Thalestris

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The Amazons queen Thalestris in the camp of Alexander the Great (painting by Johann Georg Platzer , South Tyrol around 1750)

Thalestris ( ancient Greek Θάληστρις ) is the last Amazon queen who is mentioned by name. It is said to be in 330 BC. BC met the Macedonian king Alexander the great during his campaign in Asia. Modern researchers consistently consider her not a historical but rather an invented person.

Historical sources

The most important preserved ancient sources for the alleged meeting of Alexander the Great and Thalestris are the reports of the historians Diodor and Curtius Rufus as well as the excerpt of Justinus from the historical work of Pompeius Trogus .

The Greek historian Diodorus writes in the 1st century BC that at the time of the Alexander procession, the power of Queen Thalestris extended over the area between the rivers Phasis (today Rioni on the southwestern slope of the Caucasus Mountains ) and Thermodon . 330 BC During his campaign against the Persians , Alexander camped with his troops on the southern Caspian Sea in Hyrcania . Then Thalestris rode to his camp with part of their army, 300 fully armored Amazons . She explained to the king that she wanted to have a child from him. Since he had proven to be the greatest of all men and she herself was braver and stronger than any other woman, a child conceived by them together would surpass all mortals. Alexander would not have been averse to the request and decided to stop with his army for a few more days. After 13 days of intercourse he had given Thalestris a rich gift.

The Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus , who probably lived in the 1st century AD, mentions further details in his narration of this episode. For example, Thalestris told Alexander that she would keep a female child but send a male one to him. The Roman historian Justin , who lived in the 2nd or 3rd century, provides a similar account of history. None of the three writers give any information about the further life of the Amazon queen. In the Alexander novel by Pseudo-Callisthenes in the 3rd century, the figure of Thalestris does not appear.

Judgment on the historicity of Thalestris

Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons , visits Alexander (unknown, 1696)

The historicity of Thalestris was already controversial among ancient historians. Around 100 AD, the biographer Plutarch lists 14 authors who mentioned the Thalestris story. Some such as Kleitarchos or Onesikritos gave their faith, nine scribes considered the affair between Alexander the Great and Thalestris to be complete fiction (including Aristobulus, Ptolemaios, Chares of Mytilene and Duris of Samos ). Many years after the alleged encounter between the Macedonian king and Thalestris, the Greek historian Onesikritos stayed with Lysimachus , a participant in the Alexander procession who had been near Alexander at the time of this supposed episode. When Onesikritus read the appearance of the Amazon from the fourth book of his history, Lysimachus smiled and asked where he had been then; so he evidently knew nothing about the Amazon.

Around 150 AD, the Roman historian Arrian , who is considered very reliable , does not report anything about Thalestris, but states that, according to some reports, the Macedonian king only met 100 armed women riders, allegedly Amazons, six years later (i.e. 324 BC. ). These had been sent to him by the Medical Satrap Atropates . However, Alexander sent them away again to prevent the soldiers from violating them. Arrian emphasizes that the historians of Alexander, such as Aristobulus and Ptolemy, who are credible to him, did not mention this story, and he doubts that such a race of warlike women ever existed.

Modern science unanimously considers the Thalestris episode to be unhistorical. Perhaps the daughter of a Scythian king , whom Alexander - according to his own letter to Antipater - had been offered as wife, provided the impetus for this Amazon legend.

art

See also

literature

Fiction:

Web links

Commons : Thalestris  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to Iustinus ( Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi 2, 4, 33 and 12, 3, 5) Thalestris was also called Minythyia .
  2. ↑ Diodorus Siculus : Bibliotheca historica 17, 77, 1-3.
  3. ↑ Quintus Curtius Rufus : Historia Alexandri Magni 6, 5, 24-32.
  4. ↑ Marcus Iunianus Iustinus : Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi 12, 3, 5-7.
  5. ↑ Plutarch : Alexander 46, 1-2; see. Strabon , Geography 11, 5, 4 p. 505.
  6. ↑ Plutarch: Alexander 46, 4.
  7. ↑ Arrian : Anabasis 7, 13, 2-6. See also Siegfried Lauffer : Alexander the Great. 3. Edition. dtv, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-04298-2 , pp. 176-177 (first edition 1978).
  8. ↑ Plutarch: Alexander 46, 3.