3/24 Amazons: Warrior Women of Greek Myth

Lecture story

what is the myth of the willing sailors?

• a group of sailors were sailing back to Greece on a business trip on the Black sea

• the bad storm pushes the ship off rail and pushes them into a strange river that is far from Greece

• they went to places they had never been before

• the storm stopped, and they got off a river bank of a strange island

• they heard horses and women screaming… they were the Amazons

• the Amazons took them, imprisoned them, and fattened them up to trade them cannaballistically

• one of the younger ones like the Greek, and convinced her older sister to let them free

• they got let free, but the Greek ended up liking living with the Amazons, so when given the chance to go back to Greece, they wanted to stay instead. they even adopted their language and their lifestyle

The Amazons: historical background

what were their standard features?

• tribes of women, no men unless prisoners or used for sex

• “queens”

  • female chief

  • there is a number of queens among them

• horse-riding

• warriors

• always associated geographically at the Scythians

• wears garments that cover legs (trousers) and arms like a onesie, which differentiate them from greek men and women

The Amazons: historical background

who were the Scythians?

• eastern europe to central asian

• nomatic cultures

  • everyone pitches in and helps

• gender division?

  • not like Greek where women were associated with domestic life, while men weren’t

The Amazons: historical background

what is the stereotype?

to the greeks, if a social organization where the women are in power, then they automatically and passionately hate men

Amazons in Greek Myth

what were greek beliefs?

• meaning of Amazons sounded like “un-breast” which is mysterious because they did not cut off their breasts

• man-hating/man-killing

• childbirth

  • Amazon women would capture men, use their bodies for sex, and would cast them away after they get impregnated

  • if they gave birth to a male child, they would expose it

Amazons in Greek Myth

what were the mythic patterns? what emotions were associated with the Amazons?

• mythic pattern of war or love

• there was fear of fascination

  • although they are scary since they led a war on the Athenians, there is a sense of fascination about them

Amazons in Greek Myth

what is the sequel of the willing sailors?

• after the men have lived with the Amazons, the Amazons decided to go on an expedition to find the island where the bones of Achilles were

  • they ordered the men to go to the island and find the bones

  • the ghost of Achilles protected his bones by killing the men and sinking the Amazons’ ship

Theseus and Antiope

who is Antiope?

• an Amazon woman

• “opposing/matching gaze” because she is confident enough to look other warriors in the eye and face them

• she is the sister of Hippolyte

  • sometimes, she is called Hippolyte

Theseus and Antiope

how did they meet? what is the mythic variant?

• Theseus was with Herakles on his ninth labor to get the belt from an Amazon queen, Hippolyte

  • at first, Herakles and Hippolyte was getting along, and when she was gonna give him the belt, Hera inspired animosity between them and Herakles kills her

  • Theseus kidnaps Antiope

• Mythic variant → due to Theseus’ courageousness, he was given Antiope as a reward

  • this tried to make Theseus seem like a better hero than he actually was

Theseus and Antiope

Antiope and Theseus marries. What happens?

• Antiope goes to Athens

• they have a child together named Hippolytus

  • he grows up to embrace his mom’s culture, and is distant/uncomfortable with the Greek lifestyle

• war is coming because there is news that the Amazons is leading a war against the Athenians

The Amazons’ War on Athens

is it a real historical event?

• unclear but interesting because there are so many monuments in ancient Athens that attest to this event

• so in the greek mind, this event occured

The Amazons’ War on Athens

what were the events of the war?

• Amazons camped close to the city with tents

• there was fear on both sides

• it lasted for four months and there were significant losses on both sides

• they made a treaty and the Amazons retreated

The Amazons’ War on Athens

how was Antiope during the war?

• different mythic variants

  • secretly helping the Amazons in resentment of getting kidnapped

  • betrayed the Amazons and fought alongside the Greek

  • since Antiope was from both sides, she was the reason why a treaty occurred

The Amazons’ War on Athens

What happens after the war?

• Theseus abandons Antiope and marries again to Phaedra (sister of Ariadne)

  • the form of the two created an alliance with Crete

The Amazons’ War on Athens

What happened to Hippolytus?

• half-Amazon, an outsider

• he rejects love and mixis, so Aphrodite curses him

• the curse is that his stepmom, Phaedra would fall in love with him

• Phaedra ends up hanging herself out of love sickness, but before she died, she wrote on a tablet that Hippolytus tried to rape her

• Theseus got so angry that he prays to Poseidon to summon another bull from the ocean

• the bull tears Hippolytus apart

• another variant is that he was in a chariot and the horses were so spooked that he fell under the horses and got trampled to death

The Amazons’ War on Athens

how did Antiope die?

• many mythic variants

  • killed accidentally in the battle between Athens and Amazons

  • Theseus stabbed her with his sword after the war so that he can marry his next wife, Phaedra