The Amazons : lives and legends of warrior women across the ancient world / Adrienne Mayor.

Amazons--fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world--were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians reveled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mayor, Adrienne, 1946-
Language:English
Published: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2014]
Subjects:
Amazons.
Amazons in literature.
Mythology, Greek.
Women soldiers > History.
Women, Prehistoric.
Women, Prehistoric > Social conditions.
Genre:
Mythology, Greek.
Physical Description:xiv, 519 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of color plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm
Format: Book
Contents:
  • Prologue: Atalanta, the Greek Amazon.
  • Part 1. Who were the Amazons? Ancient puzzles and modern myths
  • Scythia, Amazon homeland
  • Sarmatians, a love story.
  • Part 2. Historical women warriors and classicla traditions. Bones: Archaeology of Amazons
  • Breasts: One or two?
  • Skin: Tattooed Amazons
  • Naked Amazons
  • Sex and love
  • Drugs, dance, and music
  • The Amazon way
  • Horses, dogs, and eagles
  • Who invented trousers?
  • Armed and dangerous: Weapons and warfare
  • Amazon languages and names.
  • Part 3. Amazons in Greek and Roman myth, legend, and history. Hippolyte and Heracles
  • Antiope and Theseus
  • Battle for Athens
  • Penthesilea and Achilles at Troy
  • Amazons at sea
  • Thalestris and Alexander the Great
  • Hypsicratea, King Mithradates, and Pompey's Amazons.
  • Part 4. Beyond the Greek world. Caucasia, crossroads of Eurasia
  • Persia, Egypt, North Africa, Arabia
  • Amazonistan: Central Asia
  • China.
  • Appendix: Names of Amazons and warrior women in ancient literature and art from the Mediterranean to China.