Amazon Women Essay

To what extent is Lyn Webster Wilde’s portrayal of Amazon women an accurate one as seen in On the Trail of the Women Warriors: The Amazons in Myth and History Stories of beautiful, bloodthirsty Amazon warrior women storming across battlefields have been told and speculated over for thousands of years. The word Amazon comes from “a-“, without and “mazos”, breast, which came from a popular belief that the Amazon Warrior Women would remove their right breasts, too enable them to draw a bow.

Ancient writers such as Homer, Aeschylus, and Hellanicus have described the women as warriors who fought ruthlessly, killed or mutilated male offspring, had promiscuous sex with anyone in order to get pregnant, and lived in a matriarchal society. They were perceived to be as beautiful as they were cruel. Lyn Webster Wilde author of On the trail of Warrior Women: The Amazons in Myth and History, is an English broadcaster with a degree in English literature from Cambridge. She first encountered the Amazon warrior women when she was working on a BBC programme called Revolting Women.

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It became her goal to discover the true sources of the Amazon myth, with an exploration into the ancient forms of female power[1]. Discovering that truly being an Amazon was not so much about physical strength, but about inner strength. In essence it was not about fighting, but more so about bravery, skill, imagination, adaptability and humanity[2]. Traits which Wilde says can be found in the ancient women from the Scythian , the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, and the story of Queen of Kanesh. It is these female’s that she deems worthy enough to be considered of having Amazon qualities.

The presentation of the Scythian women by Wilde, shows that they were strong, adaptable, and skilful, when it came to their everyday lives and customs. The Scythians were a group of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists, from ancient Iranian background, who lived over the vast area of modern day Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia, which was until medieval times known as Scythia. It is common belief that the Scythian woman were not allowed to marry until they had killed three enemies. Wilde portrays the woman within the Scythian community as strong, and equal to men when it comes to war.

Evidence for this comes from her description of a woman found in 1884 by Bobrinsky, on the left bank of the River Tiasmin. This body has been reinvestigated by Professor Renate Rolle, an expert archaeologist in Scythian communities. The grave contained two bodies, the main burial was that of a woman and perpendicular to her feet laid a young male. Around her body lay accoutrements, many of them those which are classically associated with women – such as weaving and spinning tools, as well a mirror and glass beads – but she also possessed a bow, knives and spears.

This warrior woman is obviously from some social standing, has been deemed important enough to have a male servant to accompany her on her death journey[3]. It is known though that the graves which have been found are found intermingled with those of men, which proves that the women of Scythia did not live in an all female society. Wilde also suggests that men of the Scythian community would do women’s work, and live like women[4]. Herodotus is the first writer who describes the Scythian women.

He says that they were originally Amazon women, who decided they would live with the Scythian men as long as the women could keep their warrior ways[5]. Pseudo-Hippocrates, who wrote in the late fifth century BC says that the Scythian woman were a lot like the Amazons described in Greek literature, he believed that the mothers seared off their female child’s right breast at birth to make the strength go to the right arm[6]. Wilde suggests that part of living within a society where survival depends on adaptability, might mean that woman would could take up men’s roles within the community, just as men could take up woman’s[7].

She suggests some controversial idea’s to that of Herodutus and Hippocrates, saying she does not believe that the Scythians woman were descendents Amazons, but she does believe that they have some Amazonian traits. The Scythians, do have the warrior instincts of the Amazons, but do not have many of the other qualities which are often associated to Amazons. Lyn Webster Wilde’s portrayal of godesses’ Ishtar of Babylonian and Assyrian background, or Inanna of Sumerian origins, is a much softer and nurturing one than how they were viewed by these ancient civilisations.

Both Ishtar/Inanna – who are the same goddess, but with different names –are the goddesses’ of love, fertility and war. The most popular myth she is seen in is Inanna/Ishtar’s decent to the Underworld, where she travels to the underworld to claim it’s rule from her sister Ereshkigal. Ereshkigal though, sentences her to death, but with her death all nature dies too. She is reborn by the god Enki, but a person has to take her place in the death, Inanna/Ishtar chooses her consort Dumuzi, who from then on ruled the underworld for half a year.

Wilde sees them as to depict the element’s of Inanna/Ishtar which are kinder, saying that she embodies elements of both men and woman, and is to be like a shaman, who can take on qualities of each sex[8]. She believes that Ishtar/Inanna personify elements in women that men cannot comprehend or ever have, she shows the ‘virgin’ who is also a prostitute, the wild, untamea4ble, and dangerous part of the female mind,[9] Wilde believes that they truly are neither good nor bad. Controversially Micha F.

Lindemans, author of Encyclopedia Mythica, describes these two goddess’ as an “evil, heartless women, who destroyed her mates and lovers”[10]. Lindemans’ believes she is a fickle and cruel character who leads on men and then pitilessly rejects, injuries or kills them[11]. This is similar to the Homer’s description of Amazon women as being both man loving and man hating. Wilde seems to soften the true nature of the goddesses’ so they appear to be kinder, and therefore are not judged so ruthlessly.

The true nature of these goddesses’ is of a cruelty which can be seen in the classical views of the Amazon warrior women. The Hittite myth of Queen of Kanesh, is portrayed by Wilde as a story containing the trait of an all female society which is often associated to the Amazon’s seen in ancient texts. It is said that the Queen of Kanesh in one year bore thirty sons, and sent them down a river where they ended up in Zalpuwa. The following year she bore thirty daughters, this time she kept them and raised them herself.

The sons then returned to Kanesh when they were older, the Queen, not realising who they were offered them to her daughters, but the youngest son realised and said “we do not want to sleep with them as that would be a crime”. With reference to this story Wilde proposes that, one woman could not have borne thirty children in a year, however, a group of woman could, and it is possible that one year for the women to have more boys[12]. She then goes on to suggest that these woman could have been priestesses in a goddess-temple, a place where only female-children would be kept.

She continues by saying that these girls could have been offered to their brothers, in an act of sacred prostitution[13]. The Queen of Kanesh myth, Wilde implies, could be the source of the Amazon trait of a matriarchal society. Similarly, according to the website Middle Eastern Mythology the story of Queen of Kanesh refers directly to the Amazonian practice of only raising female children[14]. With this in mind Wilde seems to have found a match for an element of the Amazonian warrior women.

Lyn Webster Wilde draws her conclusions saying that the Amazons represent a forgotten type of female power, and that a race exactly like one described by the ancient writers of Herodutus, Hippocrates, and other writers, did not exist as a whole but elements of them existed throughout many ancient societies[15]. These traits can be seen in the Scythian woman, the Hittite civilisation and in the Goddess’ Ishtar/Inanna. Though what must be noted when reading her interpretations of the Amazonian women is that Wilde is not a historian, and before this had no experience investigating historical issues.

Wilde also has a lot of conflicting evidence, especially that concerning the Scythian woman, and the goddesses’ Ishtar/Inanna. To an extent Lyn Webster Wilde’s construction of the Amazonian woman in On the trail of women warriors: the Amazons in Myth and History is true. Though what must be remembered is Wilde always presents the more positive aspects of Amazons, throughout her book she talks about the athletic, humble, adaptable, and nurturing Amazons, but never once does she present any evidence about the more ruthless aspect of these women.

Even though Wilde believes she has satisfied all elements of the Amazon women myth, she has not acknowledged the callous bloodthirsty trait associated by so many historians with the Amazon women and she therefore fails to satisfy all factors of the Amazon Warrior Women myth. ———————– [1] Lyn Webster Wilde, On the trail of the Women: The amazons in Myth and History, Constable and Company Limited, Great Britain, 1999, pg 1-9 [2] Sally Pomme Clayton and Sophie Herxheimer, Amazons! Women Warriors of the World, Frances Lincoln Limited, Great Britain, 2008, pg 8. [3] Lyn Webster Wilde, Ob Cit, pg 46. [4] Ibid, pg 57 5] Herodotus, Histories, Book IV, 113, translated by Robin Waterfield, Oxford Universirt Press, Oxford, 1998. [6] Hippocrates, De Articulis, Section 53 [7] Lyn Webster Wilde, Ob Cit, pg 68 [8] Lyn Webster Wilde, Ob Cit, p. 135 [9] Ibid, pg 136 [10] Micha F. Lindemans, ‘Ishtar’/’Inanna’, Encyclopedia Mythica, http://www. pantheon. org/articles/i/ishtar. html, accessed 26/5/09 [11] Ibid, Ishtar/Inanna [12] Lyn Webster Wilde, Ob Cit, pg 117 [13] Ibid, pg 117 [14] N/A, Middle Eastern Mythology, Indo-Iranian Mythology, http://rbedrosian. com/Memyth. htm, accessed on: 27/5/09 [15] Lyn Webster Wilde, Ob Cit, pg 190

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