Der Friends of ancient Mythology! The coin: Galatia, Ankyra, Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161 AE 28, 13.15g, 225° obv. [AVT KAI] AΔPI ANTΩ - NEINOC CEB ΠIΩ bare head, r. rev. H METPOΠOΛIC THC - ΓAΛATIAC ANKVPA Amazon in short chiton, wearing boots, advancing r. with waving chlamys behind, holding shield and double-axe in l. hand and rudder in extended r. hand ref. BMC 7 about VF, spotted patina The shield of the Amazon is a so-called pelte, a light leaf-shaped shield (with indentation) made from basketry or wood, covered with leather, and used by Thracian light-armed. Pat Lawrence has maíled me: Yes, and Sir Arthur Evans had noticed the frequent double axe in Asia Minor; that was one reason why he thought that the Minoans (i.e., the constituent in the population that started their bronze age) had come from Asia Minor (the main one, of course, being the non-Greek place names). The Amazons being Eastern, they sometimes have double axes. One group of the Mausoleum slabs in the British Museum shows them with double axes. The iconography is a little romantic and may not take into account the likelier situation of the horsemen who gave rise to the Amazon mythology - perhaps Scythian rather than Anatolian. A century ago you could read about an Anatolian Young God who had the double axe. It still is not clear how closely related to certain cults of Apollo that may be. But what a fine portrait of Hadrian! The pic shows the replica of a Brass Minoan worship double-axe (labrys). War Museum Athens The origin of the Amazons: The Amazons were a community of warlike women, called by the Scyths 'men-killing', who drew the bow, threw the spear, went hunting, but didn't like housework. They were children of Ares and the nymph Harmonia (or Aphrodite) born in the valleys of the Acmonean Phrygia. First they lived at the Amazon river, which now is called Tanais (todays Don) according to Tanais, son of Amazon Lysippe. He offended Aphrodite because he spurned marriage and addicted himself to war. To satisfy her thirst for revenge she managed that Tanais fell in love with her mother. To avoid the incestuous desire he jumped into the river and was drowned. Thereupon Lysippe led her daughters along the coasts of the Black Sea to a plain of the river Thermodon in Pontos. There they bore three tribes each of them founding a city. From these times on the Amazons counted their parentage by their mothers. Before Lysippe died in war she founded the big city of Themiskyra and defeated all tribes up to the river Tanais. From the booties they built great temples for Ares and Artemis Tauropolis. They conquered major parts of Asia Minor and Syria and founded the cities Ephesos, Smyrna, Kyrene and Myrine. After being defeated by the Greeks at the river Thermodon they retreated into the land of the Skyths and merged with young natives who could gain their confidence and joined them so generating the people of the Sauromates (Herodot, Hist. IV, 110-117). The Greeks often met the Amazons. Here are the most famous myths: Herakles and Hippolyte: This was the nineth labour of Herakles. Admete, daughter of Eurystheus, whom Herakles was damned to serve, wished to get the girdle of Hippolyte, queen of Amazons. So Herakles was sent to Pontos at the Black Sea, where the Amazons lived near the river Thermodon. The bravest among them was her queen Hippolyte. As insignia she had gotten the girdle from her father Ares. Herakles and his companions landed at Themiskyra near the mouth of the Thermodon. It is said that Theseus and Telamon were with Herakles too. The Amazons weren't averse to the heroes and Hippolyte was inclined to donate the girdle to Herakles. But then Hera appears in the shape of an Amazon and aroused the suspicion against Herakles and his companions that their intention was to rape Hippolyte. So a slaughter occured between the Greek heroes and the Amazons. Herakles killed the queen and took the girdle. This is depicted on the relief of the metopes in Olympia. The girdle was kept in the temple of Hera in Mykenai. It is told too that it was Theseus who captured the girdle and donated it to Herakles, or that Herakles has taken Hippolyte to Greece where she has born his son Hippolytos. Theseus and Antiope: It is told too, that Herakles succeeded in conquering Themiskyra not until the Amazon Antiope fell in love with Theseus and betrayed her sisters. But it is told too that Theseus together with his friend Perithoos moved out to rape Antiope, an analogy to the rape of Helena. In Athens she is said to have given birth to Hippolytos, or Demophon. Here the myths of Herakles and Theseus were mixed up. To free their queen or to revenge the dishonor Theseus has done to her by marrying a second wife, the army of the Amazons appears at Athens. It came from the North making long detours from the coasts of the Black Sea because the Amazons were no seafaring nation but a people on horses. The left wing of the army leaned against the Areopag (the name refers to Ares because the Amazons here sacrificed to Ares) at the place where later the Amazoneion was built, the sanctuary of the heroes to honor the Amazons. The right wing stood at the Pynx. From there they advanced against the Akropolis. But an Athenian army attacked them from behind coming from the Hill of the Muses. So in the 4th month of siege they have been forced to close a peace agreement. This was the first time that the Athenias had to fight against foreign invaders on their own homeland. The wounded Amazons were sent to Chalkis to heal them. This all was real history for the Athenians. They showed to visitors strange tombs and attributed them to the Amazons: In Athens the tomb of Antiope, in Megara the tomb of Hippolyte. This was strengthened by the halfmoon shaped shields of the Amazons which could be recognized. Great wall paintings show the battle. One was found in the Stoa poikile, the 'Painted Colonnade'. It is told too, that Herakles came to help his friend Theseus, and that Penthesilea already took part in this war. Accidentally she should haved killed her queen Hippolyte. Achilleus und Penthesilea: After the death of Hektor Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, came with her army to Troy to attend the ceremonies of his funeral. It was said that accidentally she has killed Hippolyte, mother of Hippolytos. King Priamos of Troy should sanctify the murder. By the way Priamos is said to have fight against the Amazons already in his youth. This battle occured at the river Sangarios (Homer Ilias III, 189). It is said that the Amazons had to distinguish themselfs by fighting against men bevor they were allowed to choose a lover. So the virgin Penthesilea appears at Troy. Eleven days Achilleus has given for the ceremonies. On the twelfth day the beautiful Penthesilea attacked the Greeks. But how beautiful and lovely she was, and how well she could have replaced the daughter of Briseus (we remember?) Achilleus recognized not before he hit her deadly with his spear. In the moment he looked in her dying eyes he fell in immortal love with her. It is even said that he has raped her dead body. Thersites, the ugliest Greek at Troy, mocked Achilleus due to his unnatural lust, until Achilleus slew him. This deed outraged the Greek and Diomedes threw Penthesilea's body into the river Skamandros. But it is said that she was saved and Achilleus has given her body to the Troyans to bury her. This is the appropriate place to remind of the tragedy "Penthesilea" of Heinrich von Kleist. Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), a German dramatist, novelist and poet, outside of Weimar Classicism and Romantic has written this work in 1808. In it he has thematized in a stirring kind the conflict between an intensively feeling individuum and a social system that doesn't allow natural sentiments. He himself broke up on this conflict and shot homself and his girlfrien on November 21 1811 at the Little Wannsee in Berlin. The pic shows the Attic black-figured neck-amphora, Greek, c.540-530 BC, found at Vulci/Itala, signed by Ekesias, probably the finest ancient painter, with the depiction "Achilles killing Penthesilea". Now in the British Museum, London Background: The Amazons are a fabulous nation of war-like women. In Homer's Ilias only indistinct reminscences are found: Bellerphontes defeated them in Lykia; Priamos has fighted them in Phrygia; a hill in the Troyan plain is regarded as tomb of the Amazon Myrine; the Amazons altogether are called antianeirai, later interpreted as 'anti-male' or 'equal to men'. Directly after the end of the Ilias the Aithiopsis is attached: The Amazon Penthesilea comes to help Priamos against the Greeks, is killed by Achilleus and bemoaned by him. The main features of the later Amazon myth are the following: Coming from the East they founded a women state in the North-East of Asia Minor, between Sinope and Trapezus, with the capital Themiskyra. They worshipped Ares (as their ancestor) and Artemis (Tauropolis). For reproduction they lived together with a neighbour people for two month in the springtime. The boys then were killed (or made disabled for war by breaking their legs or sent back to their fathers). The girls stayed virgins until they have killed three enemies. Their arms are arrows and bow and a sword hanging on a band running across their chest; mostly they are mounted. Men don't count for their family tree.. Main sources: Diodor and Strabon. Herodot connects the Amazons with the Skyths and says the Sauromates (Sarmates) descend from the Amazons. Obviously they were located always more to the East when no Amazons were found at the river Thermodon. Pompeius says he has fighted Amazons north of the Kaukasos! Already early Amazons too were known in Libya which undertook many conquering campaigns. Many Aiolian and Ionian cities claimed to be founded by Amazons of Asia Minor, so Smyrna and Ephesos. Interpretation: The etymological deduction from Greek mazos with α-privativum (meaning: without breast) is obviously wrong! In fine arts they are always depicted with two breasts. Obsolete too is the interpretation as an army of warlike priestesses of Artemis. Today the general opinion is that the myths are an echo of historical battles against matriarchalic tribes of Asia Minor (not Hettites!) mixed with magical and fabulous motives (e.g. women rape), tied up to tombs which were worshipped at several places in Greece. In Athens the Amazoneion was situated at the declivity of the Areopag, nearby the tombs with the Amazonis stele alluded to Antiope and Hippolyte. Note: When the Spanish conquistadores conquered South-America they met Indian tribes where the women fighted together with the men. So they were thinking they have found the enigmatic people of the Amazons and called the greatest river on earth acording to them Amazonas. History of Art: In ancient art the Amazons were depicted usually mounted. Their arms are very different from the arms of the hoplits: Bow, double-axe and light half-moon shaped shields emphasize the strangeness.There are many pictures of Amazons, mostly in the Attic vase-painting, where the episode with Herakles and Theseus occurs too; then in the sculpture of buildings as vast sequence of battle scenes on metopes and friezes, f.e. the Temple of Zeus in Olympia (c. 470-460 BC), the Parthenon (447-438 BC) and the Temple of Apollo in Bassae-Rhigalia (about 420 BC; London). According to the Athenians the battle against the Amazons which have invaded Attica was a mythic prefiguration of the struggle of the Athenians against the Barbars. The Roman sarcophages were dominated by the events at Troy. Achilleus raising the dead Penthesilea or, not so often, the arrival of the Amazons after the death of Hektor. In many Roman copies (e.g. in Berlin, PM; in Copenhagen, CG; in New York, MM; in the Louvre and in Rome, MC) have passed down the statues of the wounded Amazons which according to a report of Pliny the Elder were created by the famous sculptors Phidias, Polyklet, Kresilas, Kydon and Phradmon during a contest for the Temple of the Ephesian Artemis (the award went to Polyklet). The Amazons were a theme too in the Renaissance (Carpaccio). Rubens has painted a great battle painting in the Baroque and at last the German expressionist Beckmann (1911; Beverly Hills, R. Gore Rifkind Coll.) The pic shows the marble statue of a Amazon (so-called type I), c. 440/430 BC. This is one of the statues created during a contest for the Temple of Artemis in Ephesos. Now in the Museo Vaticano in Rome. The original probably was made of bronze as all Greek sculptures. Sources: (1) Der kleine Pauly (2) Karl Kerenyi, Heroengeschichten (3) Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie (4) Aghion/Barbillon/Lissarrague, Reclams Lexikon der antiken Götter und Heroen in der Kunst Best regards
My nicest depiction of an Amazon: CILICIA. Soloi. Circa 440-410 BC. Stater Amazon, nude to the waist, kneeling left and stringing her bow; wearing bonnet and with her gorytos at her hip; to right, facing head of satyr. Rev. ΣΟΛΕΩΝ Bunch of grapes; to right, fly; all within incuse square. Casabonne Type 2. SNG Levante 40. SNG Paris 128 10.71g 22.1mm "The Amazons were a tribe of female warriors who supposedly originated in northern Asia Minor. They appear in a great number of Greek legends and were a favorite subject for ancient painting and sculpture (they supposedly removed their right breasts in order to be better able to throw javelins and draw their bows, but this is never shown in works of art and it seems prima facie unlikely). The engraver of this coin got out of the problem by showing the Amazon from behind, with only her left breast visible under her arm. Precisely why she appears on the coinage of Soloi is unknown and probably relates to a local myth." Source, Amazon subjective desc: https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=138679 - Michael
Amazing stater @iamtiberius and good write-up @Jochen . If you have a chance read _The Amazons_ by Adrienne Mayor. Professor Mayor has a theory about the Amazon depicted on the staters of Soloi. She believes she is Antiope. She lays out the theory and why Soloi choice her on page 265. Here is another ancient Amazon, this one of Amisos. Pontos, Amisos, 85-65 BC, 5.99g, 20-21mm Obv: Andromeda or Amazon head in wolf (ketos?) skin Rev: ΑΜΙ-ΣΟΥ; Nike My personal theory is that this coin has the features of Hypsicratea, the Scythian wife of Mithradates. His artisans liked to use his features on his coins of Perseus. It makes sense that this coin, long believed to be either Andromeda or an Amazon, is Hypsicratea. I have no way to prove this however.
I highly recommend Last of the Amazons by Steven Pressfield as a great, fictional read on this topic that, aside from the compelling story, gives some really interesting insight into the barbarian mind.
