by Carla Osborne
G. Spalenka
A few prominent Amazon warriors have had only their names remembered. They include:
Aedon/Aedon 'nightingale'
Aete 'mighty' or 'eagle'
Alkidike 'mighty justice'
Alkithoe 'impetuous might'
Anippe 'queenly mare'
Archippe 'dominant mare'
Atanea 'of the opposition'
Athtar, named for the Arab Sun Goddess
Ktesippe 'possessor of horses'
Oigme
Tereis 'piercer'
Zerynthia (Scythian Amazon)
Besides those who were obviously
mortal,
several women listed here are called daughters of Great Goddesses.
They probably represent deified
ancestresses
or high priestesses who were once considered literal physical
embodiments of the Goddesses they served.
AGANIPPE 'mare who kills mercifully'
A warrior and priestess of Artemis as
Divine Hunter of Souls.
AGAMEDE 'very cunning'
Founder of a city named for herself on
the Amazon colony of Lesbos.
AGAVE 'high born'
The exposure of newborn girls happened
with appalling frequency in ancient Greek society, leading to the
establishment of numerous 'Parthenian
Hills,' places to leave such unfortunate children. In response, the
movements of the many sacred hunters
of Artemis and rangers of Athena began to cross these
hills on a regular basis. It was on one
such trip that Agave was found. She was named for her rich wrappings,
which had been defaced to make her clan
markings unreadable.
AKANTHA 'bright flower' or 'burning
sun'
Amazon, priestess of Athena.
ALKIPPE 'might of horses'
She chose to remain celibate, channeling
her energies as far as possible into her war skills and shamanism.
Alkippe became a respected trainer and
advisor, as well as an esteemed warrior.
ALKYONE 'queen who keeps away (storms)'
Daughter of Archippe. She was named for
a war and sea aspect of Aphrodite, better known as the sister of
Taygete the Pleiade.
ALEXIARES 'warding off war'
Amazon warrior and granddaughter of Hera.
Like her grandmother, she commanded the winds.
ANYMONE 'defender who is without fault'
One Amazon by this name fought for
Orithia.
The other was a great heroine of the Libyan Amazons, who drew
water from a rock in the desert, saving
her tribe.
ANAEA 'raising up'
She added considerably to the territory
of the Thermodontine Amazons, establishing a city named for herself in
Karia opposite Hera's holy city of Samos.
Her tomb there, like Orithia's at Megaera, Myrene's near Troy, and
Antiope's in Athens was a great
pilgrimage
site until Classical times. She was named for a Goddess associated
with Artemis.
ANAXILEA 'queenly lion'
An Amazon whose shield was emblazoned
with a white bird, symbolizing Athena.
ANDRODAMEIA 'man fighter'
A queen of the Thermodontine Amazons
who defeated one of the leading Greek generals in single combat
during the Third Doric Raid. Another
Androdameia participated in the Attic War.
ANDROMACHE 'man fighter'
One of the greatest of all the queens
of the Thermodontine Amazons. Known for her bravery, she was
consistently victorious in battle. Ruling
with Glauke 'owl,' and Iphito 'shield strength' whom she also fought
with side by side, her most famous
conflict
was with a horde of Greek pirates. The battle was later known as the
First Doric Raid.
Andromache successfully united the
Thermodontine
and Libyan Amazons against the invaders, resulting in a
Libyan blockade that prevented the
arrival
of Greek reinforcements. At the height of the battle, she fought with
her hair unbound, insuring that she
remained
a clear rallying point for her forces,
and that no false claims could be made
that she had died.
The council during her reign included:
Ainippe 'swift horse'
Alkaia 'mighty one' Taurian, wore cap
with bull ears and tail
Alkinoe 'mighty in wisdom' daughter of
Nikippe
Anaximache 'queenly warrior' Phrygian
immigrant
Andromeda 'ruler of men'
Antimache 'opposing warrior'
Areximache 'excellent warrior'
Barkida 'grievous in wrath'
Kydoime 'glorious one'
Lykopis 'she wolf'
Okypous 'swift footed'
Pisto 'trustworthy'
Scyleia 'leaper'
Telepyleia 'far sailing'
Tesipyle 'swift sailor'
Thraso 'confidence' had a gorgoneum on
her shield, fought with her lover
Hypsipyle 'of the high gate'
Toxaris 'archer'
Toxophile 'poisoned arrow'
ANTIANARA/ANTIANEIRA 'against the sea'
This warrior of the Attic War so
impressed
her Greek enemies that Homer used her name as an adjective for any
Amazon. The name became common among
Amazon queens, including the successor of Penthesilea.
ANTILEON 'bold as a lion'
An immigrant from Egypt, she fought with
Androdameia during the Third Doric Raid.
ANTIOCHE 'confronting the city'
Founder of the Pisidian city in Asia
Minor, and its Phrygian twin. Both regions were Amazon territory at the
time. A second Antioche was a leader
in the Amazon tribe known as the Centaurs.
ANTIOPE 'confronting Moon'
The history of this Amazon queen is
confused
by propaganda and the fact that she shares her name with a
warrior Goddess of Thebes. Antiope of
Thebes was the second aspect of a triad of warrior Moon Goddesses.
She descended to the underworld at the
New Moon, attended by the crone figure Dirke 'cleft.' Each time the
Moon reappeared after these few nights
of darkness, Thebes rejoiced, and a bull, symbol of rebirth, was
sacrificed and feasted on. It is from
the ceremony of tossing a round cake representing the Full Moon onto the
bull's horns that the gruesome tale of
Dirke's death comes.
The queen of Thebes was the embodiment
of Antiope on earth, her older advisor the embodiment of Dirke.
Occasionally their disagreements may
have been severe enough to demand a ritual combat, or, more likely, the
ceremonial combat was performed on the
night of the first rising of the Waxing Moon. Dirke 'lost' each month,
and the loss was well remembered. So
much for Thebes.
The name Antiope was popular among the
Amazons, for it was carried by a queen, a princess, and an archer
who gained fame in the Attic War. Queen
Antiope's capture and removal to Athens by Greek pirates helped
instigate that war, which included a
massive slave revolt. Her death at the hand of Molpadia was not for
treachery, but to save her from rape
by the Athenian king.
APOLLONIA 'destroyer' or 'apple keeper'
An Amazon queen better known as Cyrene,
ancestress of the Thrakian tribe of the Milesians, who continued to
be matrilinear into Classical times.
A city on the shores of the Black Sea was called by this name.
APRIATE 'without rancour'
Great heroine of Lesbos, named for a
Sea Goddess.
ARETO 'unspeakable' or 'virtuous rule'
A member of the troupe led by Pantariste
which dislodged the Greek pirates from the beach during the Second
Doric Raid. Named for a Goddess of
justice,
she wore a snake insignia. She was also mother of Nausicaa, while
the Goddess was a reputed teacher of
Heraklaea.
ARSIPPE 'rearing horse' also called
Aristippe
'best of horses'
Associated with bats, this Goddess was
worshipped by some Scythian Amazons. One of her priestesses was
driven from Orchomenos by priests of
Dionysus, who often violently deposed the servants of ecstatic Moon
and Night Goddesses with their mad god.
ASTRONOE 'high minded one,' or 'one
who
knows the stars'
Priestess of Artemis, named for a
Phoenician
Goddess similar in nature to Cybele.
AUTOCHTHE 'created by oneself'
Daughter of Andromeda.
BARKIDA 'grievous in wrath'
Member of the city guard during the reign
of Hippolyta.
BEREKYNTHIA/BEREKUNTHIA 'running
Goddess
of the mountains' or 'bringer of wisdom'
Amazon queen.
CAMILLA 'little comb,' fiery one,'
'drinking
vessel'
Great ancestress of the Volscians of
ancient Latium, an Amazon queen who was suckled by a mare and grew
into a great hunter and runner. Fighting
bare breasted and loose haired in the grand tradition of successful
Amazon leaders, her honour guard included
Larina, Tulla, Tarpeia, and Opis (all named for demoted Goddesses).
She led the fight against the invaders
led by Aeneas.
CELAENO 'obscurity' or 'screamer'
She, Eurybia 'wide ranging force' and
Phoebe 'bright Moon' hunted and fought together. As hunters they were
always successful, while in battle they
formed a deadly wedge of spears.
CHALCIOPE/CHALAIOPE 'brazen face'
Leader of part of the force that drove
off the Greek pirates of the Second Doric Raid.
CHRYSIPPE 'golden horse'
An Amazon warrior whose daughter was
one of the first famous Helens, and herself a warrior. Chrysippe's
daughter was later confused with Helen
of Sparta.
CYRENE 'sovereign mistress of the
bridle,'
'she of the hair or ax'
Named for a sun Goddess, she founded
the Libyan Amazon tribe later known as the Sirens, who lived in a city
named for her on the North African coast.
She had three sisters, Alkaia 'mighty one,' Themisto 'the oracular,' and
Astygeneia 'bearer of queens.' An expert
with the sword and javelin, she frightened away potential invaders by
inviting them to watch her wrestle wild
lions. Her consort Xantho 'yellow' was almost as famous for her skills
in
hunting as her connections with the
fierce
Amazon queen.
Cyrene's people in general were as known
for their exports of the herb silphium and red leather as for piracy.
Like many coastal peoples, they were
shrewd, prosperous traders, willing to salvage any wrecks that washed up
on their shores.
Their continued practice of the old
Goddess
centred religion shows in their later portrayals, sometimes as
mermaids singing enchantments. They were
prophets who could read the past and look into the future. Other
times they were bird bodied, heads,
necks,
and breasts showing in a way that makes them difficult to tell from
Harpies.
Usually there were two or three of them,
representing the Death Goddess in her light and dark or Triple Goddess
aspect. When the Sirens were threefold,
they made up a musical trio of flute, lyre, and voice, which may have
been a typical arrangement for sacred
music.
A second Siren colony was located on
a Mediterranean island in Classical times, matching accounts of former
Amazon Nation members in the area.
Several
sets of Sirens were known to Classical storytellers.
Daughters of the Muses Melpomene or
Terpsichore:
Teles 'perfect' or Peisinoe 'seductress'
Raedne 'shining' Aglaope 'glorious face'
Molpe 'melody' Thelxiopeia 'perfect face'
Thelxiope 'perfect face'
Italian Sirens:
Leukosia 'white Goddess' or Himeropa
'awakening face'
Ligeia 'high voiced' Thelchetereia
'enchanter'
Aglaope 'glorious face'
Peisinoe 'seductress'
Parthenope 'virgin face'
Aglaophonos/Aglaopheme 'beautiful voice'
or 'beautiful speech'
The sun Goddess Cyrene was said to
have
a crystal palace beneath the sea, where she was attended by archer
nymphs.
DORIS 'bountiful'
Named for the Great Goddess of the
Dorians,
which suggests that she was an immigrant. She was a spear
wielder in the Attic War.
EGEE
A Libyan Amazon queen who led an army
through Libya and Asia Minor to fight at Troy. After killing the city's
king, she and her army returned home.
The incident seems to be the first of many battles brought about by
repeated attempts at take over by
patriarchal
forces. Since she didn't stay or leave a garrison, the
priestess-queen of the city may have
called upon Amazon aid as Hekuba would later. Since all Goddess centred
cultures were coming under siege at this
time, and the Amazon Nation was itself a confederation which Troy
probably belonged to, it is no surprise
that the Amazons would provide assistance when called upon.
EUMACHE 'good fighter'
This warrior of the Attic War fought
with a stone after using up her arrows, an act weirdly reminiscent of
the
Greek tale of Herakles fighting over
the stolen cattle of Geryon.
HIPPO 'horse'
Queen of Amazonia with Marpesia 'the
snatcher,' and Lampedo 'burning torch.' Her sister Molpia 'melody' was
a
priestess of Hanged Artemis.
Hippo and her fellow queens moved across
Asia Minor to the Aegean Sea, where they founded Ephesus,
Smyrna, and Myrine. They were met by
a hostile Trojan army (suggesting the city had left the Nation for a
time),
which they defeated, signing a treaty
with the city. It is their establishment of Ephesus that is most well
known,
where they set up a shrine to Artemis
in the forest beneath a beech tree. The tree was a sign from Artemis,
since
beech trees do not typically grow so
far south.
HIPPOLYTA 'of the stampeding horses'
or
'she who releases the horses'
The dynastic title of a series of
Thermodontine
queens. The one usually remembered for her belt was daughter
of Otrere, and her real name was
Neptunis.
Hippolyta's birth name suggests that she was a priestess of Artemis,
since it was one of the Goddess' titles.
The belt sent to Admete, a priestess of Hera at Argos was a good will
gesture. (Clarification on this point
is in Part Two.)
Dorian pirates coveted what they
perceived
as Amazon riches and despised their personal freedom. The
queen's belt was considered a
representation
of her personal sovereignty and her role as queen of the
Amazons. The Second Doric Raid was
carried
out with the purpose of rape and pillage, with the belt taken as
proof of victory. The raid failed,
although
Hippolyta was killed. The Dorians so feared her ghost that they built
a heraeum for her at Megaera, and made
expiatory pilgrimages to it until Classical times. Later propagandists
rewrote the story and claimed that their
new hero Herakles had stolen it, a task given to him as part of his
penance for murdering his family. A
curious
idea, since in the same tales say that
Herakles was driven mad by Hera, and
killed his family in his frenzy, which suggests that some writers had
attempted to exonerate him entirely.
The belt 'stolen' by Herakles then
becomes
lost to mythology, although the belt sent by Hippolyta was long
displayed in the Argive temple of Hera,
its story suitably altered by the priests who had forcibly taken it
over.
The honour guard of Hippolyta's reign
included:
Aello 'whirlwind' castellan of Themiskyra
Ainippe 'swift horse'
Alkippe 'strength of horses'
Asteria 'of the starry sky'
Deianeira 'stringer together of spoils'
Erioboea 'rich in cattle'
Marpe 'snatcher'
Phillipis 'lover of horses'
Prothoe 'first in might'
Tekmessa 'she who ordains' Phrygian
immigrant
HIPPOTHOE 'nimble horse'
Fought with Penthesilea at Troy, she
survived to found an Amazon colony on one of the Echinade islands.
HYPSIPYLE 'of the high gate'
Her name refers to the meridian, the
Moon at its highest point in the sky. An Amazon warrior of this name
fought with Pantariste. Another was a
member of the Lemnian high council. She was captured by Thrakian
pirates during a sea battle, and after
her escape became high priestess of Artemis at the Nemean Grove.
KLEITE/KLETA 'famous,' 'the invoked,'
'the renowned'
The first Kleite was queen of Kyzicus,
a prophet who was assisted by her sister Arisbe. The second was the
mother of Penthesilea. Blown off course
on the way to Troy, she arrived only to find the city razed, her
daughter
killed by treachery. She and her
compliment
of Amazons then set sail again for the Southern Coast of Italy,
where they founded a city called by her
name. The tribe came to be known as the Kleitae.
KLEODAEIS 'famous warrior'
Helped defend the colony of Lemnos from
Greek pirates.
KLITO 'the invoked'
Priestess of Athena, daughter of
Leukippe,
who lived on the sacred island at the centre of the Libyan homeland
of Tritonis.
KLYMENE 'famous might'
Daughter of the sea Goddess Tethys and
participant in the Attic War.
KYME 'wave'
She, Priene 'queen who cuts,' and Pitana
'pine mother' helped lead the evacuation from the devastated Gorgon
island of Tritonia. Their leader was
Mitylene 'hornless Moon,' sister of one of the famous Myrines. The
continued movement of the Gorgons was
forced by their numbers and tensions with their mainland sisters.
The Gorgon resettlement was not
completely
peaceful, due to the understandable alarm of tribes that had
experienced the sudden arrival of
patriarchal
tribes, and the increased war activity of the new ly united Egyptian
state, which had already forced a Libyan
migration.
Kyme and her sister 'generals' founded
cities named for themselves, and coins from the city of Kyme still
exist,
clearly stamped with her image. She may
also have been the ancestress of the Kimmeroi, a people who lived
around Palus Maeotis, a onetime
stronghold
of both the Libyan and Thermodontine
Amazons. That they were Amazons becomes
clear from how they were mythologized, as a race that lived in
perpetual darkness. That is, they refused
to worship the Greek sun god Apollo or his later replacement,
Herakles. Similar descriptions of alien
peoples were once commonly used by Christian missionaries, who
referred to them as 'living beyond the
light of the Lord.'
LAMPEDO 'burning torch'
One of the generals who helped establish
Ephesus. Her name refers to the traditional New Moon torchlit
processions in honour of Artemis.
LYSIPPE 'she who lets loose the horses'
Initially ruler of territory North of
the Black Sea, after a natural disaster she moved her people to the
Thermodon
plain. She is also considered founder
of the worship of Artemis Tauropolos. Devastated when her son
committed suicide, she turned her
energies
to consolidating and expanding the Amazon Nation.
Lysippe built Themiskyra 'divine Themis'
and its great temple of Themis-Artemis, and recodified Northern
Amazon law. Also an ingenious strategist
and general, she led the first cavalry unit. Her strategy and judgment
of character were so sound that Marpesia
and her other generals completed it successfully after her death.
MARPESIA 'the snatcher'
Ruler with Hippo 'horse,' and Lampedo
'burning torch' after the death of Lysippe, she founded a great city in
the
Kaukasus Mountains near the Caspian Gate,
by what was called the Marpesian Cliff. She helped extend
Amazon influence to Europe, Asia, Thrake,
Syria, and greater Asia Minor. She was succeeded by her daughter
Synope after Marpesia was killed in
battle
with Asian invaders.
MELANIPPE 'black horse'
Sister of Hippolyta, she was captured
during the Second Doric Raid. She led a successful mutiny to free
herself
and her fellow captives. They landed
at Scythia where many of the other captives stayed to found a new city,
while she returned to participate in
the Attic War.
MOLPADIA 'death song'
A participant in the Attic War, she saw
her queen Antiope fall, injured so seriously she could not defend
herself from Theseus and his retainers.
She killed the queen with an arrow, saving her from violation by the
Athenian king.
MYRINE 'swiftly bounding'
The deeds attributed to Myrine are truly
of mythic proportions. Queen of the North African Gorgons, she
succeeded in raising an army of 33 000,
30 000 of which was cavalry, and conquer a stupendous amount of
territory, including Atlantis. Depending
who is writing, she was a kind conqueror, or an incredibly vicious one,
acting more like a butcher than an
Amazon.
Her story was still in the process of revision when these versions
were written down.
Considering how difficult it was for
most early cities to reach 10 000 people, even assuming Myrine collected
vast numbers of allies or conscripts,
the numbers seem too large. The story reads like a telescoped, confused
explanation of how the Amazon Nation
came to be so vast. The Nation was of considerable size, but what the
Greeks knew of it was created and
administered
mainly in a time when societal norms were changing.
Information on it derives mainly from
biased sources, who considered large
groups of allied people impossible
without
warfare. Considering the Northern Amazon Nation existed as a
political power for over 400 years and
only ceased to be one after two centuries of concerted pressure from
patriarchal forces, and the inability
of war based empires to last even 100 years, fighting has too strong a
role in
these stories.
Some of the first African Amazon tribes
lived on an island off the vast Northern coast of the continent,
alternately called Tritonia or Hespera
by later authors. The island was probably called Tritonia, giving the
inland
sea Lake Tritonis its name later. Others
lived in a territory including the vast Atlas mountain range.
Unfortunately for the island Amazons
who worshipped the Moon and Sea Goddess Sipylene 'the Mother,'
Tritonia was a volcanic island. In a
cataclysm that would be repeated at Thera near Crete, the island was
destroyed, leaving behind only the
present
day Canary Islands.
The Tritonians were driven to the
mainland.
However, life was difficult in and around the Atlas Mountains. The
Sun beat down mercilessly, and it was
necessary to contend with the desert. The sea-loving Tritonians soon
came into conflict with the Gorgons,
worshippers of Athena the Sun Goddess. Such a huge number of refugees
of a different culture although similar
philosophy could not be absorbed easily.
After some fighting, the first Myrine
led her people further east, to the region around Lake Tritonis. The
name
'Myrine' became a title taken by each
queen in honour of her role in resettling her people and repairing
relations
with the Gorgons. Her efforts on the
latter were so successful that the two
tribes eventually united, much to the
confusion of outsiders later, resulting in the garbled tale of the
invasion
of
Atlantis.
The next Myrine of great influence had
to deal directly with the united Egypt. Its armies forced a Libyan
migration which led to conflict between
the Amazons and the fleeing tribes. Myrine was more than successful,
turning her army from defense to offense
and taking control of Syria, Egypt, Phrygia, and other Mediterranean
lands. After some years holding that
territory, renewed fighting forced them to withdraw from most of it,
except
Phrygia and some small areas around the
Mediterranean. The resurgence of unified Egypt forced a Libyan
migration, resulting in Amazons and other
tribes sailing on to Crete and Cyprus. It became clear that taking over
other nations was not a successful tactic
for increasing the Amazon Nation or maintaining it.
Unlike most nations, since the Amazon
Nation consisted solely of women, any strategy that ended numerous
lives to no purpose had to be abandoned
by necessity, even without the difference in mindset between
Goddess worshipping and god worshipping
cultures. So by philosophy and practicality,
a conquistadora strategy never became
enshrined in Amazon culture. The Myrine who helped found Ephesus
was a great warrior and general, but
more importantly she was an excellent diplomat. Her numerous 'foot and
cavalry' were not raised solely from
Libyan Amazonia, if such numbers could have been raised. Rather than
going out to conquer, she sent out
numerous
riders and messengers to search out like minded tribes of women,
with overtures to confederation.
The tactic was enormously successful.
By the end of it, the Taurian Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caucus river
formed the boundaries of the Amazon
Nation
in Europe and Asia Minor. Numerous Goddess worshipping tribes
that were not Amazon became allies in
order to gain support against the growing numbers of hostile patriarchal
tribes coming from the North. Myrine
went on to found a city in Aeolis named for herself, and Smyrna in
Lydia,
also named for herself.
During one of her many sea journeys she
was caught in a storm. She sacrificed to Sipylene, long considered a
protector of sailors caught on rough
seas, and made it to shore. Myrine died fighting Scythian and Thrakian
tribes that felt threatened by the
increased
power of the Amazons. Her tomb,
called Bateia 'thorn hill' was near Troy,
a later barometer for the strength of patriarchal forces.
The next Myrine, daughter of Orithia,
was forced to fight followers of 'Dionysus' for control of Ephesus.
Besides being an important crossroads,
it was of such religious importance that control of it was considered a
source of Amazon strength. Myrine's army
was fronted by her Gorgons in snakeskin
armour, armed with bows which they drew
past their chests and could fire rapidly from horses at full gallop.
Gathering allies as she moved North,
a huge army with a significant mounted component attacked the Greek
stronghold of Olympus. Succeeding in
breaking its power at least temporarily, memory of this army remained,
multiplying in numbers and ferocity as
time passed. Much of this army, like others before
it, consisted of women past childbearing
age. Later encounters with increasing numbers of Greek soldiers forced
younger women to fight on a regular
basis,
leading to the eventual tales of the beautiful Gorgons,
protected by their crone sisters, the
Graea.
Later the Thermodontine Amazons reunited
the numerous tribes and cities of women who worshipped mainly
Athena, Artemis, and Cybele, and
recreated
alliances with other Goddess-worshipping tribes. Artemis was the
main embodiment of feminine power in
the Northern areas of the Amazon Nation, and never ceased to be
associated with it. Athena suffered cruel
transformations at the hands of the newly powerful Greek warlords,
who made her white and a cruel foe to
women.
MITYLENE 'hornless Moon'
Sister of the second famous Myrine who
helped her settle Lesbos. Myrine named the colony's capital after her
in gratitude for her assistance.
MYRTO 'Sea Goddess'
Named for Aphrodite as a stormy, warlike
Sea Goddess, this Amazon warrior was mother of Autolycus, who
was later conveniently stripped of his
Amazon associations.
ORITHIA 'woman raging in the mountains'
Daughter of Marpesia, she led the Attic
War to free her fellow Amazon queen Antiope and avenge the death of
queen Hippolyta. Learning that a
significant
number of Scythian and Thrakian slaves were in Athens, with a
portion of the former kept as a personal
guard for the Athenian king, Orithia saw a great
opportunity. Gathering her Scythian and
Thrakian allies, she sent two sets of diplomatic envoys. One to ensure
Lakonia did not assist Athens, which
was no great problem, and a more subtle group to contact Scythian and
Thrakian slave leaders to see what the
odds were of gaining their assistance in return for freedom.
In a feat more impressive than
Hannibal's,
Orithia led her army across the Kimmerian Bosporus, over the
Danube, then through Thrake, Thessaly,
and Boeotia. Then she besieged Athens, which collapsed between her
army and the slave revolt it suffered
within.
Orithia had no intentions of staying,
however. After completing a treaty with the chastened Athenians and
building a tomb for Antiope, she and
her army left, taking a considerable number of newly freed slaves with
them.
Unfortunately, Orithia had suffered
serious
injuries, and succumbed to infection on the way home. Her fate was
shared by other Amazons, who were buried
along the army's route home. Among the Amazons who participated
in the Attic War, a few have had their
names recorded.
Amynome 'blameless defender'
Androdameia 'tamer of men'
Antianara 'against the sea'
Antimache 'warrior of the opposition'
Antiope 'confronting Moon' (not the
queen)
archer
Aristomache 'best of warriors'
Charope 'brilliant confrontation'
Deinomache 'terrible warrior'
Dolope 'snare'
Doris 'bountiful' spearwielder
Echephyle 'chief defender' wicker shield
Eumache 'good warrior'
Euryleia 'wide wandering'
Hippomache 'horse warrior'
Kleoptoleme 'famous warrior'
Klymene 'famous might'
Kreousa 'golden'
Laodoke 'good for the people'
Melousa 'gentle one'
Mimnousa 'strong one'
Molpadia 'death song'
Okyale 'swift moving' archer
Pyrgomache 'fiery warrior'
Xanthippe 'yellow horse' sabrer
OTRERE 'the nimble'
Builder of the great temple of Artemis
and its attendant bird sanctuary on Aretias, an island on the Black Sea.
She was deified after her death.
PANTARISTE 'best of all'
Scythian Amazon who led an attack on
Greek pirate captains during the Second Doric Raid. She pursued two
Greeks going to warn their compatriots
armed with her spear and shield, which was emblazoned with a white
sphinx. Throwing her spear at one Greek
so hard that she pinned him to the ground and couldn't get it loose,
she killed the other with her bare hands.
PENTHESILEA 'compelling men to mourn'
Daughter of Kleite or Orithia, ruler
of the Thermodontine Amazons with her sister Hippolyta and Antianeira,
who eventually succeeded her. She had
Thrakian roots, and this along with a call for help from the besieged
queen of Troy led her to lead a small
force to the city's aid.
The Amazons temporarily freed the city,
and Penthesilea killed Achilles, leader of the Myrmidonian Greeks.
Contrary to some claims, he was not
brought
back to life again. He was named for a mythological figure
representing the half of the year when
the Sun waxes, while Agamemnon fills in for the waning Sun. They
dueled in order to show off their skills
to the Moon Goddess Briseis. Of course she chose the waxing Sun at
Winter Solstice and the waning Sun at
Summer Solstice. The tale was grafted into the story of the fall of
Troy.
In any case, the next battle led to
Troy's
defeat. Penthesilea was killed by treachery, stabbed in the back by one
of the infamous priests of Apollo who
had betrayed the city. Again contrary to popular belief, Penthesilea was
not part of last flair of greatness from
a dying Nation. Homeric Troy fell around 1200 BCE, a full six centuries
before the official political demise
of the Northern Amazon Nation. What she probably does represent is the
beginning of the retreat of Goddess
worshipping
peoples in Asia Minor in the face of continuing violence from
invaders.
Penthesilea's elite group:
Alkibia 'force of might'
Andro 'manly' in final battle
Antandre 'preceding man'
Antibrote 'gory opposition'
Bremusa 'invoker of the Muses' in final
battle
Derimachea 'wearing leather armour'
Evadne 'blooming'
Harmothoe 'sharp nail'
Hippothoe 'impetuous horse'
Klonie 'young shoot'
Polemusa 'rich in the Muses' Gifts'
Thermodosa 'heated one'
Other leaders:
Derinoe 'tough minded'
Aina 'swiftness'
Androdaira/Androdaixa 'subduer of men'
PLEIADES 'sailing ones' or 'flock of
doves'
The usual seven Pleiades are in fact
daughters of Aphrodite as Dove Goddess, with only Taygete recognized as
an Amazon. The Amazon Pleiades were
daughters
of an Amazon queen. They created choral dances and night
festivals in honour of Artemis.
Glaukia 'grey green'
Kokkymo 'curling wave'
Lampedo 'torch'
Maia 'grandmother'
Parthenia 'maiden'
Protis 'first'
Stonychia 'barb, sharp point'
SYNOPE/SINOPE 'Moon face'
Daughter of Marpesia, founded a city
named for herself on the shores of the Black Sea. She drove off Greek
invaders so successfully they maligned
her for being warlike. They later mythologized her as an Amazon queen
so desirable, the gods offered her
anything
she wanted in hopes of demanding her body in payment. Shrewd as
her mother before her, Synope forced
each god to swear by his own testicles to leave her alone.
THESEIS 'she who lays down'
What she lays down is the law, suggesting
the name may have been a title of Themis the Lawgiver originally.
The name belongs to an obscure Amazon,
sometimes claimed to be Antiope, but this is a late revision.
Buy Carla Osborne's Book Amazon Nation
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