AMAZONS
the characters of strength in myth
The Amazons were a nation of women descended from Ares, the god of war,
and the nymph Harmonia. Their kingdom was located to the North, on the
slopes of the Caucasus mountains, in Thrace, or in Scythia, on the banks
of the Danube. They lived alone, treating their menfolk as slaves and
entering into union with foreigners in order to perpetuate their race.
They killed their male children as soon as they were born, and operated
on the bodies of the females, cutting off the right breast, which would
impede the use of the bow and the throwing of the spear. This custom
explains their name: the Greek a-mazon means 'without breast'. They
worshipped the goddess Artemis, for they lived like her - without a
husband, in the countryside, through war and hunting.
The myth of the Amazons is the image of a worid turned upside down:
women who scorn their female role as housewives and mothers-companions,
who devote their time to preeminently male activities, including
bringing up their daughters as warriors, and who are ruled alone by
their own queen.
In ancient poetry and the iconography of the visual arts, most of the
scenes that depict individual, named women do not mark a break between
imagination and the everyday reality experienced by the artist. Scenes
in which Thetis gives Achilles his armour, images of Penelope at the
loom, or of Alcestis and Eriphyle in the house, are extensions of
everyday reality that are elevated to the level of myth simply by virtue
of the names of the characters being recorded; they might otherwise be
titled 'woman and warrior' or simply 'woman'.
In contrast, the upside-down images of the Amazons or the Maenads
overturn reality and consequently, whether they are named or not, they
have to be wild and barbarian, foreign and contrasted with the model of
the good woman. Named Amazons, queens like Antiope, Hippolyta or
Penthesilea have to surrender their arms, to be annihilated or abducted,
in order to preserve the certainty of male authority, the balance of the
social structures of the city-state, and the superiority of the Greeks
over foreigners and barbarians.
The victory of the male brings affirmation, and aggressive sexuality
lies in wait, finding expression at the level of warfare and founded in
competition and force, its symbols referring to earlier, mythical
periods when women were independent and therefore dangerous. The
subjugation of women pacifies Order, restores Balance.
The heroes allow themselves to fall in love the moment that the women
are powerless. The final, dying glance of Penthesilea inspired a buming
erotic love in the loveless Achilles, just before she crossed forever
the threshold to non-existence.
'and Achilles' very heart was wrung
With love's remorse to have slain a thing so sweet,
Who might have borne her home, his queenly bride,
To chariot-glorious Phthia; for she was
Flawless, a very daughter ot the Gods,
Divinely tall, and most divinely fair.'
Quintus of Smyrna 1, 666-674
