Saturday, January 30, 2016

Amazons Of Then

The Amazons supposedly originated from Bronze Age tales of a tribe of women warriors living along the shore of the Euxine Sea or the Black Sea. The Scythians on the Don River called them the Oiorpata. Little else than myth forms their story, although according to Wikipedia reported that the Sarmatians were descendants of Amazons and Scythians, and that their wives observed their ancient maternal customs, "frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the men". Moreover, said Herodotus, "No girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle".

Homer wrote about the tribe in THE ILIAD and legend related that the Amazons lived apart from men and only engaged in intercourse with male slaves taken in battle once a year for breeding purposes.

Herodotus lived some six hundred years after the height of the Amazons. The historian traveled throughout the Persian Empire and Asian Greek States, so his mentions of the female soldiers were based on myth, although some say that the Amazons fought for the Persian satraps in the eastern empire.

Recent archaeological digs in the Russian steppes discovered a kurgan burial mound for women warriors of an above average height puportedly belonging to the Sarmatians, a mixed race of Sychtians and Amazons.

But no one knows for sure.

When history is lost to time.

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