Heroes Fighting Amazons Options

[Eua1]

The Ninth Labor of Hercules

Several ancient authors tell stories of Greek heroes fighting Amazons. Apollodorus relates the following story about Hercules' ninth labor:
"Having put in at the harbor of Themiscyra, he received a visit from Hippolyte,
who inquired why he was come, and promised to give him the belt. But Hera in
the likeness of an Amazon went up and down the multitude saying that the
strangers who had arrived were carrying off the queen. So the Amazons in arms
charged on horseback down on the ship. But when Hercules saw them in arms,
he suspected treachery, and killing Hippolyte stripped her of her belt. And after fighting the rest he sailed away and touched at Troy."

Hercules (or Herakles, as he was known to the Greeks) was one of the most popular heroes of ancient times, and appears in the works of numerous authors and playwrights. The best ancient source for the life of Hercules is Apollodorus (also known as Pseudo-Apollodorus). As the illegitimate son of Zeus, his stepmother Hera hated him, and tormented him all his life. He is best known for his twelve labors which he performed as atonement for killing his children in a fit of madness caused by Hera. The number had originally been set at ten, but was extended to twelve by Eurystheus, the king who ordered the various labors by order of Apollo. After the labors had been completed, the hero went on to many other misadventures, frequently killing people in fits of rage and needing to atone for the crime. He also participated in several wars, debauched many maidens, and did his best to avoid the inevitable wrath of Hera.
Yet even a hero cannot live forever, and Hercules' end was as tortuous as befits a hero. A young woman he had been escorted mixed a potion she believed to be a love spell, but that was actually a poison. She spread this mixture on the inside of a cloak and gave it to Hercules. When the hero put on the cloak, it burned his skin, even after he removed it. He asked to be burned on a pyre to be put out of his misery, and at that moment of death, a cloud descended from Olympus and the hero finally attained immortality. According to legend, he even made peace with Hera and married her daughter Hebe, who bore him two sons.
The fight between Hercules and the Amazons is depicted frequently in ancient art.

Hercules is recognizable by the lion skin draped over his head, which he killed when he was eighteen years old, and by the club which he usually carries.
Hercules is perhaps the most well known Greek hero, not only in ancient times, but also in modern culture. Perhaps this is because of his many adventures, or perhaps because of the many trials he suffered before finally obtaining immortality. Regardless of the reason, it is significant that this most popular of heroes encountered the Amazons, a culture that most modern scholars do not believe existed. The Amazons were not a little known culture, but a society that was encountered by the most popular hero of Greek mythology. It is hard to believe that a group of people that were so well known, did exist. Some mythological peoples can be dismissed because they possessed supernatural or magical attributes. But this is not true of the Amazons; all that prohibits belief in these women is that they possessed physical skill and political independence equal to that of men.


Theseus and Antiope

Another mythical encounter with Amazons involved Theseus, king of Athens. There are several accounts of this event; however, all center around his abduction of an Amazon queen. Most ancient authors call this queen Antiope, although several refer to her as Hippolyte. Plutarch writes that she was abducted by Theseus and married him. He took her to Athens, but the Amazons followed and waged war upon the city. Eventually the combatants made peace, but ancient authors dispute what happened afterward. Some say that the queen was slain in battle, but other accounts claim that she lived on, and when Theseus took a second wife, Antiope and the Amazons again waged war on Athens, but this time were totally defeated. In Pausanias' Description of Greece, the tomb of Hippolyte is described, and he states that she was the sister of Antiope, not the wife of Theseus. The author Pseudo-Apollodorus also calls the abducted queen Antiope.
One subject all sources agree upon is that Antiope bore a son named Hippolytus, thus she is generally identified as Hippolyte by modern scholars. Their son is one of the main characters in a play by Euripides of the same name. In this play, Hippolytus is a grown man, dedicated to the virgin goddess Artemis, refusing to associate with mortal women. Because of his steadfast devotion to hunting, he earns the wrath of Aphrodite, and she seeks vengeance. Theseus' wife Phaedra falls in love with her stepson because of the goddess's scheming, and takes her own life rather than live dishonourably. However, she blames Hippolytus for her ardor, and leaves a suicide note for Theseus blaming Hippolytus for her death. In a rage, the king curses his son and exiles him, ignoring his pleas of innocence. Shortly afterwards, word arrives in Athens that the prince has been stampeded by his horses, and is on the brink of death. It is only at this point that Theseus regrets his sharp words and anger, when he sees the broken and bleeding body of his son. Artemis appears to him and reveals the truth of Phaedra's passion and its divine source. As Hippolytus dies, he forgives his father for his rash words, and the king is forced to live with the memory that he was the cause of his son's death.
One can see parallels between Hippolytus and his Amazonian mother. Much as the Amazons of legend were purported to hate men, Hippolytus has a similar attitude toward women. In one scene he goes on in great detail about the weakness of women and their uselessness, wishing that men could bear children on their own rather than having to rely upon women. Ironically, his mother and her fellow Amazons were able to do so--according to legend they only visited men for procreation, and killed or maimed any male children borne to them. Knowing the Greek legends about the Amazons, Hippolytus appears simply to be a male Amazon: he despises the opposite sex and enjoys only hunting and warfare. His fate shows that in a man this behavior is just as unusual as in a woman; as a result of the lack of balance in his life, he is punished and killed by Aphrodite.


Achilles and Penthesilea

Another Amazon mentioned in mythology is Penthesilea. According to legend, this daughter of Ares accidentally killed her sister Hippolyte while hunting, and went to Troy to seek absolution. This occurs at the time of the Trojan War, so she joins with the Trojans in their fight against the Greeks. When Achilles encounters her in battle, he kills her. However, after the fact, he falls in love with the dead Amazon, and kills another Greek soldier, Thersites, for jeering at Achilles for falling in love with her.
Angered by her "pride", Achilles speared Penthesilea, then dragged her off her horse. Only when he removed her helmet did the hero realize her beauty. This account is more descriptive of his anger when Thersites mocks him; according to a modern account, "With his bare fist he struck Thersites on the cheek so hard that his teeth flew out of his mouth, a stream of blood gushed from his throat, and he doubled up on the ground and breathed his last." This account claims that the body of the Amazon queen was burned before the walls of Troy by Priam, with the bodies of twelve other women who also died in battle.
However, what is meaningful is how the Amazon Penthesilea is depicted. Again, a strong woman unafraid of battle, men or death, is defeated by a Greek hero. More interestingly, after her death she is seen as a woman, not a warrior, and this is the point at which Achilles falls in love with her. In death, she is no longer threatening, but falls within the normal behavior patterns of women: she is silent and still, not upsetting the usual masculine order.

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i think Amazons feature a great deal of mystery during the whole of ancient greek mythology... they appear and reappear at times and yet there are never certain facts about them

[Eua1]

Wait a moment pleas........... we can' t say with certaincy that Amazons didn't ever exist.
There are many examples of independent women in several places of ancient Greece. Women that the male population admired and respected.Even in their religion there were godesses such as Artemis (goddess of the hunt and the wild) and Athena (the goddess of civilization, specifically wisdom, weaving, crafts and the allegedly more noble side of war, as violence and bloodlust were Ares's domain)
Other examples of such type of women areMinoan 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. Archaeological 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 the 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. 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 to 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 a male-dominated religion had already been enforced.

Spartan women: In ancient Sparta shortly after birth, the mother of the child bathed it in wine to see whether the child was strong. If the child survived it was brought before the elders of the tribe, by the child's father, who decided whether it was to be reared or not. If found defective or weak, the baby was left on the wild slopes of Mt Taygetos. In this way the Spartans attempted the maintenance of high physical standards in their population.It was customary in Sparta that before the males would go off to war, their wives or another female of some significance would present them with their shield and say: "Etan I Epitas" (Ηταν Η Επιτας) which translates to "With this or upon this." The idea was that a Spartan could only return to Sparta in one of two ways, victorious or dead. If a Spartan hoplite were to return to Sparta alive and without his shield, it was assumed that he threw his shield at the enemy in an effort to flee; an act punishable by death or banishment. Burials in Sparta were also considered an act of honor, marked headstones would only be granted to Spartan soldiers who died in combat during a victorious campaign (or females who died in service of a divine office or in childbirth

P.S: So, we could say that we have enough evidens about the existence of Amazons..........don' t mention Herodotus' manuscripts about the Amazon tribe.........

[Eua1]

The concept of women warriors is simultaneously fascinating and terrifying for those who are part of a patriarchal, male-dominated society. The novelty of the idea of women independent of men is alluring, but at the same time threatening to men accustomed to a position superior to women. Thus, despite ample evidence supporting the existence of women, it is only recently that scholars have begun to seriously consider who the Amazons really were, where they lived, and what their lives may have been like. Now that women are claiming status equal to men, and finally beginning to achieve that status, research into the existence of Amazons has increased. The results of that research, and the changing position of women in our own society, makes it seems more likely than ever that Amazons did, in fact, exist.

[Eua1]

The concept of women warriors is simultaneously fascinating and terrifying for those who are part of a patriarchal, male-dominated society. The novelty of the idea of women independent of men is alluring, but at the same time threatening to men accustomed to a position superior to women. Thus, despite ample evidence supporting the existence of women, it is only recently that scholars have begun to seriously consider who the Amazons really were, where they lived, and what their lives may have been like. Now that women are claiming status equal to men, and finally beginning to achieve that status, research into the existence of Amazons has increased. The results of that research, and the changing position of women in our own society, makes it seems more likely than ever that Amazons did, in fact, exist.