The Amazons : lives and legends of warrior women across the ancient world

Amazons-fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world-were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians reveled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman general Pompey tangled with Amazons.But just who were these bold barbarian archers on horseback who gloried in fighting, hunting, and sexual freedom? Were Amazons real? In this deeply researched, wide-ranging, and lavishly illustrated book, National Book Award finalist Adrienne Mayor presents the Amazons as they have never been seen before. This is the first comprehensive account of warrior women in myth and history across the ancient world, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Great Wall of China.Mayor tells how amazing new archaeological discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons prove that women warriors were not merely figments of the Greek imagination. Combining classical myth and art, nomad traditions, and scientific archaeology, she reveals intimate, surprising details and original insights about the lives and legends of the women known as Amazons. Provocatively arguing that a timeless search for a balance between the sexes explains the allure of the Amazons, Mayor reminds us that there were as many Amazon love stories as there were war stories. The Greeks were not the only people enchanted by Amazons-Mayor shows that warlike women of nomadic cultures inspired exciting tales in ancient Egypt, Persia, India, Central Asia, and China.Driven by a detective's curiosity, Mayor unearths long-buried evidence and sifts fact from fiction to show how flesh-and-blood women of the Eurasian steppes were mythologized as Amazons, the equals of men. The result is likely to become a classic.… (more)

Media reviews

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

In this book Adrienne Mayor endeavors to demonstrate that the imaginary Amazons around which ancient Greeks constructed myths actually had contemporary counterparts: the historical “Amazon-like” Scythian warrior women of the nomadic horse-centered warrior cultures of the steppes of Eurasia that

stretch to western China.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member hailelib

The Amazons is a very detailed account of the myths, legends, and the historical facts behind those stories with myriad references to the writers of antiquity, Greek art, and the archaeological evidence that has been found in Asia from the Black Sea to China. While some of the stories were first

recorded more recently they are often based on older legends from the times of Herodotus, Alexander, etc. The burial sites of warrior women that have been excavated have been dated to those times as well. In fact, some ancient burial sites in the Scythian homelands that were assumed to be for male warriors have now been found to be women via DNA analysis. These women were buried with their armor, weapons, and horses just as the men were and show the same signs of battle injuries.

There were legends here that were new to me as well as a great deal of detail about the nomadic clans that gave rise to the stories that the Greeks based their ideas of Amazons on. One of the interesting things is that many of the customs have survived among people living in parts of countries like Kazakhstan in Central Asia. I would cautiously recommend this book but the text is over 400 dense pages and the long section on the archaeology can be a little dry and needs to be read in pieces to avoid a feeling of repetition. The photos, maps, cross referencing and analysis of the stories seem worth it however.

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LibraryThing member annbury

I learned one key thing from this book -- that far back into history and up to today, the women of the steppes had far more autonomy than European or Chinese women. The horse and the bow and arrow, central to steppe life and to steppe warfare, equalized differences between men and women, allowing

women to be more partners of men than their possessions. This is key when one considers gender issues. If women in one culture were far more equal to men than women in most cultures, what does this do to the assumption of innate gender differences.

In addition, I learned that, among the classical Greeks, there was widespread interest in Amazons. Amazons were featured much more prominently in classic Greek art than I had realized, there were many myths about Amazon, and there was also serious historical interest in the Amazons. This isn't as critical an insight as the one above, but it certainly affected my view of the role of Amazons in Greek thought.

Those are two plusses, and make the book worth reading, but be warned -- there are minuses as well. First, the book goes into way too much detail, listing grave sites and vase paintings that could far better have been summarized. Secondly, it spends way too much time on the "could it have been that --- " school of history, in which a lot of what is asserted about Amazons is based on fragmentary evidence at best. Finally, I listened to the audio book because I have vision problems: if you can, get a physical or Kindle copy. The illustrations in some cases sounded illuminating.

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