Amazons are a race of warrior women that have been a mainstay of popular Western culture since they began to appear in several Greek myths and sagas like the stories of Herakles and the Illiad. They became especially well known after the creation of DC Comics’ Wonder Woman, who comes from an island of Amazons. In the DC movie (picture 1) and comics versions (picture 3 art by Nicola Scott), Amazons are immortals. However, although there are many different stories about Amazons, in the original mythology they were not immortal but generally portrayed as a group of women who lived apart from men (not necessarily on an island) and would only interact with men once a year when they needed to reproduce. Depending on the story they would either kill their male offspring or return them to the men who had impregnated them. They raised their daughters to be warriors.
The most recent research suggests that if the Greeks were basing the stories on real women, their most likely inspiration were Scythian women. Scythians were themselves both a nomadic group as well as the overall name given to various nomadic groups that were scattered throughout eastern European/Eurasian areas where countries like Iran are now located.
Interestingly, Scythians did not only possibly inspire the creation of the Amazon myths, but Robert E. Howard made his most famous creation, Conan, a Cimmerian. Cimmerians are also a Scythian tribe, although Conan’s Cimmeria exists in Howard’s more fantasy-based world.
Scythian tribes included both men and women, but, unlike Greeks, Scythian females were taught archery and how to ride, fight and hunt from an early age. Seeing women on horseback carrying weapons would have probably made quite an impression on any Greeks who happened to see them, and thus legends are born. Archeologists have unearthed over 300 burial grounds with female skeletons (revealed through DNA) that were buried with weaponry. In addition to the weaponry, closer examination of the remains shows that the females had the kinds of wounds associated with warriors who see combat (cracked ribs and skulls).
Pictures 4 and 5 give an approximation of what these women most likely looked like. Picture 4 is from a 2019 Kazakhastani film about Tomiris, queen of the Massagatae (another Scythian tribal confederation), who united many of the tribes together to do battle with Persia’s King Cyrus.
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