Were the Amazons fact or fiction? Did they ever really exist? Let us consider three main accounts that mention their existence.
The ancient Greeks were the first to ever write about the Amazons at about 700 BCE, both Homer and Herodotus described this legendary tribe. The Greek word Amazon means with one breast.
The Amazons as Described By the Greeks
In ritualistic ceremonies, Amazons were said to have removed their right breasts with fire, even while their daughters were yet babies, so that its growth would be arrested, and all its strength and bulk diverted to the right shoulder and right arm for the purpose of being able to aim and shoot a bow more easily!
In some versions, no men were permitted to have sexual encounters or reside in Amazon country; but once a year, in order to prevent their race from dying out, they visited the Gargareans, men of a neighbouring tribe for mating. The male children who were the result of these visits were either killed, sent back to their fathers or exposed in the wilderness to fend for themselves; while the girls were kept and brought up by their mothers, these were trained in agricultural pursuits, hunting, and the art of war.
In other versions, when the Amazons went to war, they would not kill all the men, but would take some as slaves, and once or twice a year would mate with these slaves for the purpose of procreation. Amazon women were also mentioned in Greek myths; for example, one of the labours of Hercules required him to acquire the girdle of the Amazon queen, Hippolyte, given to her by her father Ares – the god of war according to Greek mythology.
Amazons in the Forests of South America
The Amazons described by the Greeks were phenomenal foes, but even more forbidden were tales of the warrior women told by Spanish conquistadors travelling the remote rain forests of South America in the 16th century. They were full of fear and anticipation as they entered this exotic new world, returning with fantastic stories of seeing armed women patrolling the forests. Most of these tales were distressing, as some claimed to have seen the bodies of Indian men hanging from trees alongside rivers – a visual warning to all those who dare travel on Amazon land!
These stories, though were dismissed as hear-says and rumours until a written account came to light in 1542, as penned in the diary of a friar, Francisco de Orellana, who was travelling with an expedition of men searching for the mystical city of Eldorado. He wrote:
We suddenly came upon the excellent land of the Amazons. These women are white and tall and have very long braided hair, and they are very robust with their bows and arrows in their hands.
He claimed to have encountered and fought with these fierce women on a tributary of the Amazon – the Nhamunda (Marañon) River – renaming it Amazon or Amazonia in Spanish. Afterwards the whole basin and region of the Amazon were named after the river.
The Amazons of West Africa
The story of fierce, Amazon women also stretched to Sub Saharan Africa, where bands of warrior women were known to strike fear in the hearts of European colonisers. In 1863, a British explorer, Sir Richard Burton arrived in the West African coastal nation of Dahomey (present day Republic of Benin), and observed that the Dahomeans were a violent, warrior nation who actively participated in the slave trade, turning it to their advantage as they captured and sold their tribal enemies.
But it was the elite ranks of Dahomean warriors that caught their attention – they were women! An estimated 5000 women filled the elite ranks of the king’s army, and were trained to be both mentally and physically tough.
French delegations visiting Dahomey in the mid 1880s reported seeing an Amazon girl about 16 years in training, they said of her:
She took a full swing of her machete, raised high into the air, before bringing it down and completely removing the head of a prisoner. She wiped the blood that had splattered onto her hands and swallowed it, as her fellow Amazons screamed in frenzied approval, showing the express pleasure they derive in killing.
Whatever may be the truth about these events, humans will continue to remain enthralled by stories of fierce, warrior women and their exploits. But you, what do you make of it?
