''For the online retailer, see [[Amazon.com]]''.
[[File:Amazonomachy1.jpg|right|300px|thumb|''Bas-relief'' of a fragment from the [[Mausoleum of Halicarnassus]] featuring warfare between Greeks and Amazons.]]
'''Amazon''' (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζών) refers to race or band of warriors comprised exclusively of women, and said to have lived near the shore of the Euxine, or Black Sea where they had formed an independent kingdom centered near the mouth of the Thermodon River in what is today modern [[Turkey]].<ref>Herodotus, ''The Histories'' iv. 110-117</ref> In large part mythological, recent historical and archaeological evidence indicates these warrior women may have existed as part of the ancient Scythian [[Scythia]]n peoples.
==EntymologyEtymology==
The word “amazon” has its origins with the Ionian Greek language of Asia Minor, in what is today modern Turkey. Greeks who settled there came into contact with Persians, of which the word ''ha-mazan'', ("fighting together") originates. These ancient Iranians also gave rise to a people known as Scythians, who lived near the shores of the Black Sea and the steppes to the north; they were renowned for their cavalry. Changes in dialect would turn ''ha-mazan'' into ''Amazōn''.
==Historical accounts==
[[File:Amazon Anatolia.png|right|200px|thumb|Amazon locations mentioned in myth and historical writings within ancient Anatolia]][[File:Central Asia 400-170BC.png|right|200px|thumb|Amazon and Scythian areas around the Euxine (Black) Sea]]After the events portrayed in myth, they are mentioned by early historians during the time of [[Alexander the Great]]; according to them the Greek conqueror has an admirer in Queen Thalestris, who visits him with a large retinue of some 300 female warriors; the tales in this encounter mention her attempt to bear his child.<ref>http://www.pothos.org/content/index.php?page=thalestris-the-amazon-queen</ref><ref>http://www.gilians.de/amazonen/html_en/amaz_en07.html</ref>. Although the Thalestris meeting was certainly fictional, Alexander was placed within the land of the Scythians at the time of its occurrence; Plutarch's ''Life of Alexander'' has him crossing "the river Orexartes" (today's River Don) to "put the Scythians to rout".<ref>the river Orexartes</ref>. A later tale has the Roman general [[Pompey]] discovering Amazons in the army of the ruler of Pontus, Mithradates IV; in battle with that king's army in the southern Caucausus region, Pompey captured many soldiers, and according to the historian Appian of Alexandria (c.95-c.165):
:''"Among the hostages and prisoners many women were found, who had suffered wounds no less than the men. These were supposed to be Amazons, but whether the Amazons are a neighboring nation, who were called to their aid at that time, or whether certain warlike women are called Amazons by the barbarians there, is not known."''<ref>http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_mithridatic_21.html</ref>
:''"...the Hellenes, having conquered them in the battle at the Thermodon, were sailing away and conveying with them in three ships as many Amazons as they were able to take prisoners. These in the open sea set upon the men and cast them out of the ships; but they knew nothing about ships, nor how to use rudders or sails or oars, and after they had cast out the men they were driven about by wave and wind and came to that part of the Maiotian lake where Cremnoi stands; now Cremnoi is in the land of the free Scythians. There the Amazons disembarked from their ships and made their way into the country, and having met first with a troop of horses feeding they seized them, and mounted upon these they plundered the property of the Scythians."''<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh4110.htm</ref>
This legend has that party of Amazons encountering Scythian males, who discovered their new foes to be intriguing. A more friendly encounter was arranged, with the men proposing that they dwell together; the women had their own proposal: they would not settle down. Instead, they proposed that all would live a nomadic, unsettled life where both men and women were treated as equals.<ref>http://www.newyorker.com/books/joshua-rothman/real-amazons</ref>. Herodotus called the decedents of this union ''"Sauromatae"'',<ref>http://www.livius.org/articles/people/sarmatians/</ref>, and they would eventually control much Scythian territory west of the Don. Hippocrates also placed Amazons firmly within Scythia; although not saying the word, he used the folk tale of the removal of the right breast to identify them to his readers:
:''"...in Europe is a Scythian race, dwelling round Lake Maeotis, which differs from the other races. Their name is Sauromatae. Their women, so long as they are virgins, ride, shoot, throw the javelin while mounted, and fight with their enemies. They do not lay aside their virginity until they have killed three of their enemies, and they do not marry before they have performed the traditional sacred rites. A woman who takes to herself a husband no longer rides, unless she is compelled to do so by a general expedition. They have no right breast; for while they are yet babies their mothers make red-hot a bronze instrument constructed for this very purpose and apply it to the right breast and cauterise it, so that its growth is arrested, and all its strength and bulk are diverted to the right shoulder and right arm."''<ref>http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0251%3Atext%3DAer.%3Asection%3D17</ref>
[[Category:Mythology]]
[[Category:History]]