in Antiquity, a nation of female warriors, who are said to have founded an empire in Asia Minor, upon the river Thermodon, along the coasts of the Black Sea. They are reported to have formed a state, out of which men were excluded, their commerce with that sex being confined to strangers. They killed all their male children, and cut off the right breasts of their females, to make them more fit for the combat. From the last circumstance they are supposed to derive their name, viz., from the privative a, and pālos, mamma, breast. But Bryant, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, vol. iii. p. 463, rejects this account as fabulous; and observes that they were in general Cuthite colonies from Egypt and Syria, who formed settlements in different countries, and that they derived their name from zon, the sun, which was the national object of worship.

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 Greeks fought a battle with them on the river Thermodon, and defeated them. After this victory the Greeks carried off in three ships all the Amazons they had taken prisoners. But while they were out at sea, the 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 having several skirmishes with them, and taking some prisoners, they discovered them to be women. They were then unwilling to carry on hostilities against them; and by degrees a num- Amazons, her of the young Scythians formed connections 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 connection with their Scythian husbands, but refused to associate with the rest of the inhabitants of the country, and especially with the women. They afterwards prevailed upon their husbands to retire to Sarmatia, where they settled.

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 rendered unfit for war. They scared 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 enterprises 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."

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.

Justin represents the Amazonian republic as having 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 Ninus, the founder of the Assyrian empire. After his death, which happened about 1150 years before the Christian era, and that of Semiramis and their son Ninyas, Ilinus and Scolopites, 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 Caucasus, 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, having united, surprised 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 most 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 seemed reserved for men; and many of them among the Sarmatians accompanied the men in war. No sooner had they 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 instructions and assistance of a few men that remained in the country; but finding at length that they could stand their ground and aggrandize 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. Those whom age rendered fit for propagation, and who were willing to serve the state by breeding girls, did not all 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 one 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.

Plutarch, treating of the Amazons in his life of Theseus, considers the accounts which have 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. In another place he says, "It appears that the passage of the Amazons through Thessaly was not without opposition; for there are yet to be seen many of their sepulchres near Scottussa and Cynocephalus;" 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 Gelae and Leges lie between; and with these people do they yearly, for two months only, accompany and cohabit, bed and board, near the river Thermodon. After that they retire to their own habitations, and live alone all the rest of the year."

Quintus Curtius has given a circumstantial account of the visit of the Queen of the Amazons to Alexander the Great. 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 is likewise mentioned by Diodorus Siculus.

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 Penthesilea, 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.

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 dominions by arms, is undoubtedly so contrary to all that we have seen and known of human affairs, as to appear in a very great degree incre- dible; 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. That much of what is said of the Amazons is fabulous, there can be no reasonable doubt; but it does not therefore follow that the whole is without foundation. 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. We now know that in the Negro kingdom of Dahomey the present ruler of that country, who humbled the power of the Ashantees, has among his choicest troops battalions of women, who are as fearless and redoubtable as the ancient Amazons.