were similar tales at Argos and in Arcadia , and at the Olympian Heraeum were a footrace of maidens was conducted in honour of Hippodamia . Recent excavations on Crete show that female initiation rites were a common accurance in their societies, to mark periods in the transition from one life-stage to another, such as the transition from childhood to adulthood. {Link without Title} Queen's megaron in the Eastern wing of the Knossos Palace. (restoration drawing)]] : were known to wear. We also know that in mythologicial writings it says that Hercules was sent for the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons. Both the Minoan men and women wore girdles, over a loincloth, given some credit to the likelihood that this is from where the Amazon girdle was adopted from. During religious ceremonies the Amazons are shown wearing some fancy flounced skirts that were similar to what the Minoan ladies wore. There are also images of Amazon head pieces that look much like the head-wear which Minoan women are shown wearing. For the first time, archeologists encounter a race of hat-conscious women with entirely different styles portrayed on the terracottas. : Current findings has some who theorize that the legend of the Amazons might have been formed by these Minoan women of Crete, at the time of , in others the Carians ..."''~ Herodotus Lycians 1.173 : According to ancient sources, (, Athens , Chaeronea , Chalcis , Thessaly at '''Scotussa''', in Cynoscephalae and statues of Amazons are all over Greece. At both '''Chalsis''' and Athens Plutarch tells us that there was an Amazoneum or shrine of Amazons that implied the presence of both tombs and cult. On the day before the Thesea at Athens there were annual sacrifices to the Amazons. In historical times Greek maidens of Ephesus performed an annual circular dance with weapons and shields that had been established by Hippolyte and her Amazons. They had initially set up wooden statues of Artemis , a bretas, ( Pausanias , (fl.c.160 CE): Description of Greece, Book I: Attica {Link without Title} ). With the fall of the Minoan civilization, other then the mythological Amazons, there has yet to be discovered a culture which historically was known to exist, their social infrastructure so well organized and somewhat familiar to scholars which was dominated by women the way Minoan culture was. Amazons in Greek art In works of art, battles between Amazons and Greeks are placed on the same level as and often associated with battles of Greeks and Centaurs . The belief in their existence, however, having been once accepted and introduced into the national poetry and art, it became necessary to surround them as far as possible with the appearance of not unnatural beings. Their occupation was hunting and war; their arms the bow, spear, axe, a half shield, nearly in the shape of a crescent, called ''pelta'', and in early art a helmet, the model before the Greek mind having apparently been the goddess Athena. In later art they approach the model of Artemis, wearing a thin dress, girt high for speed; while on the later painted vases their dress is often peculiarly Persian – that is, close-fitting trousers and a high cap called the kidaris. They were usually on horseback but sometimes on foot. They can also be identified in vase paintings by the fact that they are wearing one earring. The battle between Theseus and the Amazons is a favourite subject on the friezes of temples (e.g. the reliefs from the frieze of the temple of Apollo at Bassae , now in the British Museum ), vases and sarcophagus reliefs; at Athens it was represented on the shield of the statue of Athena Parthenos , on wall-paintings in the Theseum and in the ''Stoa Poikile'' . Many of the sculptors of antiquity, including Pheidias , Polyclitus , Cresilas and Phradmon , executed statues of Amazons; and there are many existing reproductions of these. Amazon-like figures in history and folklore ''' leads the women in the defense of their villages, by Hugo Hamilton (1830)]] Armed women have often acted as royal Bodyguard s throughout history. Chandragupta Maurya ( 322 – 298 BC ), the first Emperor to develop a centralized state in India , had a personal guard composed of giant Greek women. Female royal guards re-appear 2000 years later in the History Of India as guards for the Nizam s of Deccan and Hyderabad . And on the island of Sri Lanka , the Kandy royal family had a royal guard of female Archer s. In Europe , Celt ic and Germanic Tribes often had women fighting with their husbands. Tacitus tells us that Boadicea had more women than men in her army. There is also a woman in the Old Testament, Deborah , who may be one of the first recorded instances of a woman participating in battle. She was a prophetess, a warrior, a leader, and a Judge of Israel, all in one. She correctly predicted that the enemy general, Sisera, who faced Israel at this time would be slain by a woman (the woman who killed him and also received credit for the army's victory was named Jael .) This story is chronicled in Judges. Among the Mongols and the ancient Turk s were many heroic women. One such was the mother of Jenghiz Khan . In Jenghiz Khan 's army women could fight along men if they wished and some did so, as reported by Muslim writers during the invasion of Western Iran by Chormagan a Mongol general. In Scandinavia , women who did not yet have the responsibility for raising a family could take up arms and live like warriors. They were called Shieldmaiden s and many of them figure in Norse Mythology . One of the most famous shieldmaidens was Hervor and she figures in the cycle of the magic sword Tyrfing . The Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus relates that when the Swedish king Sigurd Ring and the Danish king Harald Wartooth met at the Battle Of Bråvalla , 300 shieldmaidens fought on the Danish side led by Visna. Saxo relates that the shieldmaidens fought with small shields and long swords. Hervor dying after a battle with the Huns in '' Hervarar Saga '']] Similarly, the Valkyries of Norse Mythology are minor female deities, who serve Odin . The name means ''choosers of the slain''. The valkyries' purpose was to choose the most heroic of those who had died in battle and to carry them off to Valhalla where they became Einherjar . This was necessary because Odin needed warriors to fight at his side at the preordained battle at the end of the world, Ragnarök . A legend which may be based on the Greek Amazons appears in the history of Bohemia . As the story goes, a large band of women, led by a certain Vlasta and her henchwoman Šárka , carried on war against the duke of Bohemia, and enslaved or put to death all men who fell into their hands; eventually, they were mercilessly defeated by the duke. In the 16th Century the Spanish explorer Orellana asserted that he had come into conflict with fighting women in South America on the Marañón River , which was named after them the Amazon or river of the Amazons, although others derive its name from the Indian amassona (boat-destroyer), applied to the tidal phenomenon known as the "bore". The armored warrior maiden (whose gender is often unsuspected) is a frequent character in the European chivalric epic. The most famous of these female knights is ''Bradamante'' -- daughter of Aymon, sister to the knight Renaud De Montauban (''Rinaldo'', ''Ranaldo'') and legendary ancestor to the house of Este -- who is destined to marry the knight ''Ruggiero'' (or ''Rugiero''). Her adventures are a major element in the Italian Renaissance epics '' Orlando Innamorato '' by Matteo Maria Boiardo and its continuation '' Orlando Furioso '' by Ariosto . A similar character is the pagan warrior knight ''Clorinda'' who battles against the Christian crusaders in Torquato Tasso 's epic '' Jerusalem Delivered ''. The vogue of such female knights in literature would continue though the seventeenth century and inspired not only dramatic recreations but also actual military feats (such as the Duchess Of Montpensier's participation in the Fronde ). The best known historical Medieval Amazon chatacters are Sichelgaita of Salerno, Jeanne D'Arc , queen Margaret I Of Denmark and Jeanne Hachette . Medieval noblewomen often had a rudimentary military training, as it was the task of the lady of the castle to lead the defence of the castle if the lord was away. The Dahomey Amazons were a 6000 strong military unit of Dahomey (now Benin ) in West Africa who were active from the 16th to the late 19th Century . They were largely successful in their battles with neighboring kingdoms, and were finally defeated by the French . Libya has a long history of Amazon women, which probably pre-dates the Greek Amazons. Even today, Gadaffi is guarded by female soldiers. Other Africa n ethnic groups who used fighting women were the Igbo and Fulani , who integrated the women into their armies. In the kingdom of Siam in the 19th century, the king had a personal battalion of 400 spear-wielding women. They were chosen from the most beautiful women of the country, and were said to be excellent spear-throwers, though they were regarded as too valuable to be sent to war. Almost all countries have female combatants in their history one time or the other; it is simply the matter of more or less. Around 400 women secretly took part as soldiers in the American Civil War . For notable cases of women became soldiers, reference may be made to Mary Anne Talbot and Hannah Snell . In the Finnish Civil War 1918, the Reds had woman guard units (''naiskaarti''). They often fought more furiously than their male counterparts and seldom surrendered, as they knew what to expect if captured. Their furiosity made a lasting impression on the winning Whites, and it is said the woman guard of Sahalahti was the only unit to ever defeat German Jägers on field in that war. In the 20th century, the states of the Soviet Union and Israel took the initiative to train and utilize women for light infantry and other combatant roles. Although these moves were initially motivated by the shortage of manpower, for example on USSR's western front in WWII, they led the way for the use of female combatants by the U.S. and other western nations. Modern depiction of Amazons It has been noted that until the 20th century, Amazons were typically depicted in Literature as an alien adversary that threatened the masculinity of heroes. As such, the typical goal of the heroes has been to defeat and humiliate them as a way of reasserting male superiority. In the 20th century, Amazons were depicted with increasing sympathy. Today, the typical depiction of the characters is as an isolated community of powerful and beautiful warriors whose respect and cooperation the male heroes are challenged to earn. The most famous modern example of an Amazon is the '' television series. Robert E. Howard 's minor character Red Sonja , who was fleshed out more in the '' Conan The Barbarian '' comic books and subsequently in her own movie, also owes much to this modern sympathetic treatment of Amazons. Esther Freisner has published a series of Anthologies on the theme of ''Chicks in Chainmail ,'' containing humorous takes on Amazon characters by a number of science fiction and fantasy writers. In the , they are referred to in the episode ''Tomorrow is Yesterday''. They overhauled the ship's computer, live on Cygnet XIV. The computer kept calling Capt. Kirk "Dear". The ,'' in which every male on Earth, except one, is wiped out in a mysterious plague, includes a hyper-feminist Cult called the Daughters of the Amazon, who believe that Mother Earth cleansed itself of the "aberration" of the Y chromosome. A Buck Rogers episode, ''Planet of the Amazon Women,'' features a society composed solely of women, because all men were either killed in war or held as prisoners of war by their enemy. A episode features similar women in "Angel One". These women are large and strong and dominate the smaller, weaker, more servile men. Zeus, Master Of Olympus , a computer game, features these women under the command of Artemis who is, depending on the scenario/campaign played, are either the player's allies or deadly enemies, since Artemis can either "bless" the game player's leader or "curse" the game player's leader, depending on the scenario/campaign played. Some scenarios also feature ''independent'' amazons, such as the Military 2 scenario and The Labors of Hercules scenario. A Sliders Episode depicts women in control of a Earth, due to a germ warfare virus killing most of the men, and causing the survivors to be sterile, and left the women unaffected by it. When the male Sliders were found, they were mistaken for men that somehow escaped the plague, not knowing that they're from ''our'' plane of existence, travelling to different dimensions. A Stargate SG-1 episode, Birthright, has the military unit from Earth asking woman warriors on another planet for aid against spaceborne and dimensional enemies. A Thundarr The Barbarian episode, ''Attack of the Amazon Women'', depicts warlike women located in what was left of Mt. Rushmore. He and his companions defeated a female meglomaniac who had found a "ancient" nuclear warhead, and intended to use it in her attempt at conquest. In God Emperor Of Dune the God Emperor Leto II Atreides holds the human race in bondage for millennia with a female army called the Fish Speakers . Another computer game, Diablo II , depicts these women in it as a combat class. In the Wheel Of Time books by Robert Jordan , the Aiel people have amazon warriors, called '' Far Dareis Mai '', "Maidens of the Spear". In the '' Futurama '' episode " Amazon Women In The Mood ", the characters crash-land on a planet called "Amazonia" inhabited by a race of giant women (Amazonians). An '' Outer Limits '' episode, " Lithia ", depicts women who have survived a nuclear and germ warfare attack which killed all men. In this, a man, who was a Major in the US Military, was cryogenically frozen as part of an experiment before the war broke out, and revived by some women. He found that humanity survived the war, but were all women. Reproduction was carried out by using frozen sperm, but the virus kills male babies. Due to a social taboo, he was placed back into cryogenic stasis. This episode, made in 1998, was broadcast on the Sci-Fi channel in 2006. A few episodes of the Thundercats feature women of this nature on "Third Earth". They are allies of the Thunder Cats. Sources About twenty-five hundred years ago, Herodotus in ''Histories'' in book four records: 110. About the Sauromatai the following tale is told:--When the Hellenes had fought with the Amazons,--now the Amazons are called by the Scythians /Oiorpata/, which name means in the Hellenic tongue "slayers of men," for "man" they call /oior/, and /pata/ means "to slay,"--then, as the story goes, the Hellenes, having conquered them in the battle at the Thermodon, were sailing away and conveying with them in three ships as many Amazons as they were able to take prisoners. These in the open sea set upon the men and cast them out of the ships; but they knew nothing about ships, nor how to use rudders or sails or oars, and after they had cast out the men they were driven about by wave and wind and came to that part of the Maiotian lake where Cremnoi stands; now Cremnoi is in the land of the free Scythians. There the Amazons disembarked from their ships and made their way into the country, and having met first with a troop of horses feeding they seized them, and mounted upon these they plundered the property of the Scythians. 111. The Scythians meanwhile were not able to understand the matter, for they did not know either their speech or their dress or the race to which they belonged, but were in wonder as to whence they had come and thought that they were men, of an age corresponding to their appearance: and finally they fought a battle against them, and after the battle the Scythians got possession of the bodies of the dead, and thus they discovered that they were women. They took counsel therefore and resolved by no means to go on trying to kill them, but to send against them the youngest men from among themselves, making conjecture of the number so as to send just as many men as there were women. These were told to encamp near them, and do whatsoever they should do; if however the women should come after them, they were not to fight but to retire before them, and when the women stopped, they were to approach near and encamp. This plan was adopted by the Scythians because they desired to have children born from them. 112. The young men accordingly were sent out and did that which had been commanded them: and when the Amazons perceived that they had not come to do them any harm, they let them alone; and the two camps approached nearer to one another every day: and the young men, like the Amazons, had nothing except their arms and their horses, and got their living, as the Amazons did, by hunting and by taking booty. 113. Now the Amazons at midday used to scatter abroad either one by one or by two together, dispersing to a distance from one another to ease themselves; and the Scythians also having perceived this did the same thing: and one of the Scythians came near to one of those Amazons who were apart by themselves, and she did not repulse him but allowed him to lie with her: and she could not speak to him, for they did not understand one another's speech, but she made signs to him with her hand to come on the following day to the same place and to bring another with him, signifying to him that there should be two of them, and that she would bring another with her. The young man therefore, when he returned, reported this to the others; and on the next day he came himself to the place and also brought another, and he found the Amazon awaiting him with another in her company. Then hearing this the rest of the young men also in their turn tamed for themselves the remainder of the Amazons; 114, and after this they joined their camps and lived together, each man having for his wife her with whom he had had dealings at first; and the men were not able to learn the speech of the women, but the women came to comprehend that of the men. So when they understood one another, the men spoke to the Amazons as follows: "We have parents and we have possessions; now therefore let us no longer lead a life of this kind, but let us go away to the main body of our people and dwell with them; and we will have you for wives and no others." They however spoke thus in reply: "We should not be able to live with your women, for we and they have not the same customs. We shoot with bows and hurl javelins and ride horses, but the works of women we never learnt; whereas your women do none of these things which we said, but stay in the waggons and work at the works of women, neither going out to the chase nor anywhither else. We therefore should not be able to live in agreement with them: but if ye desire to keep us for your wives and to be thought honest men, go to your parents and obtain from them your share of the goods, and then let us go and dwell by ourselves." 115. The young men agreed and did this; and when they had obtained the share of the goods which belonged to them and had returned back to the Amazons, the women spoke to them as follows: "We are possessed by fear and trembling to think that we must dwell in this place, having not only separated you from your fathers, but also done great damage to your land. Since then ye think it right to have us as your wives, do this together with us,--come and let us remove from this land and pass over the river Tana also". 116. They crossed over the Tana rising sun for three days' journey from Tana North Wind for three days' journey from the Maiotian lake: and having arrived at the place where they are now settled, they took up their abode there: and from thenceforward the women of the Sauromatai practise their ancient way of living, going out regularly on horseback to the chase both in company with the men and apart from them, and going regularly to war, and wearing the same dress as the men. 117. And the Sauromatai make use of the Scythian tongue, speaking it barbarously however from the first, since the Amazons did not learn it thoroughly well. As regards marriages their rule is this, that no maiden is married until she has slain a man of their enemies; and some of them even grow old and die before they are married, because they are not able to fulfil the requirement of the law." {Link without Title} Legendary Amazons from Greek myth
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