Warrior women

• Myths about the Amazons depict them as a matriarchal society
• In Amazon society, women held all power and did jobs that, in Greece, were done by men including ruling, hunting and warfare
• Different stories provide different explanations for how Amazon society perpetuated itself
• Amazon society was very similar to Greek society, but with gender roles reversed - the men stayed in the home
• In some versions, the Amazon women would marry and have children with a husband
• In other stories, the Amazon warrior women would visit neighbouring tribes for the sole purpose of having sex in order to conceive children
• Any male children would be either exposed at birth, enslaved, or sent to live with their fathers
• The Amazons were thought to live on the eastern borders of the Greek world
• "Far far away" is a key part of how Greeks thought of the Amazons, since the Amazons were often used as a metaphor for otherness/foreigners
• The Greeks referred to all non-Greeks as barbarians
• Myths about the Amazons usually involve contrasting them with Greek society (e.g. by showing how they did not conform to Greek gender norms)
• By showing the Amazons as different (and most often as lesser than the Greeks), these stories suggest the superiority of Greek civilisation, and help to justify Greek patriarchy
• Amazons were incredibly popular subjects for ancient artists and writers
• There are more images of Amazons than almost any other mythological subject (The Amazons are the second most popular subject, only the hero Herakles has more pottery depicting him)
• These depictions were crafted by hundreds of different artists, and they were not all working together
• As a result, lots of the images disagree with one another
• Some show Amazons in armour, others show Amazons in short tunics
• Some show Amazons only fighting on horseback, others show them only fighting on foot
• Some show Amazons with one breast removed, others show them with two breasts exposed
• There was no one consistent way of depicting Amazons in the ancient world
• When looking at an ancient depiction of an Amazon, try not to expect to see anything. Try not to apply what you've learned about them from your teacher or the textbook
• Hippocrates Airs Waters Places

  The source states that Amazonian women had their right breast removed to strengthen their right arm for archery
• Wounded Amazon Sculpture


  • She is wearing revealing clothing, suggesting she is more concerned with war than modesty, which is different to the expectations of Athenian women
  • She has muscular and masculine facial features, focused on her war-like features rather than feminine attributes
• Oil flask featuring Amazon warrior

  • She is wearing trousers, suggesting she is more concerned with Greek fashion and is more like Eastern (Asian) women
• The Amazonomachy Frieze in the Temple of Apollo at Bassae is a relief sculpture running around the top of a temple, dated to c420-400 BCE, in the Classical style, originally located in the Temple of Apollo at Bassae and dedicated to praise Apollo for helping end a plague
• The Amazonomachy Frieze in the Temple of Apollo at Bassae vs. The Grave Stele of Ampharete


  Similarities: both depict women, both wearing Doric clothing. Differences: the Amazons are depicted as more muscular and masculine, focused on their warrior attributes, while Ampharete is depicted as more passive and nurturing, focused on caring for her baby
• Style of the Bassae Frieze

  • The Amazons are not dressed in armour, but in short tunics that would allow free movement on the battlefield
  • The fabric drapes over the figures of the Amazons, suggesting sturdy, muscular bodies and dynamic movement
  • The sculptors ensure the Amazons retain their femininity - their facial features are soft and feminine, their hairstyles are similar to Athenian housewives, and their breasts are visibly exposed
  • They are depicted as neither wholly masculine nor entirely feminine
• Amazonomachies in Greek myth always involve Greek men fighting against Amazons, with the Greek men always winning and the Amazons always losing, despite the Amazons fighting skillfully and with great bravery
• The Amazonomachy frieze at Delphi shows scenes from two different battles: the Trojan War and the Attic-Megarian War
• Amazonomachy myths were meant to keep women down - if Amazon women, who were highly trained and used to warfare, cannot beat Greek men, then what hope could Greek women have?
• Amazonomachy myths also reinforce the idea of Greek national superiority - Amazons represent all barbarian people and all ways of life that are non-Greek, and by showing them consistently losing to the Greeks, it suggests the superiority of the Greek way of life
• Penthesilea


  An Amazon queen, the daughter of the war god Ares and an Amazon queen named Otrera, who accidentally killed her sister and fought at Troy because she wanted to die a glorious death on the battlefield to gain kleos (eternal fame)
• Kleos


  The Greek concept of eternal fame, won through battle and heroic deeds
• Penthesilea's participation in the Trojan War can be seen as an act of suicide, motivated by intense grief over killing her sister
• Penthesilea got her wish - she died on the battlefield, killed by Achilles, which earned her great kleos and ended her grief
• Camilla


  An Italian warrior woman who appears in Virgil's Aeneid, raised in the forest by her father Metabus, who was a king, and the goddess Diana
• Camilla is one of Turnus' most important allies in his war against Aeneas in the Aeneid
• Virgil's Aeneid is an epic poem written in the first century BCE to praise Augustus and tell the story of the earliest history of the Roman people
• In the Aeneid, Aeneas leads a group of Trojan refugees across the Mediterranean Sea looking for a new home, with most of the gods trying to help him because it is his fate to found the Roman people
• Camilla appears twice in the Aeneid - in the catalogue of armies and on the battlefield fighting against Aeneas