Their tales were used to contrast the natural values 5th century BC Athens allegedly carried. In the minds of the ancient Greeks, they never questioned whether the Amazons truly existed. The Motives to the Myths About the Amazons However, in the twentieth century, Russian archaeologists began to re-examine their existence when excavations of Scythian kurgans (Scythian burial mounds) revealed startling finds. Their legends and history challenged the male-dominated establishment and planted seeds of rebellion in the minds of their women. With such fantastic tales retold throughout the ages, it is understandable why most people assumed the Amazons never existed.
Women gladiators were be given the names of famous Greek Amazon queens and fought in hand-to-hand combat to the first cut. In ancient Rome, the mythical stories about ‘Amazons’ was re-enacted in the gladiatorial arena. Another story mentioned the ill-fated marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta, resulting in one of the earliest perspectives to the traumas that parent separations may bring on their children. In Hercules’s ninth labor, he was tasked by Eurystheus to steal the belt (or girdle) from an Amazon queen.
They appeared fighting against Achilles on the side of Troy. In the Greek myths, Homer first mentioned their existence in the Iliad. However, the question remains: Who were they really? In every myth, whether they be Persian, Greek, or Scythian, the Amazons remained consistent in their descriptions: They rode horses, shot arrows, were uneasy around boats, and even wore pants. Their territory ranged from the slopes of the Caucasus mountains between the eastern end of the Black Sea and all the way to the vast Eurasian steppes. The Amazons are believed to have been the descendants of the nomadic ancient Scythians and Sarmatian people. For centuries, they were dismissed as mere legend, but in the last decades, detailed investigations have revealed that the Amazons were very real, and they were a fearsome force to be reckoned with. Though in today’s world, the name ‘Amazon’ is strongly associated with Jeff Bezos’s mighty online delivery empire it still carries a heavy association with these gender-role breaking, fist fighting, sword swinging, arrow shooting, single-breasted warrior woman of antiquity. Famous ancient Greek historian Herodotus once wrote of the Amazons - or as he called them Oier Pata (‘Killers of Men’) – a tribe of fierce warrior women.