in antiquity, a nation of female warriors, who founded an empire in Asia Minor, upon the river Thermoodon, along the coasts of the Black Sea. Amazons. They are said to have formed a state, out of which men were excluded. What commerce they had with that sex, was only with strangers; they killed all their male children; and they cut off the right breasts of their females, to make them more fit for the combat. From which last circumstance it is that they are supposed to take their name, viz. from the privative η, and μαλος, mamma, "breast." But Dr Bryant, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, explodes this account as fabulous; and observes that they were in general Cushite colonies from Egypt and Syria, who formed settlements in different countries, and that they derived their name from ξων, "the sun," which was the national object of worship, vol. iii. p. 463. It has indeed been controverted, even among ancient writers, whether there ever really was such a nation as that of the Amazons. Strabo, Pausanias, and others, deny it. On the contrary, Herodotus, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, Trogus Pompeius, Justin, Pliny, Mela, Plutarch, &c., expressly assert it.

M. Petit, a French physician, published a Latin dissertation in 1685, to prove that there was really a nation of Amazons. It contains abundance of curious inquiries relating to their habit, their arms, the cities built by them, &c. Others of the moderns also maintain, that their existence is sufficiently proved by the testimony of such of the historians of antiquity as are most worthy of credit; by the monuments which many of them have mentioned; and by medals, some of which are still remaining; and that there is not the least room to believe that what is said of them is fabulous.

The Amazons are mentioned by the most ancient of the Greek writers. In the third book of the Iliad, Homer represents Priam speaking of himself as having been present in the earlier part of his life, in a battle with the Amazons; and some of them afterwards came to the assistance of that prince during the siege of Troy.

The Amazons are particularly mentioned by Herodotus. That historian informs us that the Grecians fought a battle with the Amazons on the river Thermodon, and defeated them. After this victory, they carried off all the Amazons they could take alive in three ships. But whilst they were out at sea, these Amazons conspired against the men, and killed them all. Having, however, no knowledge of navigation, nor any skill in the use of the rudder, sails, or oars, they were driven by wind and tide till they arrived at the precipices of the lake Maeotis, in the territories of the Scythians. Here the Amazons went ashore, and, marching into the country, seized and mounted the first horses they met with, and began to plunder the inhabitants. The Scythians at first conceived them to be men; but after they had had skirmishes with them, and taken some prisoners, they discovered them to be women. They were then unwilling to carry on hostilities against them; and by degrees a number of the young Scythians formed connexions with them, and were desirous that these gentle dames should live with them as wives, and be incorporated with the rest of the Scythians. The Amazons agreed to continue their connexion with their Scythian husbands, but refused to associate with the rest of the inhabitants of the country, and especially with the women of it. They afterwards prevailed upon their husbands to retire to Sarmatia, where they settled. "Hence," says Herodotus, "the wives of the Sarmatians still continue their ancient way of living. They hunt on horseback in the company of their husbands, and sometimes alone. They march with their armies, and wear the same dress with the men. The Sarmatians use the Scythian language, but corrupted from the beginning, because the Amazons never learned to speak correctly. Their marriages are attended with this circumstance; no virgin is permitted to marry till she has killed an enemy in the field; so that some always grow old before they can qualify themselves as the law requires."

Diodorus Siculus says, "There was formerly a nation who dwelt near the river Thermodon, which was subjected to the government of women, and in which the women, like men, managed all the military affairs. Among these female warriors, it was said, was one who excelled the rest in strength and valour. She assembled together an army of women, whom she trained up in military discipline, and subdued some of the neighbouring nations. Afterwards, having by her valour increased her fame, she led her army against the rest; and being successful, she was so puffed up, that she styled herself the daughter of Mars, and ordered the men to spin wool, and do the work of the women within doors. She also made laws, by which the women were enjoined to go to the wars, and the men to be kept at home in a servile state, and employed in the meanest offices. They also debilitated the arms and thighs of those male children who were born of them, that they might be thereby rendered unfit for war. They feared the right breasts of their girls, that they might be no interruption to them in fighting: whence they derived the name of Amazons. Their queen, having become extremely eminent for skill and knowledge in military affairs, at length built a large city at the mouth of the river Thermodon, and adorned it with a magnificent palace. In her enterprizes she adhered strictly to military discipline and good order; and she added to her empire all the adjoining nations, even to the river Tanais. Having performed these exploits, she at last ended her days like a hero, falling in a battle, in which she had fought courageously. She was succeeded in the kingdom by her daughter, who imitated the valour of her mother, and in some exploits excelled her. She caused the girls from their very infancy to be exercised in hunting, and to be daily trained up in military exercises. She instituted solemn festivals and sacrifices to Mars and Diana, which were named Tauropolis. She afterwards carried her arms beyond the river Tanais, and subdued all the people of those regions, even into Thrace. Returning then with a great quantity of spoils into her own kingdom, she caused magnificent temples to be erected to the deities before mentioned; and she gained the love of her subjects by her mild and gentle government. She afterwards undertook an expedition against those who were on the other side of the river, and subjected to her dominion a great part of Asia, extending her arms as far as Syria."

Diodorus also mentions another race of Amazons who dwelt in Africa; and whom he speaks of as being of greater antiquity than those who lived near the river Thermodon. "In the western parts of Libya," Amazons, says he, "upon the borders of those tracts that are habitable, there was anciently a nation under the government of women, and whose manners and mode of living were altogether different from ours. It was the custom of those women to manage all military affairs; and for a certain time, during which they preserved their virginity, they went out as soldiers into the field. After some years employed in this manner, when the time appointed for this purpose was expired, they associated themselves with men, in order to obtain children. But the magistracy, and all public offices, they kept entirely in their own hands. The men, as the women are with us, were employed in household affairs, submitting themselves wholly to the authority of their wives. They were not permitted to take any part in military affairs, or to have any command, or any public authority, which might have any tendency to encourage them to cast off the yoke of their wives. As soon as any child was born, it was delivered to the father, to be fed with milk, or such other food as was suitable to its age. If females were born, they feared their breasts, that they might not be burdensome to them when they grew up; for they considered them as great hinderances in fighting.

Justin represents the Amazonian republic to have taken its rise in Scythia. The Scythians had a great part of Asia under their dominion upwards of 400 years, till they were conquered by Nimus, the founder of the Assyrian empire. After his death, which happened about 1150 years before the Christian era, and that of Semiramis and her son Nuyas, Ilius and Scopopites, princes of the royal blood of Scythia, were driven from their country by other princes, who like them aspired to the crown. They departed with their wives, children, and friends; and being followed by a great number of young people of both sexes, they passed into Asiatic Sarmatia, beyond Mount Canaflus, where they formed an establishment, supplying themselves with the riches they wanted, by making incursions into the countries bordering on the Euxine sea. The people of those countries, exasperated by the incursions of their new neighbours, united, surprized, and massacred the men.

The women then resolving to revenge their death, and at the same time to provide for their own security, resolved to form a new kind of government, to choose a queen, enact laws, and maintain themselves, without men, even against the men themselves. This design was not so very surprising as at first sight appears: for the greatest number of the girls among the Scythians had been inured to the same exercises as the boys, to draw the bow, to throw the javelin, to manage other arms; to riding, hunting, and even the painful labours that seem reserved for men; and many of them, among the Sarmatians, accompanied the men in war. Hence they had no sooner formed their resolution, than they prepared to execute it, and exercised themselves in all military operations. They soon secured the peaceable possession of the country; and not content with showing their neighbours that all their efforts to drive them thence or subdue them were ineffectual, they made war upon them, and extended their own frontiers. They had hitherto made use of the incursions and assistance of a few men that remained in the country; but finding at length that they could stand their ground, and aggravate themselves, without them, they killed all those whom flight or chance had saved from the fury of the Sarmatians, and for ever renounced marriage, which they now considered as an insupportable slavery. But as they could only secure the duration of their new kingdom by propagation, they made a law to go every year to the frontiers, to invite the men to come to them; to deliver themselves up to their embraces, without choice on their part, or the least attachment; and to leave them as soon as they were pregnant. All those whom age rendered fit for propagation, and were willing to serve the state by breeding girls, did not go at the same time in search of men: for in order to obtain a right to promote the multiplication of the species, they must first have contributed to its destruction; nor was any thought worthy of giving birth to children till she had killed three men.

If from this commerce they brought forth girls, they educated them; but with respect to the boys, if we may believe Justin, they strangled them at the moment of their birth: according to Diodorus Siculus, they twisted their legs and arms, so as to render them unfit for military exercises; but Quintus Curtius, Philostratus, and Jordanus say, that the less savage sent them to their fathers. It is probable, that at first, when their fury against the men was carried to the greatest height, they killed the boys; that when this fury abated, and most of the mothers were filled with horror at depriving the little creatures of the lives they had just received from them, they fulfilled the first duties of a mother; but to prevent their causing a revolution in the state, maimed them in such a manner as to render them incapable of war, and employed them in the mean offices which these warlike women thought beneath them. In short, that, when their conquests had confirmed their power, their ferocity subsiding, they entered into political engagements with their neighbours; and the number of the males they had preserved becoming burdensome, they, at the desire of those who rendered them pregnant, sent them the boys, and continued still to keep the girls.

As soon as the age of the girls permitted, they took away the right breast, that they might draw the bow with the greater force. The common opinion is, that they burnt that breast; by applying to it, at eight years of age, a hot brazen instrument, which infallibly dried up the fibres and glands; some think that they did not make use of so much ceremony, but that when the part was formed, they got rid of it by amputation; some again, with much greater probability, assert, that they employed no violent measures; but, by a continual compression of that part from infancy, prevented its growth, at least so far as to hinder its ever being inconvenient in war.

Plutarch, treating of the Amazons in his life of Theseus, considers the accounts which had been preserved concerning them as partly fabulous, and partly true. He gives some account of a battle, which had been fought between the Athenians and the Amazons at Athens; and he relates some particulars of this battle which had been recorded by an ancient writer named Clidemus. He says, "That the left wing of the Amazons moved towards the place which is yet called Amazonium, and the right to a place called Pryx, near Chrysa; upon which the Athenians, illuming from behind, hind the temple of the Muses, fell upon them; and that this is true, the graves of those that were slain, to be seen in the streets that lead to the gate Piraeus, by the temple of the hero Chalcedon, are a sufficient proof. And here it was that the Athenians were routed, and shamefully turned their backs to women, as far as to the temple of the Furies. But fresh supplies coming in from Palladium, Ardettus, and Lyceum, charged their right wing, and beat them back into their very tents; in which action a great number of the Amazons were slain." In another place he says, "It appears that the pallage of the Amazons through Thelytaly was not without opposition; for there are yet to be seen many of their sepulchres near Scotoilus and Cyanocephale." And in his life of Pompey, speaking of the Amazons, Plutarch says, "They inhabit those parts of Mount Caucasus that look towards the Hyrcanian sea (not bordering upon the Albanians, for the territories of the Getæ and the Lycæ lie betwixt): and with these people do yearly, for two months only, accompany and cohabit, bed and board, near the river Thermoodoon. After that they retire to their own habitations, and live alone all the rest of the year."

Quintus Curtius says, "The nation of the Amazons is situated upon the borders of Hyrcania, inhabiting the plains of Thermiscyra, near the river Thermoodoon. Their queen was named Thalestris, and she had under her subjection all the country that lies between Mount Caucasus and the river Phasis. This queen came out of her dominions, in consequence of an ardent desire she had conceived to see Alexander; and being advanced near the place where he was, she previously sent messengers to acquaint him, that the queen was come to have the satisfaction of seeing and conversing with him. Having obtained permission to visit him, she advanced with 300 of her Amazons, leaving the rest of her troops behind. As soon as she came within sight of the king, she leaped from her horse, holding two javelins in her right hand. The apparel of the Amazons does not cover all the body, for their left side is naked down to the stomack; nor do the skirts of their garments, which they tie up in a knot, reach below their knees. They prefer their left breast entire, that they may be able to suckle their female offspring; and they cut off and fear their right, that they may draw their bows, and cast their darts, with the greater ease. Thalestris looked at the king with an undaunted countenance, and narrowly examined his person; which did not, according to her ideas, come up to the fame of his great exploits: For the barbarians have a great veneration for a majestic person, esteeming those only to be capable of performing great actions on whom nature has conferred a dignified appearance. The king having asked her whether she had any thing to desire of him, she replied, without scruple or hesitation, that she was come with a view to have children by him, she being worthy to bring him heirs to his dominions. Their offspring, if of the female sex, she would retain herself; and if of the male sex, it should be delivered to Alexander. He then asked her, whether she would accompany him in his wars? But this she declined, alleging, That she had left nobody to take care of her kingdom. She continued to solicit Alexander, that he would not send her back without conforming to her wishes; but it was not till after a delay of 13 days that he complied. She then returned to her own kingdom."

Justin also repeatedly mentions this visit of Thalestris to Alexander; and in one place he says, that she made a march of 25 days, in order to obtain this meeting with him. The interview between Alexander and Thalestris is likewise mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. The learned Goropius, as he is quoted by Dr Petit, laments, in very pathetic terms, the hard fate of Thalestris, who was obliged to travel so many miles, and to encounter many hardships, in order to procure this interview with the Macedonian prince; and, from the circumstances, is led to consider the whole account as incredible. But Dr Petit, with equal erudition, with equal eloquence, and with superior force of reasoning, at length determines, that her journey was not founded upon irrational principles, and that full credit is due to those grave and venerable historians by whom this transaction has been recorded.

The Amazons are represented as being armed with bows and arrows, with javelins, and also with an axe of a particular construction, which was denominated the axe of the Amazons. According to the elder Pliny, this axe was invented by Penthefilea, one of their queens. On many ancient medals are representations of the Amazons, armed with these axes. They are also said to have had bucklers in the shape of a half moon.

The Amazons are mentioned by many other ancient authors, besides those which have been enumerated; and if any credit be due to the accounts concerning them, they subsisted through several ages. They are represented as having rendered themselves extremely formidable; as having founded cities, enlarged the boundaries of their dominions, and conquered several other nations.

That at any period there should have been women, who, without the assistance of men, built cities and governed them, raised armies and commanded them, administered public affairs, and extended their dominion by arms, is undoubtedly contrary to all that we have seen and known of human affairs, as to appear in a very great degree incredible; but that women may have existed sufficiently robust, and sufficiently courageous, to have engaged in warlike enterprises, and even to have been successful in them, is certainly not impossible, however contrary to the usual course of things.

In support of this side of the question, it may be urged, that women who have been early trained to warlike exercises, to hunting, and to a hard and laborious mode of living, may be rendered more strong, and capable of more vigorous exertions, than men who have led indolent, delicate, and luxurious lives, and who have seldom been exposed even to the inclemencies of the weather. The limbs of women, as well as of men, are strengthened and rendered more robust by frequent and laborious exercise. A nation of women, therefore, brought up and disciplined as the ancient Amazons are represented to have been, would be superior to an equal number of effeminate men, though they might be much inferior to an equal number of hardy men, trained up and disciplined in the same manner.

That much of what is said of the Amazons is fabulous, there can be no reasonable doubt; but it does not The ancient medals and monuments on which they are represented are very numerous, as are also the testimonies of ancient writers. It seems not rational to suppose that all this originated in fiction, though it be much blended with it. The abbé Guyon speaks of the history of the Amazons as having been regarded by many persons as fabulous, "rather from prejudice than from any real and solid examination;" and it must be acknowledged, that the arguments in favour of their existence, from ancient history, and from ancient monuments, are extremely powerful. The fact seems to be, that truth and fiction have been blended in the narrations concerning these ancient heroines.

Instances of heroism in women have occasionally occurred in modern times, somewhat resembling that of the ancient Amazons. The times and the manners of chivalry, in particular, by bringing great enterprises, bold adventurers, and extravagant heroism into fashion, inspired the women with the same taste. The women, in consequence of the prevailing passion, were now seen in the middle of camps and of armies. They quitted the soft and tender inclinations, and the delicate offices of their own sex, for the toils and the toilsome occupations of ours. During the crusades, animated by the double enthusiasm of religion and of valour, they often performed the most romantic exploits; obtained indulgences on the field of battle, and died with arms in their hands, by the side of their lovers or of their husbands.

In Europe, the women attacked and defended fortifications; princesses commanded their armies, and obtained victories. Such was the celebrated Joan de Montfort, disputing for her duchy of Bretagne, and fighting herself. Such was that still more celebrated Margaret of Anjou, that active and intrepid general and soldier, whose genius supported a long time a feeble husband; which taught him to conquer; which replaced him upon the throne; which twice relieved him from prison; and, oppressed by fortune and by rebels, which did not bend till after she had decided in person twelve battles.

The warlike spirit among the women, consistent with ages of barbarism, when every thing is impetuous because nothing is fixed, and when all excess is the excess of force, continued in Europe upwards of 400 years, showing itself from time to time, and always in the middle of convulsions, or on the eve of great revolutions. But there were eras and countries in which that spirit appeared with particular lustre. Such were the displays it made in the 15th and 16th centuries in Hungary, and in the islands of the Archipelago and the Mediterranean, when they were invaded by the Turks.

Among the striking instances of Amazonian conduct in modern ladies, may be mentioned that of Jane of Belleville, widow of Monf. de Clifton, who was beheaded at Paris, in the year 1343, on a suspicion of carrying on a correspondence with England and the count de Montfort. This lady, filled with grief for the death of her late husband, and exasperated at the ill treatment which she considered him as having received, sent off "her son secretly to London;" and when her apprehensions were removed with respect to him, she sold her jewels, fitted out three ships, and put to sea, to revenge the death of her husband upon all the French Amazons, with whom she should meet. This new corsair made several descents upon Normandy, where the stormed castles; and the inhabitants of that province were spectators more than once, whilst their villages were all in a blaze, of one of the finest women in Europe, with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, urging the carnage, and enjoying with pleasure all the horrors of war."

We read in Mezeray (under the article of the Croisade, preached by St Bernard in the year 1147), "That many women did not content themselves with taking the crois, but that they also took up arms to defend it, and composed squadrons of females, which rendered credible all that has been said of the prowess of the Amazons."

In the year 1590, the League party obtained some troops from the king of Spain. Upon the news of their being disembarked, Barri de St Aunez, Henry IV.'s governor at Leucate, set out to communicate a scheme to the duke de Montmorenci, commander in that province. He was taken in his way by some of the troops of the League, who were also upon their march with the Spaniards towards Leucate. They were persuaded, that by thus having the governor in their hands, the gates of that place would be immediately opened to them, or at least would not hold out long. But Constantia de Coccelli, his wife, after having assembled the garrison, put herself so resolutely at their head, pike in hand, that she inspired the weakest with courage; and the besiegers were repelled wherever they presented themselves. Shame, and their great loss, having rendered them desperate, they sent a messenger to this courageous woman, acquainting her that if she continued to defend herself, they would hang her husband. She replied, with tears in her eyes, "I have riches in abundance: I have offered them, and I do fill offer them, for his ransom; but I would not ignominiously purchase a life which he would reproach me with, and which he would be ashamed to enjoy. I will not dishonour him by treason against my king and country." The besiegers having made a fresh attack without success, put her husband to death, and raised the siege. Henry IV. afterwards sent to this lady the brevet of governor of Leucate, with the reverence for her son.

The famous maid of Orleans, also, is an example known to every reader.

The Abbé Arnaud, in his memoirs, speaks of a countess of St Balmont, who used to take the field with her husband, and fight by his side. She sent several Spanish prisoners of war to Marshal Feuquieres; and, what was not a little extraordinary, this Amazon at home was all affability and sweetness, and gave herself up to readings and acts of piety.

Dr Jobaon seems to have given some credit to the accounts which have been transmitted down to us concerning the ancient Amazons; and he has endeavoured to show, that we ought not hastily to reject ancient historical narrations because they contain facts repugnant to modern manners, and exhibit scenes to which nothing now occurring bears a resemblance. "Of what we know not (says he) we can only judge by what we know. Every novelty appears more wonderful, as it is more remote from anything with which experience experience or testimony have hitherto acquainted us; and, if it passes farther beyond the notions that we have been accustomed to form, it becomes at last incredible. We seldom consider that human knowledge is very narrow; that national manners are formed by chance; that uncommon conjunctures of causes produce rare effects; or, that what is impossible at one time or place may yet happen in another. It is always easier to deny than to inquire. To refuse credit confers for a moment an appearance of superiority which every little mind is tempted to allure, when it may be gained so cheaply as by withdrawing attention from evidence, and declining the fatigue of comparing probabilities. Many relations of travellers have been flighted as fabulous, till more frequent voyages have confirmed their veracity; and it may reasonably be imagined that many ancient historians are unjustly suspected of falsehood, because our own times afford nothing that resembles what they tell. Few narratives will, either to men or women, appear more incredible than the histories of the Amazons; of female nations, of whose constitution it was the essential and fundamental law, to exclude men from all participation, either of public affairs or domestic business; where female armies marched under female captains, female farmers gathered the harvest, female partners danced together, and female wits diverted one another. Yet several pages of antiquity have transmitted accounts of the Amazons of Caucasus; and of the Amazons of America, who have given their name to the greatest river in the world, Condamine lately found such memorials as can be expected among erratic and unlettered nations, where events are recorded only by tradition, and new swarms settling in the country from time to time confuse and efface all traces of former times.

No author has taken so much pains upon this subject as Dr Petit. But, in the course of his work, he has given it as his opinion, that there is great difficulty in governing the women even at present; though they are unarmed and unpracticed in the art of war. After all his elaborate inquiries and disquisitions, therefore, this learned writer might probably think, that it is not an evil of the first magnitude that the race of Amazons now ceases to exist.

Rouleau says, "The empire of the woman is an empire of softness, of affections, of complacency. Her commands are careless, her menaces are tears." But the empire of the Amazons was certainly an empire of a very different kind. Upon the whole, we may conclude with Dr Johnson: "The character of the ancient Amazons was rather terrible than lovely. The hand could not be very delicate that was only employed in drawing the bow, and brandishing the battle-axe. Their power was maintained by cruelty, their courage was deformed by ferocity; and their example only shows, that men and women live best together."

the river of, in America. See AMAZONIA.

AMAZONIAN Habit, in Antiquity, denotes a dress formed in imitation of the Amazons. Marcia, the famous concubine of the emperor Commodus, had the appellation of Amazonian, because she charmed him most in a habit of this kind. Hence also that prince himself engaged in combat in the amphitheatre in an Amazonian habit; and of all titles the Amazonius was one of those he most delighted in. In honour either of Amazonian the gallant or his mistress, the month December was also denominated Amazonius. Some also apply Amazonian habit to the hunting-dress worn by many ladies among us.