The ancient Greeks had many tales about heroes and beasts, gods and goddesses, and wars with various tribes. One of those tribes was a nation of women warriors called the Amazons. They were said to fight, dress, and ride horses as well as any man. It was also said that they lived in a totally female dominated society and raided neighboring tribes of men in order to mate once a year. According to the legends, any male children born from those unions were either turned over to the men or were killed outright, while the female children were raised to fight and ride horses.
In artwork of the age, many depictions of Amazons show them using very distinctive weapons, such as a double-axe. The double-axe was a long handled weapon with two blades, one on either side. On the sarcophagus of a tomb found on the isle of Crete, there is a painting of a funeral procession where priestesses lead a ritual that involves pouring out libations in front of an alter sitting between two double-axes.
Another weapon that seems to be a favorite of the Amazons, was the bow and arrow. Many pottery images show the Amazon women with these weapons either in their hands ready for use, or slung over the shoulder. Many legends of these women claimed that each would remove a breast in order to be able to shoot better. It was thought that young girls would have a breast seared off, so that it never would grow in the first place.
A final piece that the Amazons were thought to take into battle with them was a crescent shaped shield called a Pelta. Hundreds of vases found throughout the Mediterranean show these fighting women with their oddly shaped shields, attacking famous heroes like Hercules and Theseus. According to the depictions, each shield could nearly cover an Amazon completely, while allowing her to strike from the notched section of her Pelta.
Pottery shards also show many of these women wearing the normal attire of a Greek warrior, including feathered helmet. However, there are a few that show them wearing a highly decorated suit, complete with pants, long-sleeved shirts and boots. Most of the women in this attire were on horseback. The Greeks saw these women as expert riders and claimed that they even raised their own horses.
For centuries, these stories were thought of as pure fantasy, with no basis in fact. That is until Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball discovered the graves of some 40 women in the Russian steppes in 1994. The tombs, or Kurgans, contained the remains of men, women, and children, but the interesting thing was what was found with the women.
Nearly all the women had weapons of war buried along with them. Swords, bronze arrow heads, and small daggers lie next to the skeletons, all showing signs of use. The skeleton of a girl, aged about 13 or 14, showed signs of bowed legs due to prolonged exposure to horse riding.
This evidence strongly suggests that there were warrior women in the ancient past, but were these the bones of actual Amazons? Though there is no real proof either way, it does show these people’s women held a high place in their societies. However, it also shows a society made up of both sexes, that lived together.
One thing that has been proven is that not all ancient women were meek, living a purely domesticated life. The idea of a female warrior shooting arrows from the back of a galloping steed have emerged from the mists of legends and into the annals of history.
