#thalestris

Thalestris: *Honing her skills, slashing back against elementals shaped into warrior forms, until she suddenly hears a chime on the wind* My daughter, she prays to me! *Blindly throws her sword into the last elemental's face and it crumbles into rubble and dust. She takes a bronze chalice of wine and sits at a whirlpool's edge that shows a vision of her daughter, Pyrrha Nikos, kneeling in prayer*

Pyrrha: *Hands clasped* Oh, mighty warrior goddess, I come to you with a heart filled with both trepidation and excitement. As your daughter, I have always sought strength and valor in battle, following your teachings with unwavering dedication.

Thalestris: *Smiles fondly and sips from her chalice, thinking to herself* (And you have done me proud, daughter. You've already proven to be one of the most capable warriors of the mortal realm. Any obstacle the Demon Lord sends your way will be crushed, for not even they can deny their fate by your hands)

Pyrrha: But now, a new emotion has awakened within me, and I find myself drawn to a kind adventurer named Jaune Arc.

Thalestris: *Spits out her wine* WHAT?!

Pyrrha: Mother, I seek your guidance and wisdom, for I am unsure how to navigate these uncharted waters of romance. Jaune's spirit is gentle, and his smile brings warmth to even the coldest of battles. Yet, I fear my warrior's heart may lead me astray from the path you have set before me.

Thalestris: *Shakes her head in horror* (Jaune Arc, Boldrei's Pet! That halfwit that she's been whoring out all across the realms to impregnate every living sow is now seducing MY daughter?! He won't just lead her off the path, he'll drag her down and destroy her destiny and the world with it!!)

Pyrrha: In this moment of vulnerability, I turn to you, my goddess mother, knowing that your guidance will light my way through the shadows of doubt. May your divine wisdom help me find the courage to open my heart to the possibility of love while remaining true to the warrior you have molded me to be.

The Amazon Queen, Thalestris, in the camp of Alexander the Great

Alexander's Purported Affairs (Kleophais, et al.)

This isn’t about whether he would/could have slept with these women—of course he could—but whether these events even occurred, or these women existed. THAT’S the problem/question.

You bring up Thaelestris, Queen of the Amazons. But the Thaelestris episode never happened. There’s a funny story of Onesikritos reading his history of Alexander for King Lysimachos of Thrace, many years after ATG died. Lysimachos, of course, was one of Alexander’s close friends/advisors. When Onesikritos got to the story of the Amazons, Lysimachos broke up laughing and asked, “Where was I when this happened?” (Plut. Alex. 46, for a breakdown of the episode and why he and others dismiss it. Onesikritos was recognized even in antiquity as full of shit; he lied about a lot of things, including his own importance in the campaign.)

There was no incident with the Amazons. It’s fiction. And it’s stories like that one which caused earlier generations of historians to distrust the vulgate altogether. If we can hardly jettison all the vulgate, or accept all of Arrian (or Plutarch), episodes like Alexander’s dalliance with the Amazon queen are pretty easy to tag as fabrication—recognized as such even in antiquity.

The incident with Kleophis is, perhaps, less clearly fiction. There was probably such a person. The problem with the story is the mismatch between the atrocious things Alexander did to her people, and her (supposed) behavior towards him afterwards. Not only did he kill her son, albeit in combat, but when the warriors and people of the city of Masaga surrendered, he promised to let them leave…then surrounded and butchered them all once they’d done so. As they were screaming in protest, he said he’d only promised they could leave peacefully, not that he’d let them live afterwards. It’s one of the most inhumane, deceptive things in his entire campaign, made perhaps worse when compared to his earlier treatment of suppliants. If we see glimpses of that brutality from Alexander after Thebes, Granikos (Greek mercenaries), Tyre, the Branchidai...treatment of Porus after the Battle of the Hydaspes aside, Alexander’s march through Pakistan and India was over-the-top horrific.

LES AMAZONES by Nikolay Kalmakov

The stories spread throughout Hellenic society and every listener—men and women, boys and girls—could understand the message of equality extended to barbarians and even women. Amazon myths and legends offered a vision impossible in Greek society but rumored to exist in a faraway land called Scythia, the Amazon homeland. (p.33)

Significantly, the Amazons were not averse to marriage per se. They proposed a different sort of union based on partnership and parity. (p.55)

Because their dramatic tattoos would not ordinarily be observed by enemies or strangers, Russian archaeologist Sergey Yatsenko suggests that Scythian tattoos were private “spiritual weapons” and magical protectors. (p.114)

—Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons: lives and legends of warrior women across the ancient world

But if the knowledge which we acquired before but was lost by us at birth, and if afterwards by the use of the senses we recovered what we previously knew, will not the process which we call learning be a recovering of the knowledge which is natural to us, and may not this be rightly termed recollection?

—Plato, Phaedo

Thus if you observe a human being now living and ask yourself: Where was his Ego in his previous incarnation? you have to go through the Devachanic world to reach his former incarnation. You must be able to establish which Ego has always belonged to the preceding incarnations of the person in question. You must hold together, in an intricate way, the continuous Ego and the various stages down on the Earth. Mistakes are very possible here and error can very easily occur when looking for an Ego in its earlier bodies. In the higher worlds, therefore, it is not easy to maintain the connection between everything belonging to a human personality and his former incarnations as inscribed in the Akashic Chronicle.

I Sing the Man that never Equal knew, Whose Mighty Arms all Asia did subdue, Whose Conquests through the spacious World do ring, That City-Raser, King-destroying King, Who o're the Warlike Macedons did Reign, And worthily the Name of Great did gain. This is the Prince (if Fame you will believe, To ancient Story any credit give.) Who when the Globe of Earth he had subdu'd, With Tears the easie Victory pursu'd; Because that no more Worlds there were to win, No further Scene to act his Glorys in. Ah that some pitying Muse would now inspire My frozen style with a Poetique fire, And Raptures worthy of his Matchless Fame, Whose Deeds I sing, whose never fading Name

Long as the world shall fresh and deathless last, No less to future Ages, then the past. Great my presumption is, I must confess, But if I thrive, my Glory's ne're the less; Nor will it from his Conquests derogate A Female Pen his Acts did celebrate. If thou O Muse wilt thy assistance give, Such as made Naso and great Maro live, With him whom Melas fertile Banks did bear, Live, though their Bodies dust and ashes are; Whose Laurels were not fresher, than their Fame Is now, and will for ever be the same. If the like favour thou wilt grant to me, O Queen of Verse, I'll not ungrateful be, My choicest hours to thee I'll Dedicate, 'Tis thou shalt rule, 'tis thou shalt be my Fate. But if Coy Goddess thou shalt this deny, And from my humble suit disdaining fly, I'll stoop and beg no more, since I know this, Writing of him, I cannot write amiss: His lofty Deeds will raise each feeble line, And God-like Acts will make my Verse Divine.

'Twas at the time the golden Sun doth rise, And with his Beams enlights the azure skies, When lo a Troop in Silver Arms drew near, The glorious Sun did nere so bright appear; Dire Scarlet Plumes adorn'd their haughty Crests, And crescent Shields did shade their shining Brests; Down from their shoulders hung a Panthers Hide, A Bow and Quiver ratled by their side; Their hands a knotty well try'd Speare did bear, Jocund they seem'd, and quite devoyd of fear. These warlike Virgins were, that do reside Near Thermodons smooth Banks and verdant side, The Plains of Themiscyre their Birth do boast, Thalestris now did head the beauteous Host; She emulating that Illustrious Dame, Who to the aid of Troy and Priam came, And her who the Retulian Prince did aid, Though dearly both for their Assistance paid. But fear she scorn'd, nor the like fate did dread, Her Host she often to the field had lead, As oft in Triumph had return'd again, Glory she only sought for all her pain.

This Martial Queen had heard how lowdly fame, Eccho'd our Conquerors redoubted Name, Her Soul his Conduct and his Courage fir'd, To see the Hero she so much admir'd; And to Hyrcania for this cause she went, Where Alexander (wholly then intent On Triumphs and such Military sport) At Truce with War held both his Camp and Court. And while before the Town she did attend Her Messengers return, she saw ascend A cloud of Dust, that cover'd all the skie, And still at every pause there stroke her eye. The interrupted Beams of Burnisht Gold, As dust the Splendour hid, or did unfold; Loud Neighings of the Steeds, and Trumpets sound Fill'd all the Air, and eccho'd from the ground: The gallant Greeks with a brisk March drew near, And their great Chief did at their Head appear. And now come up to th'Amazonian Band, They made a Hault and a respectful Stand: And both the Troops (with like amazement strook) Did each on other with deep silence look.

Th'Heroick Queen (whose high pretence to War Cancell'd the bashful Laws and nicer Bar Of Modesty, which did her Sex restrain) First boldly did advance before her Train, And thus she spake. All but a God in Name, And that a debt Time owes unto thy Fame.

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Alexandreis

Anne Killigrew  1660-1685

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Boldrei: Come on! What happened to the good old days when your girls would kidnap the greatest warrior males of the land and offer them three hundred women at a time?!

Thalestris: That hasnt been a thing for over a thousand years! We stopped doing that when the last one ended with three hundred cases of gonorrhea!

Boldrei: But Jaune has Divine Health!

Pyrrha doesn't really belong to one Domain, but her mother, Thalestris, is the Amazonian Goddess of wisdom, crafts, civilization, and war.