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85-619: Courageous and fiercely independent, the Amazons, commanded by their queen, regularly undertook extensive military expeditions into the far corners of the world, from Scythia to Thrace , Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands , reaching as far as Arabia and Egypt . Besides military raids, the Amazons are also associated with the foundation of temples and the establishment of numerous ancient cities like Ephesos , Cyme , Smyrna , Sinope , Myrina , Magnesia , Pygela , etc. The texts of

170-457: A "manly weapon" should have been invented by a "tribe of women", but he accepts the attribution out of respect for his authority, Johannes Aventinus . Ariosto 's Orlando Furioso contains a country of warrior women, ruled by Queen Orontea; the epic describes an origin much like that in Greek myth, in that the women, abandoned by a band of warriors and unfaithful lovers, rallied together to form

255-473: A child's status was determined by the mother's reputation. This remarkably high esteem of women and legal regulations based on maternal lines, still in effect in the 5th century BC in the Lycian regions that Herodotus had traveled to, suggested to him the idea that these people were descendants of the mythical Amazons. Modern historiography no longer relies exclusively on textual and artistic material, but also on

340-684: A detailed account of the bad reputation Amazons had in the Renaissance. She notes that she has not found any Elizabethans comparing the Queen to an Amazon and suggests that they might have hesitated to do so because of the association of Amazons with enfranchisement of women, which was considered contemptible. Elizabeth was present at a tournament celebrating the marriage of the Earl of Warwick and Anne Russell at Westminster Palace on 11 November 1565 involving male riders dressed as Amazons. They accompanied

425-611: A good introduction to the story of Mithradates. Author Carolyn See's review in The Washington Post , calls The Poison King a "wonderful reading experience, bracing as a tonic," providing a perspective that is "thrilling" while providing "calm and distance" on a terrifying age. Mayor's fifth book, The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World , surveys ancient myths, legends, folklore, art, and archaeology related to warlike women known to

510-528: A great number of them at a site since called Panaema (blood-soaked field). The Christian author Eusebius writes that during the reign of Oxyntes , one of the mythical kings of Athens, the Amazons burned down the temple at Ephesus . In another myth Dionysus unites with the Amazons to fight against Cronus and the Titans . Polyaenus writes that after Dionysus has subdued the Indians, he allies with them and

595-589: A joint campaign into the Land of Women , to the Middle East at the border to India. Petechonsis initially fought the Amazons, but soon fell in love with their queen Sarpot and eventually allied with her against an invading Indian army. This story is said to have originated in Egypt independently of Greek influences. Sources provide names of individual Amazons, that are referred to as queens of their people, even as

680-419: A misunderstanding led to the fight. In the course of this, Heracles killed the queen and several other Amazons. In awe of the strong hero, the Amazons eventually handed the belt to Heracles. In another version, Heracles does not kill the queen, but exchanges her kidnapped sister Melanippe for the belt. Queen Hippolyte was abducted by Theseus , who took her to Athens, where she was married to him and bore him

765-624: A nation from which men were severely reduced, to prevent them from regaining power. The Amazons and Queen Hippolyta are also referenced in Geoffrey Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales in " The Knight's Tale ". Amazons continued to be subject of scholarly debate during the European Renaissance, and with the onset of the Age of Exploration , encounters were reported from ever more distant lands. In 1542, Francisco de Orellana reached

850-545: A new field within the emerging discipline of geomythology and classical folklore . Mayor's book, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, & the Scorpion Bombs , on the origins of biological and chemical warfare revealed the ancient roots of poison weaponry and tactics. From 1980 to 1996, she worked as a copy editor, and printmaker. Since 2006, Mayor has been a research scholar in the Classics Department and

935-578: A perusal of this monograph and will find immeasurable advantage in the notes and bibliography.” In the American Journal of Philology , classicist Alison Keith criticized Mayor's tendency to make unsubstantiated assertions, treat folklore as fact, and neglect context for some sources; Keith felt that the book was “rich in research but weak in accepted methods of scholarship.” In the New Statesman , classics professor Edith Hall declared

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1020-559: A practice in ancient works of art, in which the Amazons are always represented with both breasts, although one is frequently covered. According to Philostratus , Amazon babies were not fed just with the right breast. Author Adrienne Mayor suggests that the false etymology led to the myth. Herodotus used the terms Androktones ( Ἀνδροκτόνες ) 'killers/slayers of men' or 'of husbands' and Androleteirai ( Ἀνδρολέτειραι ) 'destroyers of men, murderesses'. Amazons are called Antianeirai ( Ἀντιάνειραι ) 'equivalent to men' and Aeschylus used

1105-528: A son, Hippolytus . In other versions, the kidnapped Amazon is called Antiope , the sister of Hippolyte. In revenge, the Amazons invaded Greece, plundered some cities along the coast of Attica, and besieged and occupied Athens. Hippolyte, who fought on the side of Athens, according to another account was killed during the final battle along with all of the Amazons. According to Plutarch , the god Dionysus and his companions fought Amazons at Ephesus . The Amazons fled to Samos and Dionysus pursued them and killed

1190-702: Is mentioned in the Iliad as the place of Myrine 's death. Later identified as an Amazon queen, according to Diodorus (1st century BC), the Amazons under her rule invaded the territories of the Atlantians , defeated the army of the Atlantian city of Cerne, and razed the city to the ground. The Poet Bacchylides (6th century BC) and the historian Herodotus (5th century BC) located the Amazon homeland in Pontus at

1275-426: Is said to have killed the hero Clonus of Moesia , son of Doryclus , with her javelin. Stephanus of Byzantium (7th-century CE) provides numerous alternative lists of the Amazons, including for those who died in combat against Heracles, describing them as the most prominent of their people . Both Stephanus and Eustathius connect these Amazons with the placename Thibais , which they claim to have been derived from

1360-823: The Amazon River , naming it after the Icamiabas  [ pt ] , a tribe of warlike women he claimed to have encountered and fought on the Nhamundá River , a tributary of the Amazon. Afterwards the whole basin and region of the Amazon ( Amazônia in Portuguese, Amazonía in Spanish) were named after the river. Amazons also figure in the accounts of both Christopher Columbus and Walter Raleigh . Beginning around 550 BC. depictions of Amazons as daring fighters and equestrian warriors appeared on vases. After

1445-721: The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC the Amazon battle - Amazonomachy became popular motifs on pottery. By the sixth century BC, public and privately displayed artwork used the Amazon imagery for pediment reliefs, sarcophagi, mosaics, pottery, jewelry and even monumental sculptures, that adorned important buildings like the Parthenon in Athens. Amazon motifs remained popular until the Roman imperial period and into Late antiquity . Apart from

1530-600: The Iliad and several other epics, is one of the works that in combination form the Trojan War Epic Cycle . In one of the few references to the text, an Amazon force under queen Penthesilea , who was of Thracian birth, came to join the ranks of the Trojans after Hector 's death and initially put the Greeks under serious pressure. Only after the greatest effort and the help of the reinvigorated hero Achilles ,

1615-548: The Indo-Iranian root *kar- 'make'. It may alternatively be a Greek word descended from *n̥-mn̥gʷ-yō-nós 'manless, without husbands' ( alpha privative combined with a derivation from *man- cognate with Proto-Balto-Slavic *mangjá- , found in Czech muž ) has been proposed, an explanation deemed "unlikely" by Hjalmar Frisk . A further explanation proposes Iranian * ama-janah 'virility-killing' as source. Among

1700-404: The ancient Greeks , the term Amazon was popularly folk etymologized as originating from the Greek ἀμαζός , amazos ('breastless'), from - a ('without') and mazos , a variant of mastos ('breast'), connected with an etiological tradition once claimed by Marcus Justinus who alleged that Amazons had their right breast cut off or burnt out . There is no indication of such

1785-670: The Amazon Thiba's name. Several of Stephanus' Amazons served as eponyms for cities in Asia Minor, like Cyme and Smyrna or Amastris , who was believed to lend her name to the city previously known as Kromna , although in fact it was named after the historical Amastris . The city Anaea in Caria was named after an Amazon. In his work Getica (on the origin and history of the Goths , c.  551 CE ) Jordanes asserts that

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1870-611: The Amazon myth. In 2019, a grave with multiple generations of female Scythian warriors, armed and in golden headdresses, was found near Voronezh in southwestern Russia. The origin of the word is uncertain. It may be derived from an Iranian ethnonym *ha-mazan- 'warriors', a word attested indirectly through a derivation, a denominal verb in Hesychius of Alexandria 's gloss "ἁμαζακάραν· πολεμεῖν. Πέρσαι" (" hamazakaran : 'to make war' in Persian"), where it appears together with

1955-572: The Amazon prisoners overwhelmed and killed the small crews of the prisoner ships and, despite not having even basic navigation skills, managed to escape and safely disembark at the Scythian shore. As soon as the Amazons had caught enough horses, they easily asserted themselves in the steppe in between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea and, according to Herodotus, would eventually assimilate with

2040-508: The Amazon queen resided at her capital Themiscyra , on the banks of the Thermodon river. Palaephatus , who himself might have been a fictional character, attempted to rationalize the Greek myths in his work On Unbelievable Tales . He suspected that the Amazons were probably men who were mistaken for women by their enemies because they wore clothing that reached their feet, tied up their hair in headbands, and shaved their beards. Probably

2125-503: The Amazons once ruled a large part of Asia . Appian provides a vivid description of Themiscyra and its fortifications in his account of Lucius Licinius Lucullus ' Siege of Themiscyra in 71 BC during the Third Mithridatic War . An Amazon myth has been partly preserved in two badly fragmented versions around historical people in 7th century BC Egypt. The Egyptian prince Petechonsis and allied Assyrian troops undertook

2210-604: The Amazons and takes them into his service, who serve him in his campaign against the Bactrians . Nonnus in his Dionysiaca reports about the Amazons of Dionysus, but states that they do not come from Thermodon. Amazons are also mentioned by biographers of Alexander the Great , who report of Queen Thalestris bearing him a child (a story in the Alexander Romance ). However, other biographers of Alexander dispute

2295-611: The Amazons as well. Of Faeurbach's painting, Gert Schiff wrote that: Scythia Scythia ( UK : / ˈ s ɪ ð i ə / , US : / ˈ s ɪ θ i ə / ; ) or Scythica ( UK : / ˈ s ɪ ð i k ə / , US : / ˈ s ɪ θ i k ə / ) was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the Pontic–Caspian steppe . It was inhabited by Scythians , an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people. The names Scythia and Scythica are themselves Latinisations of

2380-565: The Amazons had chosen to resettle beyond the borders of the Gargareans , an all-male tribe native to the northern foothills of the Caucasian Mountains . The Amazons and Gargareans had for many generations met in secrecy once a year during two months in spring, in order to produce children. These encounters would take place in accordance with ancient tribal customs and collective offers of sacrifices. All females were retained by

2465-491: The Amazons of Dionysus Androphonus ( Ἀνδροφόνους ) 'men slaying'. Herodotus stated that in the Scythian language, the Amazons were called Oiorpata , which he explained as being from oior 'man' and pata 'to slay'. The ancient Greeks never had any doubts that the Amazons were, or had been, real. Not the only people enchanted by warlike women of nomadic cultures, such exciting tales also come from ancient Egypt, Persia, India, and China. Greek heroes of old had encounters with

2550-577: The Amazons themselves, and males were returned to the Gargareans. 5th century BC poet Magnes sings of the bravery of the Lydians in a cavalry-battle against the Amazons. Hippolyte was an Amazon queen killed by Heracles , who had set out to obtain the queen's magic belt in a task he was to accomplish as one of the Labours of Heracles . Although neither side had intended to resort to lethal combat,

2635-718: The Amazons, hoping they would kill him, yet Bellerophon slew them all. The youthful King Priam of Troy fought on the side of the Phrygians , who were attacked by Amazons at the Sangarios River . There are Amazon characters in Homer 's Trojan War epic poem, the Iliad , one of the oldest surviving texts in Europe ( around 8th century BC ). The now lost epic Aethiopis (probably by Arctinus of Miletus , 6th century BC), like

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2720-654: The Amazons. The leader was Hiera, wife of Telephus . The Amazons are also said to have undertaken an expedition against the Island of Leuke , at the mouth of the Danube , where the ashes of Achilles were deposited by Thetis . The ghost of the dead hero so terrified the horses, that they threw off and trampled upon the invaders, who were forced to retreat. Virgil touches on the Amazons and their queen Penthesilea in his epic Aeneid (around 20 BC). The biographer Suetonius had Julius Caesar remark in his De vita Caesarum that

2805-637: The Ancient Greek names Skuthia ( Σκυθια ) and Skuthikē ( Σκυθικη ), which were themselves derived from the ancient Greek names for the Scythians, Skuthēs ( Σκυθης ) and Skuthoi ( Σκυθοι ), derived from the Scythian endonym Skuδa . The territory of the Scythian kingdom of the Pontic steppe extended from the Don river in the east to the Danube river in the west, and covered

2890-446: The Ancient World , Mayor's second book, uncovers the earliest examples of biochemical weapons in the ancient world, to demonstrate that the concept and practice of biochemical warfare occurred much earlier than was previously thought. One of the book's purposes is to dispel the idea that ancient warfare was inherently more honorable than modern warfare. She presents ancient Greek, Roman, Chinese, African, and Indian historical accounts of

2975-401: The Black Sea. Between the 9th and 5th centuries BC, the climate in the steppes was cool and dry, which was a catalyst for the emergence of equestrian nomadic pastoralism in the northern Pontic region. The climate became warmer and wetter during the 5th century BC, which allowed the steppe nomads to move into the steppes proper. In these favourable climatic conditions grass grew abundantly on

3060-541: The Dinosaur (2014) describes Mayor's hypothesis that ancient observations of Protoceratops dinosaur fossils influenced ancient images and tales of Griffins. In American Journal of Archaeology , Deborah Ruscillo, Washington University in St. Louis , writes that this multidisciplinary book is written so that a layperson not well-versed in the topics it delves into may understand it. While Ruscillo does disagree with some of

3145-534: The Elder, Curtius, Plutarch, Arrian, and Pausanius advocated the greatness of the state, as Amazon myths served to discuss the creation of origin and identity for the Roman people. However, that changed over time. Amazons in Roman literature and art have many faces, such as the Trojan ally, the warrior goddess, the native Latin, the warmongering Celt, the proud Sarmatian, the hedonistic and passionate Thracian warrior queen,

3230-655: The First Americans were both praised in Central Connecticut State anthropology department member Kenneth L. Feder's book Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology —a book dedicated to debunking pseudoarcheological claims. Her books have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, Turkish, Italian, Russian, Arabic, and Greek and have been featured in documentaries on

3315-711: The Goths' ancestors, descendants of Magog , originally lived in Scythia, at the Sea of Azov between the Dnieper and Don Rivers . When the Goths were abroad campaigning against Pharaoh Vesosis , their women, on their own successfully fended off a raid by a neighboring tribe. Emboldened, the women established their own army under Marpesia , crossed the Don and invaded eastward into Asia. Marpesia's sister Lampedo remained in Europe to guard

3400-408: The Greeks eventually triumphed. Penthesilea died fighting the mighty Achilles in single combat. Homer himself deemed the Amazon myths to be common knowledge all over Greece, which suggests that they had already been known for some time before him. He was also convinced that the Amazons lived not at its fringes, but somewhere in or around Lycia in Asia Minor - a place well within the Greek world. Troy

3485-743: The History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and the BBC. She has lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Smithsonian, Art Institute of Chicago, Getty Museum, among other venues, and has been interviewed on NPR, BBC, and Coast to Coast AM. Her biography of Mithradates VI Eupator, The Poison King , was a nonfiction finalist for the National Book Award 2009. From 2011 to 2017, Mayor

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3570-844: The History and Philosophy of Science Program at Stanford University . Mayor has published books and articles on the history of automatons, Amazons , unconventional warfare , ancient automatons, toxic honey, tattoos in antiquity, smallpox blankets in history and legend, assassination by poisoned garments in Mughal India, fossil-related legends, fossil-related place names, and other topics in scholarly journals and popular magazines, including History Today, Lapham Quarterly, Noema, Journal of American Folklore, Archaeology, Natural History, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Gizmodo, The Conversation, and Foreign Affairs. Her books The First Fossil Hunters and Fossil Legends of

3655-531: The Pontic steppe inhabited by the Scythians. Adrienne Mayor Adrienne Mayor (born 1946) is a historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist . Mayor specializes in ancient history and the study of " folk science ", or how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world, and how these interpretations form the basis of many ancient myths, folklore and popular beliefs. Her work in pre-scientific fossil discoveries and traditional interpretations of paleontological remains has opened up

3740-584: The Scythians, whose descendants were the Sauromatae, the predecessors of the Sarmatians . Strabo (1st century BC) visits and confirms the original homeland of the Amazons on the plains by the Thermodon river. However, long gone and not seen again during his lifetime, the Amazons had allegedly retreated into the mountains. Strabo, however, added that other authors, among them Metrodorus of Scepsis and Hypsicrates claim that after abandoning Themiscyra,

3825-594: The account by Herodotus . In his Histories (5th century BC) Herodotus claims that the Sauromatae (predecessors of the Sarmatians ), who ruled the lands between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, arose from a union of Scythians and Amazons. Herodotus also observed rather unusual customs among the Lycians of southwest Asia Minor. The Lycians obviously followed matrilineal rules of descent, virtue, and status. They named themselves along their maternal family line and

3910-529: The artistic desire to express the passionate womanhood of the Amazons in contrast with the manhood of their enemies, some modern historians interpret the popularity of Amazon in art as indicators of societal trends, both positive and negative. Greek and Roman societies, however, utilized the Amazon mythology as a literary and artistic vehicle to unite against a commonly-held enemy. The metaphysical characteristics of Amazons were seen as personifications of both nature and religion. Roman authors like Virgil, Strabo, Pliny

3995-505: The assertions Mayor makes, she recommends the book to anthropologists and non-anthropologists alike. In Isis: A Journal of the History of Science , Liliane Bodson, University of Liege , writes that “Mayor’s thought-provoking book will mark a watershed in the approach to griffins and giants.” While she found some of Mayor's views one-sided, she still recommended the book to “every historian of natural sciences.” Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in

4080-468: The book because of its unique point of view. Mayor's third book gathers Native American accounts of discoveries of dinosaur and other fossils and oral traditions about their meaning, from pre-Columbian times to the present. Much of the focus of the book is in challenging the idea put forth by paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson that precolonial indigenous peoples of the Americas did not take notice of

4165-611: The book was more than "an important contribution to ancient history," opening "up new horizons in world storytelling and feminist iconography [with] rigorous scholarship and poetic charm." Hall argued that by "painstaking research into the literature, folklore and ancient traditions of the myriad peoples between Greece, Russia and China, especially the Kyrgyz, the Azerbaijanis and the Circassians of Caucasia, [Mayor] has broken down

4250-499: The challengers carrying their heraldry. These riders wore crimson gowns, masks with long hair attached, and swords. Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel depicted the Battle of the Amazons around 1598, a most dramatic baroque painting , followed by a painting of the Rococo period by Johann Georg Platzer , also titled Battle of the Amazons . In 19th-century European Romanticism German artist Anselm Feuerbach occupied himself with

4335-411: The claim, including the highly regarded Plutarch . He noted a moment when Alexander's naval commander Onesicritus read an Amazon myth passage of his Alexander History to King Lysimachus of Thrace who had taken part in the original expedition. The king smiled at him and said: "And where was I, then?" The Talmud recounts that Alexander wanted to conquer a "kingdom of women" but reconsidered when

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4420-424: The classical Greeks as Amazons. This is the first comprehensive account of warrior women in myth and history from the Mediterranean world to China. It also includes information on the linguistic origins of the word “Amazon" and details how nomadic horsewomen-archers of the steppes influenced ideas of warrior women. Jasmin W. Cyril wrote in Kadin/Woman 2000 that “any reader or researcher will be well rewarded through

4505-471: The classical and Hellenistic eras. Kirkus Reviews describes the book as “a collection of wondrous tales that present ancient myths as the proto-science fiction stories they are.” Classicist Peter Thonemann calls the book "absorbing" and "accessible and engaging," but feels that the ancient quest for eternal youth should not be included as an example of "artificial life" and wishes for deeper analysis of direct lines from Aristotle to modern AI. Mayor's book

4590-622: The epic), descended from some Amazons and taken by Alexander from the Brahmans. John Tzetzes lists in Posthomerica twenty Amazons, who fell at Troy . This list is unique in its attestation for all the names but Antianeira , Andromache and Hippothoe. Other than these three, the remaining 17 Amazons were named as Toxophone , Toxoanassa , Gortyessa , Iodoce , Pharetre , Andro , Ioxeia , Oistrophe , Androdaixa , Aspidocharme , Enchesimargos , Cnemis , Thorece , Chalcaor , Eurylophe , Hecate , and Anchimache . Famous medieval traveller John Mandeville mentions them in his book: Beside

4675-491: The first Amazon queen, is the offspring of a romance between Ares the god of war and the nymph Harmonia of the Akmonian Wood , and as such a demigoddess. Early records refer to two events in which Amazons appeared prior to the Trojan War (before 1250 BC). Within the epic context, Bellerophon , Greek hero, and grandfather of the brothers and Trojan War veterans Glaukos and Sarpedon , faced Amazons during his stay in Lycia , when King Iobates sent Bellerophon to fight

4760-410: The first in a long line of skeptics, he rejected any real basis for them, reasoning that because they did not exist during his time, most probably they did not exist in the past either. Decades of archaeological discoveries of burial sites of female warriors, including royalty, in the Eurasian Steppes suggest that the horse cultures of the Scythian , Sarmatian and Hittite peoples likely inspired

4845-428: The fossilized remains of mammoths, mastodons, dinosaurs, and other extinct species influenced belief in giants, heroes, the griffin and some other fabulous beings of myth and legend. This book is the basis for the popular History Channel show "Ancient Monster Hunters" and the BBC show Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters and several museum exhibits. A National Geographic children's book by Marc Aronson , The Griffin and

4930-438: The head of a dynasty. Without a male companion, they are portrayed in command of their female warriors. Among the most prominent Amazon queens were: Quintus Smyrnaeus , author of the Posthomerica lists the attendant warriors of Penthesilea: " Clonie was there, Polemusa , Derinoe , Evandre , and Antandre , and Bremusa , Hippothoe , dark-eyed Harmothoe , Alcibie , Derimacheia , Antibrote , and Thermodosa glorying with

5015-431: The homeland. They procreated with men once a year. These women conquered Armenia, Syria and all of Asia Minor, even reaching Ionia and Aeolis , holding this vast territory for 100 years. In Digenes Akritas , the twelfth century medieval epic of Basil, the Greco-Syrian knight of the Byzantine frontier, the hero battles and then commits adultery with the female warrior Maximo (killing her afterwards in one version of

5100-585: The land of Chaldea is the land of Amazonia, that is the land of Feminye. And in that realm is all woman and no man; not as some may say, that men may not live there, but for because that the women will not suffer no men amongst them to be their sovereigns. Medieval and Renaissance authors credit the Amazons with the invention of the battle-axe . This is probably related to the sagaris , an axe-like weapon associated with both Amazons and Scythian tribes by Greek authors (see also Thracian tomb of Aleksandrovo kurgan ). Paulus Hector Mair expresses astonishment that such

5185-418: The late 4th century BC, another related nomadic Iranian people, the Sarmatians, moved from the east into the Pontic steppe, where they replaced the Scythians as the dominant power of the Pontic steppe by the Sarmatians, due to which " Sarmatia Europea " (European Sarmatia) replaced " Scythia " as the name for the region. During the Hellenistic period , the use of "Scythia" by Greek and Latin speakers

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5270-531: The many fossils found on the continent. The book is organized by geographic location of fossils. It has been featured in History Channel MonsterQuest videos. According to Bryce Christianson, for the American Library Association , Mayor "illuminates the surprisingly relevant views of early peoples confronting evidence of prehistoric life" in a "pioneering work [that] replaces cultural estrangement with belated understanding." Norman MacLeod (Natural History Museum, London), writes in Paleontologia Electronica that he

5355-399: The most important is Queen Otrera , consort of Ares and mother by him of Hippolyta and Penthesilea. She is also known for building a temple to Artemis at Ephesus. Another different set of names is found in Valerius Flaccus ' Argonautica . He mentions Euryale , Harpe , Lyce , Menippe and Thoe . Of these Lyce also appears on a fragment, preserved in the Latin Anthology where she

5440-400: The often frail ancient source material." In Melbourne Historical Journal , Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele writes that Mayor has crafted an entertaining book about Mithradates's life, but felt that the passages about the use of poison are “repetitive.” In Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society , Laurence Totelin remarks on small errors but approved of the good bibliography and deems the book

5525-411: The often impenetrable walls dividing western cultural history from its eastern equivalents." Mayor's sixth book analyzes classical Greek myths and other ancient cultures' tales about fabricating artificial life, automatons, self-moving devices, and Artificial Intelligence. The final chapter describes real robots, animated statues, and self-propelled machines that were actually designed and constructed in

5610-427: The original myths envisioned the homeland of the Amazons at the periphery of the then-known world. Various claims to the exact place ranged from provinces in Asia Minor ( Lycia , Caria , etc.) to the steppes around the Black Sea , or even Libya ( Libyan Amazon ). However, authors most frequently referred to Pontus in northern Anatolia , on the southern shores of the Black Sea, as the independent Amazon kingdom where

5695-427: The power during an incursion in Europe and Asia, where they were slain. Marpesia's daughter Orithyia succeeded them and was greatly admired for her skill on war. She shared power with her sister Antiope , but she was engaged in war abroad when Heracles attacked. Two of Antiope's sisters were taken prisoner, Melanippe by Heracles and Hippolyta by Theseus. Heracles latter restored Melanippe to her sister after receiving

5780-406: The practice of biochemical warfare, using animal, bacterial, poison, and chemical weaponry, including Greek fire . "An illuminating revision of early military history," this book has become a favorite of ancient war gamers and was featured in the History Channel show "Ancient Greek WMDs." Classicist Richard Stoneman praises the book, stating that it should be “widely read”, and specifically praises

5865-453: The queen who commanded the Amazons in a military expedition in Libya, as well as her sister Mytilene , after whom she named the city of the same name . Myrina also named three more cities after the Amazons who held the most important commands under her, Cyme , Pitane , and Priene . Both Justin in his Epitome of Trogus Pompeius and Paulus Orosius give an account of the Amazons, citing the same names. Queens Marpesia and Lampedo shared

5950-434: The queen's arms in exchange, though, on other accounts she was killed by Telamon . They also mention Penthesilea's role in the Trojan War. Another list of Amazons' names is found in Hyginus ' Fabulae . Along with Hippolyta , Otrera , Antiope and Penthesilea , it attests the following names: Ocyale , Dioxippe , Iphinome , Xanthe , Hippothoe , Laomache , Glauce , Agave , Theseis , Clymene , Polydora . Perhaps

6035-531: The queens of their martial society and fought them. However, their original home was not exactly known, thought to be in the obscure lands beyond the civilized world . As a result, for centuries scholars believed the Amazons to be purely imaginary, although there were various proposals for a historical nucleus of the Amazons in Greek historiography. Some authors preferred comparisons to cultures of Asia Minor or even Minoan Crete . The most obvious historical candidates are Lycia and Scythia and Sarmatia in line with

6120-665: The southern lands near the shores of the Black Sea were propitious for agriculture. Before the arrival of the Scythians, this region of the Pontic Steppe was dominated by the Agathyrsi , who were nomadic Iranian people related to the Scythians. The Scythian migration pushed the Agathyrsi westwards, away from the steppes and from their original home around Lake Maeotis , and into the Carpathian region. Beginning in

6205-523: The southern shores of the Black Sea, and the capital Themiscyra at the banks of the Thermodon (modern Terme river ), by the modern city of Terme . Herodotus also explains how it came to be that some Amazons would eventually be living in Scythia . A Greek fleet, sailing home upon defeating the Amazons in battle at the Thermodon river, included three ships crowded with Amazon prisoners. Once out at sea,

6290-477: The spear." Diodorus Siculus lists twelve Amazons who challenged and died fighting Heracles during his quest for Hippolyta's girdle: Aella , Philippis , Prothoe , Eriboea , Celaeno , Eurybia , Phoebe , Deianeira , Asteria , Marpe , Tecmessa , and Alcippe . After Alcippe's death, a group attack followed. Diodorus also mentions Melanippe , whom Heracles set free after accepting her girdle and Antiope as ransom. Diodorus lists another group with Myrina as

6375-904: The story of the life of Mithradates , leader of the ancient Black Sea kingdom of Pontus , who, in the 1st century B.C., did everything he could to overthrow the Roman Republic . The book attempts to relay events from the Pontic point of view, as opposed to the Roman point of view. The Poison King was one of five nonfiction finalists in the National Book Awards, 2009, and has been translated into Italian, German, Russian, Turkish, and Spanish. Peter Stothard, author and editor of TLS Times Literary Supplement , praises Mayor's "fascinating" biographical account, noting that she "aims to rescue [Mithradates'] reputation from biographical accounts that have come mostly from his enemies" by "making full imaginative use both of her own broad knowledge and

6460-475: The subdued Asian city, and the worthy Roman foe . In Renaissance Europe, artists started to reevaluate and depict Amazons based on Christian ethics. Queen Elizabeth of England was associated with Amazon warrior qualities ( the foremost ancient examples of feminism ) during her reign and was indeed depicted as such. Though, as explained in Divina Virago by Winfried Schleiner, Celeste T. Wright has given

6545-548: The term Styganor ( Στυγάνωρ ) 'those who loathe all men'. In his work Prometheus Bound and in The Suppliants , Aeschylus referred to the Amazons as 'the unwed, flesh-devouring Amazons' ( ...τὰς ἀνάνδρους κρεοβόρους τ᾽ Ἀμαζόνας ). In the Hippolytus tragedy, Phaedra calls Hippolytus , 'the son of the horse-loving Amazon' ( ...τῆς φιλίππου παῖς Ἀμαζόνος βοᾷ Ἱππόλυτος... ). In his Dionysiaca , Nonnus calls

6630-526: The territory of the treeless steppe immediately north of the Black Sea 's coastline, which was inhabited by nomadic pastoralists, as well as the fertile black-earth forest-steppe area to the north of the treeless steppe, which was inhabited by an agricultural population, and the northern border of this Scythian kingdom were the dedicuous woodlands, while several rivers, including Don and Dnipro , flowed southwards across this region and emptied themselves into

6715-499: The treeless steppe and permitted the nomadic Scythians to rear large herds of cattle and horses. The country which the Greeks named Hylaea ( Ancient Greek : Υλαια , romanized :  Hulaia , lit.   'the Woodland';), consisting of the region of the lower Dnipro river along the territory of what is modern-day Kherson and the valleys further north along the river, was covered with forests. Conditions in

6800-479: The vast archaeological evidence of over a thousand nomad graves from steppe territories from the Black Sea all the way to Mongolia. Discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons (bows and arrows, quivers, and spears) prove that women warriors were not merely figments of imagination, but the product of the Scythian/Sarmatian horse-centered lifestyle. According to myth, Otrera ,

6885-490: The wide range of sources used, especially her employment of sources from India. In Library Journal , Brian DeLuca feels that the use of modern terminology in relation to ancient methods of warfare is “anachronistic” and finds Mayor's arguments for ancient biowarfare unconvincing. Even so, he recommends the book for “larger public libraries, specialized collections, and academic libraries.” In Naval War College Review , author and lieutenant colonel Zygmunt Dembek highly recommends

6970-608: The women told him: If you kill us, people will say: Alexander kills women; and if we kill you, people will say: Alexander is the king whom women killed in battle. Virgil 's characterization of the Volsci warrior maiden Camilla in the Aeneid borrows from the myths of the Amazons. Philostratus , in Heroica , writes that the Mysian women fought on horses alongside the men, just as

7055-844: Was a regular contributor to the history of science website Wonders and Marvels. In 2018–19, she was a Berggruen Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, her research dedicated to the impulse to create artificial life , whether that be today's artificial intelligence or the animated statues of myth. The fruits of this research are contained in her latest book, Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology . Mayor's first book, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times, investigated discoveries and interpretations of dinosaur and other large vertebrate fossils in classical antiquity, and proposed that ancient observations of

7140-587: Was extended to also cover the southern Russian steppe in general, as well as the entire treeless steppe bounded by the Danubian plains in the west and the Chinese marches in the east. In contemporary modern scholarship, "Scythian" generally refers to the nomadic Iranian people who dominated the Pontic steppe from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC, and the name "Scythia" is used to describe this region of

7225-511: Was “disappointed” in the book, although Mayor "has done a great service to Native Americans by collecting together many of their legends, including many that had previously been unrecorded." In his review for Geological Magazine, Paul D. Taylor (Natural History Museum, London) writes that the book will appeal to palaeontologists, anthropologists, and folklorists,” as well as geologists. In her fourth book, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy, Mayor details

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