Amazons - The Most Feared Warrior Women of Greek Mythology (Greek Mythology Explained)

[Music] in greek mythology we see warriors everywhere whether it's a god demigod hero or even just a well-trained immortal there is no shortage of conflict and war so it's not really a surprise that there are so many tales of brave warriors outside of athena and a few other examples these figures are almost exclusively male there was a tribe however that consisted of nothing but female warriors who were given their own island out of fear with this tribe we certainly have a unique and interesting story and that is why today we are looking at the amazons greek mythology's most feared female warriors so oh [Music] so who were these mysterious women where did they come from and where in greek mythology did they appear the majority of greek scholars seem to agree that this tribe descended from the god aries and a nymph named harmonia one of the most famous pieces of work detailing this would be the argonautica the story of jason and the argonauts as told by a polyneus he portrays them as brutal and aggressive their only concern is war as that is what they were bred for it's not often we see women in greek mythology portrayed in this way even if we take the most famous example of athena although she is a goddess associated with war and took part in many battles that is only one side of her she's also creative strategic and calculated she's not particularly aggressive or brutal so if athena represented strategic warfare then ares is the other side of the coin he represents the more physical aggressive and gritty part of war much of the time he's driven by blood thirst and raw emotion everything athena is not when you take the nature and temperament of their father into consideration the way these women are portrayed is no longer a surprise it's what you would expect the home of the amazons is something that differs drastically depending on your source if we go with the argonautica jason and the argonauts came across a port that belonged to the amazons just off the river thermadon which would place them around modern-day turkey here they had a capital city known as the miscrea which heracles visited during his 12 labors some believe they instead migrated from libya and others placed them much further north around ukraine and russia regardless of the location it's always isolated and just outside of what the ancient greeks considered the civilized world which fits their wild and unpredictable nature men were not allowed to live on this island and for the most part they lived completely isolated from the male populace except when it came to reproduction and war when it came to keeping the tribe populated once a year they would visit a nearby all-male warrior tribe known as the gargarians when the children were born if they were male then they would be sent to the gargarians if they were female then they would be raised by the amazons in the miscrea there is also a story that states the two tribes once lived in the miscrea together but after war broke out they agreed to go their separate ways only concerning each other with matters of reproduction in the same way we've grown accustomed to the spartan way of life being that of a warrior the amazons raised their children in the same vein this upbringing would not have been for the weak hearted they were so committed to this way of life that they would even go as far as searing the breasts of newborn children giving them a wider range of motion making using a bow and throwing a javelin much easier over the years the amazons had many different queens one of the main issues of going to war so often is that the chances of your leader being killed in battle are greatly increased and so there would always have to be someone ready to step up and assume the mantle of queen as we've already mentioned the argonautica and the labors of heracles maybe we should start with those stories first jason and the argonauts didn't really have much interaction with the amazons themselves as they journeyed through the black sea in their quest to find the golden fleece they stopped off at a port to rest when they found out that they had docked in amazon territory they quickly fled and set sail luckily for them this went unnoticed as the amazons were still dealing with the aftermath of heracles visiting their city for his ninth labor heracles was told to travel to the miscrea and retrieve a magical girdle given to the then amazon queen hippolyta by her father aerys a task that would not be easy to fulfill without bloodshed this was then made even harder when the goddess hera disguised herself as one of the amazons and started spreading rumors that heracles was there to kidnap their queen when heracles and his men arrived on their shores they were attacked immediately and so with the option of diplomacy no longer available heracles killed hippolyta took the belt and sailed away leaving the amazons to find a new leader in an alternative version to this story heracles and hippolyta came to a peaceful agreement regarding the girdle you'd imagine heracles being a big strong warrior would have meant there was some kind of mutual respect between the two unhappy with how successful these negotiations were the goddess hera would once again intervene spreading rumors that these guests were here to kidnap hippolyta and the rest of this story plays out the same way as the first there is much more to hippolyta though than just this story some say that when the hero theseus visited her kingdom she fell in love and agreed to leave her people behind travelled to athens got married and bore his child making her the first and only amazon to wed this angered the rest of the amazons enough for them to declare war on athens in what is referred to as the attic war in other renditions theseus changed his mind and chose to marry the cretian princess phaedra hippolyta incense then rallied the amazons and attacked athens during their wedding ceremony in this battle hippolyta once again dies either at the hands of theseus achilles or accidentally by her own sister in all honesty it's a bit confusing because she appears in so many different stories and she's always a slightly different person some even started to assume that this must have been referring to more than just one woman so you may as well just pick the story you like best they are also mentioned in regards to the trojan war where they swap sides halfway through showing they don't really care for allegiances or politics if there was a war nearby they would participate with very few questions asked towards the end of the trojan war the amazons were under the rule of hippolytus sister queen panther celia who decided to switch sides and fight against the greeks which would end rather poorly her encounter with achilles is detailed in ethiopis one of the lost epic cycles that made up the trojan cycle the queen arrived on the battlefield with 12 other amazons and after a day she confronted achilles and just like many before who thought they could best achilles she died in combat but after removing her helmet achilles saw a woman that he fell in love with one of his fellow soldiers known as thirsities made sure to show his disapproval of achilles falling in love during combat even questioning whether his ability to lead had been compromised in some accounts he even went as far as to tear out the eyes of pentacelia to make the point and that he certainly did achilles turned his love and sorrow into anger and killed the soldier where he stood this led to him then having to journey to the island of lesbos to be cleansed of this murder before rejoining the battle it does almost seem to be a mandatory requirement that at some point in a greek hero's life they will encounter the amazons one of the stories we haven't mentioned is in the redemption arc of bellerophon here the amazon tribe is located near lycia and bellerophon is sent to quell the uprising by the king of leicester in the hopes that he will be killed during this task with the help of pegasus he's able to defeat the amazons and the nearby solemoi tribe by flying above and dropping boulders on them there are also numerous stories involving dionysus one were a conflict between him and the amazons results in a full-blown war where he chases them from island to island killing most of them on what would later be dubbed the blood-soaked field they were also mentioned during his conquest of india being listed amongst those who fought alongside dionysus against some of the titans homer's iliad mentions the tomb of myrene an amazon queen who in later interpretations was said to have conquered parts of libya when she invaded atlantean cities the most famous of these being the city of cerney which the amazons sacked all of the men were then murdered and the women and children were forced into slavery myrin however showed considerably more compassion towards the people than the rest of the amazons and agreed to look upon the city with kindness those who wish to settle and live in peace with the natives did so and those who were more bloodthirsty took their talents elsewhere the poet theodorus believed myrene and the rest of the amazons charged into battle accompanied by gigantic snakes and even went as far to describe a battle between the amazons and the gorgons from which the amazons emerge victorious it's also quite common to see these women riding horses into battle and this is reinforced by the notion that the amazons were amongst the first to ride cavalry into battle the author palifatus wrote a text trying to rationalize many aspects of greek mythology he believed the amazons may not have even been women they instead could have been men mistaken for women because of their clothing their hair tied back in headbands and their shaven facial hair it's a theory that makes sense if these tribes ever existed but from a mythological storytelling standpoint it's not one that many poets agree on a much more common explanation is that the amazon legend may have been inspired by the real-life warrior women of the surrounding nations such as the sarmatians and scythians despite which explanation you prefer there are many named amazons in greek and roman mythology some of these may be no more than a name on a piece of paper and others having elaborate stories of their conquests and battles i can't really make a video about the amazons and not mention the massive influence they had on dc comics especially with wonder woman over the years the origin story of wonder woman has been retconned and rewritten a few times but the influence greek mythology had on these comics is plain to see the amazons live on paradise island which is also known as the miscrea an island isolated from the rest of the world hippolyta is the queen of the amazons and panthecilia is also a name that appears in the comics and the movie the amazons in these comics are super fast strong durable and can use all manner of weapons they also never age as long as they remain in thamiscria war is something that we see all the time in greek mythology and it's often men leading these battles so it's interesting to have an all-female tribe that also conquered parts of the world and took part in every war they could even if they were just men mistaken for women or women mistaken for men if there's one thing we've learned it's that wherever the amazons went there was bloodshed and death but let me know what you think i'm sure some of you have come across references in tv shows and books that you'd like to share as always i've been your host mythology and fiction explained reminding you that all these episodes are now available in podcast form so why not listen to those too you

Channel: Mythology & Fiction Explained

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Keywords: Amazons, greek mythology, mythology and fiction explained, wonder woman, who were the amazons, amazons of greek mythology, amazon warriors, greek mythology stories, hypolyta, amazons dc comics

Id: Zo9svgiRSeM

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020