Amazons

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Amazone type Sciarra , Antikensammlung Berlin

As Amazons ( ancient Greek Ἀμαζόνες Amazónes ) some peoples are called in Greek myths and legends , in which women went into battle "like men". Ancient authors locate Amazon peoples in different regions on the Black Sea : in or north of the Caucasus region , but especially in the northern Anatolian part of the Pontos region , where their capital, Themiskyra (on the Thermodon ) is said to have been. Amazons are also said to have lived in Caria and Lycia as well as in Libya . It is reported by Amazon queens and city ​​founders . Amazons are always described as normal mortals; they are often defeated in battles, and in places their graves are named.

Numerous works of Greek art are preferably placed on vases from around 550 BC. Chr. Amazons as daring fighters and cavalry warriors . In the 4th century BC. Representations of the "Amazon battle" (Amazonomachy) were popular. Two weapons are the representations of Amazons from the last third of the 5th century BC. Peculiar: the Labrys , a double ax also known as the Amazon ax, and the Pelte , a small, crescent-shaped shield. Their typical clothing consists of a short chiton , which often leaves the right breast uncovered.

origin of the name

The derivation of the name has been controversial since ancient times and is still unclear today. A number of ancient authors traced the Greek name “Amazon” back to a-mazos ( ἀμαζός “breastless”). The Amazons are said to have mutilated the right breasts of their little daughters so that they could later shoot the bow unhindered. However, in the Greek representations, Amazons were usually depicted with two breasts and, according to Philostratus , they were simply not suckled at the breast.

Other explanations derived the name from a-maza ( ἀμᾶζα " breadless "). The remark of Aeschylus fits in with this , who in his petitioners for protection refers to them as kreoboros ( κρεοβόρος “fed with meat”).

A derivation of zone ( ζώνη “belt” from ζώννυμι “ gürten ”) was also considered. Ama-zone therefore means "well-girded" and would have alluded to the costume of the Amazons, as it was also reflected in the myth of the robbery of Hippolyte's belt by Heracles . A combination of hama and zosai ( ἅμα ζῶσαι ) in the sense of “living together” was also considered.

Greek mythology, historiography and poetry

One of the oldest written works in Europe, the Iliad by the ancient poet Homer (probably 8th century BC), describes two events that occurred before the Trojan War and in which the Amazons appeared. Homer assumed that the myths about the Amazons were known, so they existed before his time:

  1. In connection with the Bellerophon myth, the Greek hero Bellerophon , grandfather of the brothers Glaukos and Sarpedon who fought in front of Troy, fought against Amazons among others during his stay in Lycia.
  2. Priam , King of Troy (Ilion), fought on the side of the Phrygians in his youth when they were attacked by the Amazons on the Sangarios River .
Map of the Caucasus Mountains with the settlement areas of Sarmatians and the Amazons at the top right (anonymous copper engraving from London, around 1770)
The Black Sea and Asia Minor

In the epic Aithiopis , which follows on from Homer's poems and the original of which probably comes from Arktinos of Miletus , but has not survived, the following event is reported: During the Trojan War, when the Amazons were no longer so powerful, they are supposed to be under their queen Penthesilea came to the aid of the Trojans and put the Greeks in dire straits. With great effort and the intervention of the hero Achilles, the Greeks triumphed. Penthesilea fell fighting the almost invulnerable Achilles.

The historian Herodotus wrote in the 5th century BC In his histories that the Sauromats (predecessors of the Sarmatians ) , who lived between the Caspian and Black Seas , arose from a mixture of Scythians and Amazons. From his point of view, Herodotus also described unusual customs of the Lycians who lived in southwest Asia Minor . The Lycians named themselves after their mothers in Herodotus' time, so they had a matrilineal rule of descent . In addition, the status of a child was determined by the reputation of its mother. If she was a citizen, her children automatically got civil rights as well, even if the father was a slave . If, on the other hand, their mother was not free, the children did not receive any civil rights either, even if the father was a respected citizen. This points to a high position of women in the part of Lycia that Herodotus traveled to. The maternal law regulations could have given Herodotus the idea that these were descendants of the mythical Amazons.

In an allegedly by the Athenian logographer Lysias at the beginning of the 4th century BC. It is said that the Amazons were once daughters of Ares, lived at the Thermodon and, in contrast to their neighboring peoples, already used iron weapons , written in the funeral oration for those who fell in the Corinthian War . The latter, as well as the fact that they were the first to ride horses, gave them advantages over their neighboring peoples, which they - coupled with the heroic courage with which they were like men - used to subjugate large areas. An attack on Athens, however, ended in defeat for the Amazons.

In the Argonauts legend , the oldest completely preserved version of Apollonios of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC. The Argonauts on the way to Colchis did not dare to dock at certain sections of the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor where the Amazons are said to have lived.

Amazon in trousers with shield and quiver (Attic alabastron , around 470 BC)

The historian Diodorus stayed in the 1st century BC. BC for a long time in Egypt. He wrote about the Amazons in Northwest Africa, who lived long before the Amazons of Asia Minor and who are said to have subjugated all of North Africa under their Queen Myrina . These Libyan Amazons were already mentioned by Herodotus. In a later section of his work, Diodorus failed to maintain the distinction between Asia Minor and Libyan Amazons. It is said to have been the Amazons of Asia Minor who attacked some islands in the Aegean and later besieged Athens.

The geographer and historian Strabo wrote towards the end of the 1st century BC. In his geography , the capital of the Amazons was Themiskyra on the Thermodon River in the Asia Minor part of the Pontos region. He doubts descriptions that the Amazons subjugated many peoples and even attacked Athens. Strabon also criticizes the fact that the old sources give no or only implausible information about where the Amazons moved after they were driven from the area around the Thermodon. He also doubts the reports that the Amazon queen Thalestris visited Alexander the Great because they contradicted each other about the origin of the Amazon queen and the "most credible" authors did not mention this legend. Elsewhere in his work, Strabo goes into detail on Amazons who are said to have lived in the northern Caucasus, according to older sources that Strabo quotes, north of the Caucasian Albanians or as neighbors of the Gargarians in Keraunia . The Amazons in this region lived among themselves for most of the year, farming, raising cattle and horses, hunting and doing war business. For two months in spring they met with the Gargarians on a mountain that separates the two areas, and fathered children with them in the dark. When all the Amazons were pregnant, they left the Gargans. The girls born from these connections raise the Amazons themselves, the boys hand them over to the Gargarians. According to unnamed sources on which Strabo relies, the Gargarians wandered into the area together with the Amazons from Themiskyra and then fell away from them. After waging war against each other for some time, they made peace with each other and agreed that both peoples should live for themselves and that children should only be fathered together. The area of ​​the Amazons described by Strabo was crossed by a river called Mermadalis, which flowed through other regions until it flowed into the Sea of ​​Azov .

The geographer Pomponius Mela reported around AD 44 that the Amazons lived beyond the coast of the Caspian Sea, where the Comars, Massagetes , Kadusians , Hyrcans and Iberians resided.

Greek stories also mention various islands on which women are said to have lived at times without men. There the women only have contact with men from neighboring settlements at certain times in order to be impregnated by them. These women's communities are not always referred to as Amazons . For example, the Mediterranean islands of Lesbos and Lemnos are said to have been such "women's islands " at times. It was said of the women of Lemnos that they rose up against their husbands and murdered them all at the same time in Lemnian outrage .

Heracles myth

Two Amazons fighting a Greek ( relief from Athens , 4th century BC)

In the Doric Heracles myth , the Amazon queen Hippolyte is slain by Heracles , who set out for the Amazon to obtain the queen's magic belt (or belt of arms). Although neither side had any warlike intentions, a misunderstanding led to the fight. In the course of this, Heracles killed the queen and other Amazons. In awe of the strong hero, the Amazons then handed the belt to Heracles. In another version, Heracles does not kill the queen, but exchanges her captured sister Melanippe for the belt.

Theseus myth

Battle between Greeks and Amazons ( relief on a sarcophagus from Thessaloniki , 2nd century AD)

In the Athenian Theseus myth , Hippolyte is kidnapped as part of a bride robbery by Theseus , the king of Athens , who takes her to Athens and makes her his wife there. (In some versions the kidnapped is called Antiope and is the sister of Hippolyte.) In revenge, the Amazons invade Greece, plunder some cities on the coast and besieged Athens. Hippolyte is killed during the fighting.

City founders

There are a number of founding myths in which the Amazons play a role: They founded the cities of Kyme and Myrine in the Aiolis . The Amazon Smyrna founded the city of the same name (today Izmir ) on the coast of Asia Minor and the Amazon Anaia founded her city about 100 kilometers south, near the present-day Turkish coastal city of Kuşadası . The nearby temple of Artemis in Ephesus is said to have originally been built by the Amazon queen Otrere . The Amazon Kleite, wet nurse and maid of Penthesilea, is said to have founded a town of the same name in Bruttium (today's Calabria ), probably near today's municipality of Cleto . Whether this legend can be linked to the mythical founding of Kaulon , as is often assumed - according to tradition, Kleite was the mother of the founder Kaulos - is debatable. The Greek colony of Sinope on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor is said to have been named after a variant of the legend that goes back to Andron von Teos (late 4th century BC) after an Amazon named Sanape who was addicted to alcoholism.

It was common in antiquity to choose significant gods, persons, groups or peoples from the world of myths as ancestors in order to increase one's own importance ( myths of origin ). Such " fictitious " family trees ( genealogies ) referred to an older past than what was actually the case, without coming into conflict with actual historical persons or ethnic groups.

Amazon queens

Various narratives explicitly mention Amazons as queens of their people, even as a ruling dynasty ; they rule without a male companion and appear in the company of their female warriors. The most famous Amazon queens are:

  • Otrere , lover of the Olympian god of war Ares , of whom he was the mother of Hippolyte and Penthesileia, built the temple of Artemis in Ephesus
  • Hippolyte , daughter of Otrere and Ares, part of the Theseus and Heracles myths, Antiope is her sister there and Alcippe , the only mentioned Amazon with a sworn chastity oath , belongs to her entourage
  • Penthesilea , kills her sister Hippolyte in a hunting accident, comes to the aid of the hard-pressed Trojans with her warriors, is defeated by Achilles , who falls in love with the dying woman
  • Myrina , leader of a military expedition in Libya , defeats the Atlanteans, forges an alliance with the ruler of Egypt and conquers other cities and islands
  • Thalestris , the last named Amazon queen, meets 330 BC. Some legends after the Greek conqueror Alexander the great; its area lies on the Thermodon , according to other versions, on the Caspian Gate, south of the Caspian Sea.

Roman and ancient Egyptian tales

Fighting Amazon (floor mosaic from Daphne , present-day Turkey, 4th century)
Battle of the Amazon (Amazonomachy) on a Roman stone coffin (around 200 AD)

Fights between Amazons and Greeks were a popular motif on Roman sarcophagi in the imperial era and late antiquity . The poet Virgil mentioned the Amazons and their queen Penthesilea around 20 BC. In his epic Aeneid . The biographer Suetonius had Gaius Iulius Caesar say in his imperial servants around 110 AD that the Amazons "once ruled a large part of Asia".

The ancient Egyptian story Egyptians and Amazons has been preserved on papyrus as an entertainment novel in two fragmentary versions from Roman times . The story is about historical people from the 7th century BC. Chr .: The Egyptian prince Petechonsis led a war campaign together with Assyrian troops in the "land of women", which was in the Middle East and is said to have reached as far as the borders of India . Petechonsis initially fought the Amazons there, but then fell in love with her Queen Sarpot and supported her in an alliance against the invading Indian army. This story is said to have originated in Egypt independently of Greek influences.

Theories on Amazon Peoples

In order to be able to identify a real core in the Amazon myths, detailed contemporary written sources are missing. Homer only mentions the Amazons in a few sentences; Assyrian sources provide no references to Amazons.

Hittites

This article or section needs to be revised: obviously a lot of editing has been done so that the original - certainly not perfect - statements are no longer correct; Evidence from Leonhard's work and the criticism would also be desirable. Since Northeast Anatolia and Hittite sources are dealt with, one could perhaps also mention the theses of Cornelius in this section.
Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

In 1911 Walther Leonhard put forward the thesis that the Amazons should be equated with the Hittites in Anatolia , since women were legally equal to men, which is very unusual for Indo-European peoples . With this equation he wanted to solve two problems: On the one hand, the Hittites were a powerful real people, which, however, is not mentioned in Greek sources - on the other hand, the Amazons played a major role in the literature and art of the Greeks, but are neither archaeological nor contemporary, for example traceable to Hittite or Assyrian sources.

The main argument against equating the Amazons with the Hittites is that the core area of ​​the Hittites was in central Anatolia and not in the Pontos region on the Black Sea. In addition, there is evidence that Hittite women did not go into battle. Leonhard's theory is therefore not tenable. In addition, there are no references to Amazons or female warriors in the original Hittite texts from the archives of their capital Hattuša and the port city of Ugarit . These texts are, however, in the 15th to 13th centuries BC. Dated to the time when most Greek myths are likely to take place. Hittite texts, however, usually contain only a few - e.g. B. Relevant for contracts or annals - information on the customs and social structures of neighboring peoples. The geopolitical situation in Asia Minor is still uncertain based on the Hittite sources, especially for the north-west and north-east of Anatolia.

Matriarchal peoples in Asia Minor

This article or section needs revision: Where on the Black Sea coast did Milesian colonists meet peoples of matrilineal succession? Please prove!
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Some researchers assume that the Amazon myths are based on memories of earlier events in which Greeks in Asia Minor met peoples organized by motherhood and ruled by women and were involved in battles. Such contacts must have taken place before the 8th century BC, since the poet Homer was already familiar with earlier stories about Amazons at that time. From the last third of the 7th century BC at the latest. The Black Sea coast of Asia Minor was settled by the Greeks , and they also met older peoples who regulated their succession via mothers to daughters ( matri- linearity ) and where the family residence was with the woman ( matri- locality ).

Archaeological finds

Georgia

Mounted Amazon in Scythian costume ( red-figure vase painting, around 420 BC)

In 1927, in Semo-Avtschala, near Tbilisi in Georgia , the grave of a 30 to 40-year-old woman was discovered, which, among other grave goods, contained a bronze sword, a spearhead made of iron and the remains of a horse's head. Since the skull of the deceased showed traces of a severe blow or stab injury (which the woman apparently had initially survived), the grave of a warrior is assumed, who possibly also fought on horseback. The grave is dated to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. And would be the oldest known grave of a female warrior. Since the site south of the Caucasus is only a few hundred kilometers away from the alleged heartland of the Amazons of Greek myths, there could be a connection with these.

Southern Russia and Ukraine

Wounded Amazon , Roman copy after a Greek original from the 5th century BC Chr.

It is believed that the real models for the Amazons among the Greeks were Scythians and Sarmatians .

The anthropologist David W. Anthony wrote in 2007 that around 20 percent of the Scythian or Sarmatian "warrior graves" on the lower Don and the lower Volga contained female skeletons whose clothing corresponded to the male warriors.

The Russian archaeologist Leonid Jablonskij and the American archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball were able to prove that it was between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC. There were peoples in southern Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in which women held a high social position and fought with weapons. In southern Russia and the Ukraine they found numerous kurgan of Scythian and Sarmatian women who were buried with weapons and armor. An important site is a necropolis near Pokrovka , southwest of Sol-Ilezk on the Ilek . Between about 600 and 300 BC BC more weapons were added to the female graves than to the male graves. In the last third of the occupancy phase, the burial city was used by Sarmatians. Some weapons show signs of use, so they have probably been used. The necropolis in Pokrovka is probably the graves of the Sauromats mentioned by Herodotus .

In other graves, 2500-year-old women's skeletons were discovered that were anatomically abnormal. Her thighbones were bent and her tailbones upset, so they had probably ridden a lot from a young age; War injuries were not detected on the skeletons. Weapons were found among the grave goods. In one grave there were not only pieces of jewelry such as dozens of gold pearls, gold brooches and an earring, but also more than 110 arrowheads; the number of spikes suggests that the dead woman was a warrior on horseback.

Davis-Kimball introduced the Amazons as a motif in Greek vase painting from the 6th century BC. In connection with the fact that the Greeks learned about the Scythians and Sarmatians at that time. Therefore, the Amazons were represented similarly to the Scythians (or Parthians ), but therefore do not have to be identical with them. It was customary in Greek art to depict ancient or mythical peoples as contemporary peoples from roughly the same area were dressed and armed.

Ethnological and genetic studies by Davis-Kimball have shown that the traces of the Amazons can possibly be traced as far as Mongolia , where, according to Davis-Kimball's research, there are said to be genetic descendants of the Sarmatians and Scythians.

Modern reception

The great South American Amazon River is said to have been named by European explorers after the Amazon people there (see name of the Amazon ).

From the Amazons as skilful riders, Amazon jumping is derived as an equestrian sport of show jumpers; Participants in these show jumping competitions, which are reserved for women only, are called Amazons (see also the Berlin bronze statue Amazon on Horseback and the Amazon on Horseback on Museum Island).

The honorary title Amazons for women is derived from the courageous female warriors , who militantly and confidently stand up for their affairs or who stood up in earlier times, sometimes as leaders (see also Gaddafi's Amazon Guard ).

Derived from the legends about women's rule, the term Amazons is also transferred to social groups , organizations or societies in which only women participate or in which women have sole decision-making power (see matrifocality , matriarchy , gynocentrism ).

Amazone in front of the Villa Stuck in Munich (created in 1913 on behalf of the Kölner Kunstverein; replica from 1936)

In National Socialist Germany, the open-air revue Nacht der Amazons was staged in Munich between 1936 and 1939 , in which an apparently emancipated image of women was presented as the female part of the " New Race " aimed at by National Socialist racial madness .

The Amazons also found their way into the visual arts of the 20th century. The feminist artist Judy Chicago made their role in the history of women clear: in her art installation The Dinner Party from the late 1970s, she dedicated one of the 39 place settings at the table to the Amazons.

The US comics for Wonder Woman ( DC Comics ) are about an Amazon Diana . In the film version Wonder Woman (2017), which takes place towards the end of the First World War , Gal Gadot portrays the immortal Amazon princess and daughter of Queen Hippolita .

See also

Exhibitions

Documentaries

literature

By release date:

Retelling:

Web links

Commons : Amazons of Greek Mythology  - Collection of Images
Wiktionary: Amazone  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • Photo archive: Gods & Myths: Amazons. In: Warburg Institute Iconographic Database . University of London, 2013, accessed September 28, 2018 (English, over 200 photos of depictions of Amazons in art).
  • Carlos Parada, Maicar Förlag: Amazons. In: Greek Mythology Link. 1997, accessed on September 28, 2018 (English, detailed, well-illustrated listing).
  • Jeannine Davis-Kimball : Statues of Sauromatian and Sarmatian Women. In: Center for the Study of the Eurasian Nomads (CSEN). USA, 2001, accessed on September 28, 2018 (English, archaeological illustrated listing).
  • Jennifer Taylor: The Amazons: Introduction. (No longer available online.) In: Ancient Greek Civilizations. Minnesota State University, Mankato, 1999, archived from the original on June 3, 2010 ; accessed on September 28, 2018 (English, prepared for the conference "Warrior Women of Ancient Greece: Myth or Reality?").
  • Adam Olearius (1656): From Tagesthan of a Tartar landscape and from the Amazons. (= 6th book, 12th chapter of Vermehre Newe Description of the Muscowitischen and Persischen Reyse: This happened by the occasion of a Holstein embassy to the Russian Tsar and King in Persia. ) Wolfenbütteler Digitale Bibliothek (WDB).

Remarks

  1. ↑ First described in this way in Homer , Ilias 3, 189: ἀντιάνειραι , “grown to men”.
  2. ^ A b Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer : The Amazons on Greek coins. In: Hans von Fritze, Hugo Gaebler (ed.): Nomisma. Investigations in the field of ancient coinage. Volume 1, Olms, Darmstadt 1974, ISBN 3-487-05385-3 , pp. 1–18, here pp. 17–18 (new edition, first published in 1907): “[…] the shield peculiar to the Amazons, the Pelta [… ] As can be seen from this compilation of the Amazon types on coins, those of the Aeolian - Ionian cities, all of which derived their names from Amazons, form the most distinguished group. They are Pitane, Kyma, Myrina, Aigai, Ephesus and Smyrna, to which Phocaia comes. Of these, Kyme is the only one who had the image of the eponymous Amazon as early as the Hellenistic period, and Smyrna the one who varied the type most frequently in almost uninterrupted succession from the time of Domitian to Gallienus . […] Of the usual characteristics of the Amazons, the short chiton that leaves the right breast bare, the double ax and pelta […] The tower crown […] was the constant headdress of the Amazons in Roman times; he does not identify the wearer as the city goddess, but as the representative of the city [...] ”.
  3. ↑ In detail about the numerous hypotheses on etymology: Josine H. Blok: The Early Amazons. Modern & Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth. Brill, Leiden 1994, pp. 21-37.
  4. ↑ First documented in Hellanikos von Lesbos , FGrHist 4 F 107.
  5. ↑ Scholion and Eustathios to Homer, Iliad 3,189; Diodorus 2.45; Iustin 2,4,5; Library of Apollodorus 2,5,9.
  6. ↑ Philostratus, Heroicus 20:42.
  7. ↑ Ailios Herodianos 1.28 (Edition Lentz).
  8. ↑ Isidor , origines 9,2,64; Themistagoras from John Anthony Cramer : Anecdota Graeca e codicibus manuscriptis bibliothecarum Oxoniensium descripta. Volume 1. 1835, p. 80 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ). Josine H. Blok: The Early Amazons. Modern & Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth. Brill, Leiden 1994, p. 23 f. with note 6 on the relation of the ζωστήρ to the Herakles myth. See on this and the use of ζωστήρ for the belt of Hippolyte also Adolf Klügmann: The Amazons in Attic literature and art. Stuttgart 1875, p. 13 f. ( Text archive - Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Servius , Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 1,490.
  10. ↑ Homer : Iliad . Book 6, verse 186 ( online at Projekt Gutenberg-DE ).
  11. ↑ Homer: Iliad. Book 3, verse 184 ( online at Projekt Gutenberg-DE ).
  12. ↑ Karl Kerényi : The mythology of the Greeks. Volume 2: The Heroes Stories. dtv, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-423-01346-X , pp. 273-274.
  13. ↑ Herodotus : Histories . Book 4, verses 21-117.
  14. ↑ Herodotus: Histories. Book 1, verse 173.
  15. ↑ Lysias 2: 4-7.
  16. ↑ Diodorus Siculus : Book 3, verses 52–56 ( myrine.at ).
  17. ↑ Strabo, Geography 11,5,4.
  18. ^ Strabo, Geography 11, 5, 4.
  19. ↑ Strabo, Geography 11,5,1.
  20. ^ Strabo, Geography 11,5,2.
  21. ↑ Strabo, Geography 11,5,3.
  22. ↑ ibid
  23. ↑ Mela, Chorographia 1:12.
  24. ↑ Karl Kerényi: The mythology of the Greeks. Volume 2: The Heroes Stories. dtv, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-423-01346-X , pp. 202-203.
  25. ↑ Karl Kerényi: The mythology of the Greeks. Volume 2: The Heroes Stories. dtv, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-423-01346-X , pp. 130-131.
  26. ↑ Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll: The legends of classic antiquity. Tales from the old world. Teubner, Leipzig 1868, pp. 124–125 ( side view in the Google book search).
  27. ↑ for the first time in Lykophron, Alexandra 992-1007.
  28. ↑ In detail on this question and on Kleite: Luisa Moscati-Castelnuovo: From East to West. The Eponymous Amazon Cleta. In: Gocha R. Tsetskhladze (ed.): Ancient Greeks West & East. Brill, Leiden 1999, pp. 163-178.
  29. ↑ On Sanape see Otto Höfer . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 308, Leipzig 308 ( [308 digitized] ) .; otherwise in detail: David Braud: Myth and Ritual at Sinope. From Diogenes the Cynic to Sanape the Amazon. , in: Dominique Kassab Tezgör (Ed.): Sinope, The Results of Fifteen Years of Research. Proceedings of the International Symposium, May 7-9, 2009. Brill, Leiden - Boston 2012, pp. 11-23 (with reference to, inter alia, Amazon rituals in Sinope, which are not directly substantiated, however); for a late emergence of the myth: Askold I. Ivantchik: The foundation of Sinope and the problems of the initial phase of the Greek colonization of the Black Sea area. in: Gocha R. Tsetskhladze (Ed.): The Greek colonization of the Black Sea area. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, pp. 299-305.
  30. ↑ Strabo, Geography 11,5,4.
  31. ↑ In addition Christian Russenberger : Death and the girls. Amazons on Roman sarcophagi. (= Image & Context. Volume 13). De Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-029839-0 (also dissertation, University of Zurich 2010).
  32. ↑ Virgil : Aeneid. Book 1, verses 490–493 (translation by Edith and Gerhard Binder): “The march of the Amazons […] is led by the raging Penthesilea, blazing in the midst of thousands; [...] a warrior, and the virgin dares to compete with men in battle. "
  33. ^ Suetonius, Divus Iulius 22.2.
  34. ↑ Friedhelm Hoffmann , Joachim Friedrich Quack : Anthology of demotic literature (= introductions and source texts for Egyptology. Volume 4). Lit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-8258-0762-2 , pp. 9-10 and 107.
  35. ↑ Walther Leonhard: Hittites and Amazons. The Greek tradition about the “Chatti” and an attempt to use it historically. Teubner, Leipzig 1911.
  36. ↑ For example Eduard Meyer : History of antiquity. Volume 1.1: Introduction. Elements of anthropology. 1884, Chapter 20: The Women and Children. The Council of the Elders. Social structure. ( Reprinted from 1965 on zeno.org): “Warlike organizations of women are handed down from antiquity [...] Similar customs must have occurred in Asia Minor in ancient times and the reason for the local Amazon sagas as well as the saga of the battle with Athens have given."
  37. ↑ To the oldest finds in the Milesian colony of Sinope, which date back to 631 BC. Approximately confirm see: Ekrem Akurgal - Ludwig Budde : Preliminary report on the excavations in Sinope. Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, Ankara 1956.
  38. ↑ a b Historical Museum of the Palatinate (ed.): Amazons. Mysterious warriors. Book accompanying the exhibition Speyer 2010/11. Munich 2010, p. 11.
  39. ^ David W. Anthony: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2007, ISBN 0-691-05887-3 , p. 329 ( view of quotations in Google book search).
  40. ^ Components of the Dinner Party. Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York, Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  41. ^ On the exhibition in Speyer 2010–2011: Museum Info ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); Review in the Badische Zeitung ; Historical Museum of the Palatinate (ed.): Amazons. Mysterious warriors. Book accompanying the exhibition Speyer 2010/11. Minerva, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-938832-62-2 .