Amazonomachy

Throughout all of antiquity, the Amazons were regarded as a race of female warriors descended from Ares, fiercely independent and skilled in hunting, riding, archery, and warfare.

They worshiped Ares and Artemis, respectively the god of war and the goddess of the hunt, and their geographic locations were notably associated with Scythia and the Asia Minor.

[1] In the lost Greek epic Aethiopis, which was published in the 8th century BCE and is widely attributed to Arctinus of Miletus, Achilles fights and kills Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons who came to aid Troy after the death of Hector.

The oral myths and retellings of this epic fall of Troy referencing the Amazons contributed to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Along with scenes from Homer and the Gigantomachy, the Amazonomachy was a popular choice, depicting battles between Greek men and female foreigners.

Early Greek art typically depicted Amazons in battle, frequently shown riding horses or wielding weapons such as bows and arrows, swords, spears, and shields.

The Heraclean Amazonomachy spans eight blocks and represents the struggle of Heracles to seize the belt of the Amazon queen Hippolyta.

[11] In 2018, archaeologists discovered relief-decorated shoulder boards made from bronze that were part of a breastplate of a Greek warrior at a Celtic sacrificial place near the village of Slatina nad Bebravou in Slovakia.

Deputy of director of Slovak Archaeological Institute said that it is the oldest original Greek art relic in the area of Slovakia.

[12] Many representations of Amazons from the Roman times have also been found, with images of the amazonomachy included on mosaics, coins, friezes, votive reliefs, and so on.

Because of this, some scholars believe that on most Greek art of that time, the Persians were shown allegorically, through the figure of centaurs and Amazons.

[13] Literature such as Lysias' Epitaphios and Isokrates' Panegyrikos further strengthen this parallel to the defeat of the Persians, as their versions of the Attic War similarly climax with the total annihilation of the invading forces.

[16] There are also more modern interpretations which view the amazonomachy to be largely symbolic of the conflict between the ancient Greek patriarchal model of civilization against (the influence of) the foreign, gender transgressive female.

As stated in Plutarch’s Life of Theseus: “... the fact that [the Amazons] encamped virtually within the city is supported both by place names and by the graves of the fallen.”[17]

[17] As the Greeks became more aware of steppe nomad cultures, their depictions of the Amazons in art and literature began to integrate more realistic details corresponding to the artifacts (weaponry, attire, & equipment) found in kurgans (grave mounds) of Scythians.