by: Rick Johnson 
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
RikJohnson@juno.com
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When you hear the word AMAZON, a number of pictures come to mind: Gabrielle wearing a bikini and with a staff fighting alongside a number of other bikini-clad Greek women in a popular TV series. Or Greek warrior women missing their left breast. Or Sarmatian women dressing as and fighting alongside their men in Western Asia. Or lesbian-seperationist womyn preparing for the ultimate war of the sexes.
The truth is that all of these are true, and all are false. The real Amazons as we think of them are a complex interweaving of a dozen nations, cultures and legends and desires all tossed into a blender and mixed up until few can tell truth from fiction.
A number of cultures have expected sexual equality of their women, including during times of war. I believe it was Julius Caesar who said that not an entire Legion of Rome could stand against a Celt if his wife took up sword and stood by her man. Thus we see Celtic women being warriors along their men.
Sarmatian men of western Asia often would suffer damage to their testicles after a lifetime of riding horses and once damaged, they no longer would produce testosterone so their primary male characteristics would fade to be replaced with a more womanish body and attitude. These ‘castrated’ men would wear dresses and take on the roles of housewife. Sarmatian women were expected to dress as men and fight alongside their husbands and as their primary weapon was the horse-drawn bow, the lesser strength of these women was relatively unimportant as it would be if forced to use a sword.
A similar situation existed among the Sythians and modern America.
In 16th century Dhomony, the king possessed a bodyguard composed of his harem who had the shared task of protecting the king and bearing his children. Other nations have done the same at various times.
Lybia had a nation of amazon-like women which died out long before the Trojan War who warred with Atlantis. These were led by Queen Myrina who conquered much of North Africa until they were destroyed by Hercules.
Their queen Omphale owned Herakles as a slave and dressed him as a women until she grew tired of him and sent him home.
In Greece, a certain city suffered the murder of their men by the women who then, fearing for their lives, sailed to an isolated island to escape justice for their murders. Jason visited this island during his search for the Golden Fleece. The women welcomed Jason and his men into their beds and the queen proposed to Jason who refused, claiming the importance of his mission. When the Argo left, the women, again fearing that Jason would turn them in, sailed east and presumably settled in Turkey on the shores of the Black Sea.
Anatolian Amazons, shown wearing Greek Armor, aided Troy during that famous war and their leader, Penthesilea, was wounded by Achilles who fell in love with the women he had just tried to kill.
Much of what is written about amazons for popular consumption is done by modern Feminist authors seeking an image of power in which to believe. Thus these authors ascribe to the Amazons their own desires: lesbianism, power, independence, courage, all the traits that are lacking in their own lives.
However none of these writers care much for reality and are unable to a) provide adequate evidence to support their claims and b) adequately refute evidence to counter their beliefs.
Historians who are more careful and less inclined to put their own insecurities into print, insist that the legendary Amazons are a jumbled mixture of nations that allowed sexual equality with fears and dreams and the desire that foreigners be different from us.
The main problem is that we have NO hard evidence that any women-only or woman-ruled nations existed anywhere in the world at any time.
The lesbian/feminist/television image of the Amazon is as accurate as the Wiccan image of a universal Dianic cult. As much as we wish to believe in it, the facts prove otherwise.
There were many legends attributed to the Amazons, all as confusing as their history and each believed by someone who is more than willing to reinterpret the legend t prove their own thesis.
Amazons had their left breast removed to better draw the bow or throw the lance. This was done by burning at birth or by tearing off with pinchers or by the owner herself.
Amazons mated only two months out of the year. Some say three months.
Amazons were so sex-starved that they turned to lesbianism to satisfy their carnal lusts.
When Amazons went to war, they took male slaves along to service them at night.
Amazons killed their male children. Or exposed them to wolves at birth.
Amazons maimed their male children, keeping them as slaves and sperm donors.
Amazons maimed their men to keep them docile, claiming that a crippled man was a better lover.
Amazons were not allowed to breed until they had killed a man in single combat. Some Amazons, thus, died virgins.
Amazons spent their time in hunting, farming and war.
Amazons originated in Georgia on the Caspian Sea and moved south to Turkey.
Amazons were lesbians who used men as sperm donors only, killing them when their task was done.
Amazons so hated men that their children were ‘baster-babies’ centrifuged to ensure only female births.
Amazons are descended from Aries, the God of War and Harmonia, a nymph.
Amazons worship Artemis.
Amazons were lesbians to avoid STDs.
Amazons were inferior warriors which explains why they were driven from Greece to the Cyclades, from the Cyclades to Turkey, from Turkey to Russia, from Russia to? If they were such good fighters, why were they always running away?
Amazons had two queens, a war queen and a domestic queen who shared power.
The Amazon Queen Thalestris visited Alexander the Great to become pregnant by him. It took 13 days.
Pompey, the Roman General, heard of Amazons in the army of Mithradates of Persia.
Amazons invented the Battle-Axe which became the Labrys, a symbol of the Goddess.
Amazons fought with spear and bow and wore Greek Armor.
Amazons wore men’s clothing and fought on horseback with the bow.
All Amazons were six feet tall with flat chests.
The Amazon River was named for a tribe of naked Amazons who attacked the early explorers.
For purposes of these stories, the following history is presumed to be mostly accurate. Amazons themselves rarely talk about their past with outsiders so much is conjecture and much is probably created by combining legend with history to make themselves look good, a common occurance of history.
The Amazon nation occupies a tract of land between the Caspian See and the Silk Road reaching south from the Volga River Delta to Aktau. Near the modern town of Kizlar or about 200 miles north to south by a hundred miles east to west at the north and narrowing to a bout ten miles near Aktau. The lands are mostly grassland with some forests.
Most of what is told about the Amazon Nation conflicts with itself and so all information below is the most probable truth but may be wrong.
HISTORY
There were two main sources of Amazons, the Lybian Amazons and the later Greek Amazons. The Lybian Amazons of North Africa vanished long before the Greek Nation rose. This paper is concerned with only the Greek Nation.
Historically, Amazons were Greeks from a town in Thessaly where they are said to have murdered their husbands and fathers and brothers for some long-forgotten matter. They are silent on the fate of their sons and male babies.
Fearing punishment, they loaded aboard the ships of their men and sailed into the Agaen Sea to found a society on an island where they lived for some years until Jason of the Argos fame arrived on his quest for the Golden Fleece. Lonely for male companionship, the Amazons accepted the Argonaauts and most quickly became pregnant, their Queen asking Jason to remain and rule by her side. Jason declined, claiming his mission to steal the Golden Fleece and return to Greece to reclaim his throne, but he did promise to return.
The women, most pregnant and many with new babies feared that he planned to return to punish them for their murders, repaired their ships and sailed on after Jason and eventually reached northern Turkey where they established a society of women.
To ensure their own safety, the now-amazons, learned to fight with the light javelin and the short sword and would happily bed any male who passed nearby to increase their numbers.
It was during this time they sent an army under Penthesilia to assist Troy in the Trojan War. Penthesilia fought and fell in love with Achilles and ran away with him or was killed by Achilles who later fell in love with her and refused to allow it to be buried or burned and so was kept in his tent for some time as a shrine to his love.
Hercules also made a visit to the Nation, becoming a slave to the Amazon Queen, being forced to wear woman’s clothing and fathering a number of children by the women on the nation who wished his strength in their children. He later returned and took revenge by killing a number of the Amazons.
Eventually, the Turks pushed north and drove the Amazons out to settle on the shores of the Caspian where they lived for some centuries until they vanished from history. Surrounded by the expanding Ottoman Empire to the South, the Expanding Mongol Empire to the NorthEast, the expanding Russian Empire to the NorthWest and the Sarmatian Khanates to the West, they are trapped by aggressive forces on all sides. Some say that they were conquered by the Ottoman Empire and enslaved into Turkish Harems, others say they were absorbed into the Russian population, others say they fled to another land where they live today.
RELIGION
Despite the historical origins of their race, which they freely admit, Amazons also believe that they are descended from the God Aries and the Nymph Harmonia.
Their religion centers around the worship of Artemis/Diana the Moon Goddess of hunting and the original Turkish Aphrodite, Goddess of love, passion and independence. Artemis tolerates men, Aphrodite pursues them. At one time they also worshipped the War Gods Aries and Athena, but though still worshipped, these two are now secondary to Artemis and Aphrodite. There is no real explanation why a nation of warrior-women would reduce the importance of their War Gods, especially the one who founded their race.
The ancients performed sacrifices, human and animal, to these Goddesses but modern Amazons do not. Or if they do the do not advertise the fact.
MILITARY
Amazons were originally simple Greek wives and mothers who were forced to learn to fight when they settled in Turkey. They first studied the light lance and short sword as being better suited to their smaller and lighter bodies.
During the rise of the Ottoman Empire, they again fled north to settle on the shore of the Caspian Sea south of the Volga River and adopted Sarmatian and Mongol horse tactics and weapons. Finding hit-and-run tactics using the bow to be safer and easier than sword fighting with a man who outweighed them by half-again as much, they adopted the Sarmatian/Hun/Mongol methods of war and managed to hold off by treaty and war the Turks, Mongols and Russians.
Amazons remember that the average woman is only 2/3 as strong as the average man and although an Amazon warrior may be able to defeat an untrained peasant man, against a trained warrior with military skills, she will easily loose as would a teen-aged boy against an experienced soldier. Therefore, although Amazons CAN fight well with the sword, they prefer to fight from a distance on horseback and avoid close contact unless they have the advantage of numbers. Amazons may be brave but they are not stupid.
CULTURE
Amazon culture is primarily centered around the mother and her daughters.
A minority of Amazons are lesbian but most are situationally bi-sexual. This means that if you need someone to help you farm and raise your children and provide sex and the only person around is a woman, then you marry a women even if you would prefer a man. (note, this same situation occurs with men in prison and among certain Islamic tribes in the Sudan)
To become pregnant or to meet men for casual sex and social occasions, Amazons visit the towns that surround their lands, Aktau being the largest and most popular. Men congregate here seeking the casual sex provided by the Amazons. Most Amazons become pregnant this way though some travel abroad seeking a desirable man to return when they become pregnant.
A very few are raped but Amazons tend to hunt down and kill, in an unpleasant manner, rapists and their friends who they deem to be as guilty as the rapist. Occasionally an Amazon will move in and live with the father of her child until it is born.
Daughters are kept and raised by their mothers alone, even if that mother has a lover-wife, the lover-wife has no claim to the child. Daughters belong to their mothers only. Sons are given to their father if he can be found. If not, to neighboring families who are glad to have another son. If they choose to live with the father while pregnant and bear a son, they hand the son to the father and leave. If they bear a daughter, they take their child and leave.
Amazons do not kill their sons or men fearing retribution by their neighbors if they did so. Although they are warriors, they recognize the value of peaceful relations with their neighbors and try to not anger them. It is unknown if they ever murdered their sons as their enemies claim. (note: see the above origin of the Amazons when they left Greece)
However the child is conceived (rape, consentual sex, seduction by either party) Amazons immediately forget the father and act and focus on the child.
Some Amazons fall in love with their son or the father and leave the Amazon lands to marry and lead normal lives. Sometimes they return, sometimes not. Occasionally, their daughters will seek out the Amazon Nation of their mother. Amazons work hard to breed out of the population non-Amazon traits. Stories are told that Amazons mate only with men who defeat them in combat but these are rare and most Amazons prefer to choose the fathers of their children by choosing men with what the individual sees as desirable traits and then simply asking for sex. Amazons see this as better than sex after a beating received during a duel.
Amazons are divided into a number of tribes, each now speaking Russian though they also may speak their ancestral languages of Greek and Turkish and retain much of the dress and customs of their ancestry. There are three main Tribes known though there may be more, smaller tribes or the main tribes may have smaller divisions within them.
The Greek Tribes speak Greek and Russian, wear the Chiton and Greek-themed armor and have a modified Greek culture. Hippolesia & Penthelasilea were members of this tribe who traveled and served under Jason Obrien in Kosovo, though he disbelieved their tales of being true historical Amazons.
The Southern Russ/Georgian tribes speak Russian and Turkish and often wear men’s clothing though dresses are not uncommon. Tears of the Moon met Jason Obrien in Turkey as she sought a suitable father for her daughters. Stars in the Sky is a merchant and former lover to Janice Obrien. Flowers of the Field is a friend and employee of Tears of the Moon. Janice of the Caravan is the biological daughter of Stars in the Sky and one of a number of Russian bandits who kidnapped and gang-raped her, and adopted daughter of Stars’ former lover, Janice Obrien.
The Northern Russian tribes speak Russian and wear Russian garb with Russian names.
Generally, clothing is whatever the surrounding people wear. Amazons seem to enjoy jewelry, bright colors and fancy clothing and hair-styles. Although most prefer pants and shirts for everyday wear, for formal occasions or when doing non-physical chores, many prefer loose woman’s clothing though they avoid the binding fashions of other cultures that exaggerate or compress the body. Bustles, 4” heels, corsets and other fashions that compress the waist and breasts or exaggerate the hips or buttocks are avoided.
ECONOMY
Amazon economy is centered around herding sheep and horses, fishing, farming and occasionally hunting. Some are merchants though few travel far from Amazon Lands.
All Amazons are trained in war but few are full-time soldiers and none are paid save the few full-timers.
GOVERNMENT
Amazon government is a monarchy ruled by two hereditary Queens, one for war and one for peace, both of whom claim to trace her family back to Greece where the original Amazons were created by Aries and Harmonia. The remaining Amazons pretend to believe this.
Each tribe is ruled by a descendant of the Queen and can be replaced by any daughter of the current Queen who chooses her own daughters to rule the towns of her tribe.
Although Amazon law forbids men from entering their land, this is often disregarded by both sides so long as the visiting men are polite and leave quickly when their business is done. When a man, or group of men, refuse to leave or cause trouble, they are often killed, usually by arrow then dumped into the Caspian with rocks tied to their ankles. Regardless of how good you are, a running flight is doomed to failure when troops of Amazon horse archers are chasing you and every rock or bush you pass has an Amazon archer behind it. Simple attrition guarantees that few, if any, manage to escape and those are usually hunted down to prevent revenge. Men in the surrounding town tend to keep their faces in their drinks when this happens. They know that interference will result in their own deaths or the loss of the casual sex the Amazons provide so why risk all for some stranger who probably doesn’t like you either when the Amazons who are killing them are your daughters and sisters