Amazons were long considered a myth.

[WVK]

But a growing body of archaeological evidence shows that legends about the horseback-riding, bow-wielding female fighters were almost certainly rooted in reality. Myths about the Amazons' homosexuality and self-mutilation are still dubious at best, but new research appears to confirm that there really were groups of nomadic women who trained, hunted and battled alongside their male counterparts in the Eurasian steppe.

https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Amazons-were-long-considered-a-myth-These-14942704.php

[Piney]

 I posted this in Kmt Sesh's history thread. You have to take the article with a grain because they neglect the fact that many of those "Scythian" graves were actually Sarmatian, who were known to have woman leaders and warrior cults and the neighboring Turkic tribes who adopted much of their culture and also had women warrior  bands.

 The real Hu Mulan was a Turkic woman warrior until Disney turned her into a tw*t. 

 

[Orphalesion]

Yeop evidence for the warrior women in the tribes Piney mentioned has been found time and again for quite a while now.

But just like the existence of Wilusa doesn't mean Homer's account of the Trojan War happened this doesn't mean that the Greek's fantasy idea of the Amazons existed.
I wish we would stop using those mythical descriptions for real places and people, it invites wrong ideas about them.

[Piney]

18 minutes ago, Orphalesion said:

But just like the existence of Wilusa doesn't mean Homer's account of the Trojan War happened this doesn't mean that the Greek's fantasy idea of the Amazons existed.

The Greek art portraying Amazons has them dressed in Scythian-Sarmatian clothing and labeled with Eastern Iranian names, possibly portraying real people who served as the "Scythian Police" in Greek city-states.

 

[Orphalesion]

34 minutes ago, Piney said:

 possibly portraying real people who served as the "Scythian Police" in Greek city-states.

 

And that's a lot more interesting than the myth about the wild women who only live to kill men.

[Piney]

Just now, Orphalesion said:

And that's a lot more interesting than the myth about the wild women who only live to kill men.

According to certain accounts a Sarmatian woman had to kill 3 men before she could marry. I forget which historian recorded it though. 

Another thing more interesting is the Indo-Iranian nomads also invented the spoke wheeled chariot, developed bronze and invented the sword. 

Who developed the bow is up in the air though. It could of been the Proto-Indo Europeans or Finno-Uralics. 

[Orphalesion]

8 minutes ago, Piney said:

According to certain accounts a Sarmatian woman had to kill 3 men before she could marry. I forget which historian recorded it though. 

 

Heh. That's kinda cool. But see, here she doesn't just run around to kill men for the sake of it, like the Greeks often portrayed it (you know those myths about the Amazons killing everything with a penis because some Ancient Greeks thought that would happen if you allowed women to hold weapons) she does that, I assume, to be considered a full member of her society, being allowed to marry and have children. Like, I assume the reason behind that was that she had to prove she was strong enough to contribute to the next generation.
Similarly to how young Spartan warriors had to kill helots as a rite of passage.

Though I can see how the myth about the "gendercidal" Amazons could have evolved from that.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Orphalesion

[Piney]

2 minutes ago, Orphalesion said:

Heh. That's kinda cool. But see, here she doesn't just run around to kill men for the sake of it, like the Greeks often portrayed it (you know those myths about the Amazons killing everything with a penis because some Ancient Greeks thought that would happen if you allowed women to hold weapons) she does that, I assume, to be considered a full member of her society, being allowed to marry and have children. Like, I assume the reason behind that was that she had to prove she was strong enough to contribute to the next generation.

Greeks were top shelf chauvinists.   

Athenians were the worst......

[Orphalesion]

1 hour ago, Piney said:

Greeks were top shelf chauvinists.   

Athenians were the worst......

Ooooooh yeah they were. And yeop especially the Athenians, despite all the good rep they get these days for being the birthplace of democracy and intellectualism and all...  Life for Athenian women sucked.
Weirdly in Sparta, despite the levels of testosterone poisoning that culture had, the women had, comparably, quite a good amount of rights and freedoms. Unlike their Athenian counterparts they could own property, participate in athletic competitions, recieve education and leave the house by themselves. Granted that was pretty much a necessity, considering that the male Spartans sat around in army camps for most of their adulthood, but I guess the Spartan women were still better off than elsewhere in Ancient Greece (the nobles anyway...)

[Piney]

Here's a couple of articles on  the Amazon vase pictures with the Sarmatian names on them.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/9/140923-amazon-greek-vase-translations-science/

https://www.newyorker.com/books/joshua-rothman/real-amazons

[Piney]

@Orphalesion

The forth picture down shows Penthesilea dressed in Scythian-Sarmatian designs and using a "Fokos" (war axe) made famous by their descendants the Croats and the Jazi of Hungary. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penthesilea#Other_traditions

[psyche101]

4 hours ago, Orphalesion said:

Heh. That's kinda cool. But see, here she doesn't just run around to kill men for the sake of it, like the Greeks often portrayed it (you know those myths about the Amazons killing everything with a penis because some Ancient Greeks thought that would happen if you allowed women to hold weapons) she does that, I assume, to be considered a full member of her society, being allowed to marry and have children. Like, I assume the reason behind that was that she had to prove she was strong enough to contribute to the next generation.
Similarly to how young Spartan warriors had to kill helots as a rite of passage.

Though I can see how the myth about the "gendercidal" Amazons could have evolved from that.

 

I have to admit it. I'm disappointed.

[Space Commander Travis]

I think, as a lot of people do, that "Jeff Bezos" is indeed a fictional character, or perhaps a droid planted by an alien civilization. 

[Piney]

10 hours ago, Dumbledore the Awesome said:

I think, as a lot of people do, that "Jeff Bezos" is indeed a fictional character, or perhaps a droid planted by an alien civilization. 

He was replaced by something. I always thought a pod person.  

[Orphalesion]

12 hours ago, Dumbledore the Awesome said:

I think, as a lot of people do, that "Jeff Bezos" is indeed a fictional character, or perhaps a droid planted by an alien civilization. 

He doesn't have hair, so he's clearly a Reptilian.
 

19 hours ago, psyche101 said:

I have to admit it. I'm disappointed.

Weirdly enough, if you look at the tales and art the Greeks produced about the Amazons, the horde of wild, masculine women who used men only for sex and then killed them does seem like to have been an erotic fantasy for many Ancient Greeks. 
Or maybe it's not weird, I don't claim to understand the heterosexual mind (well...as heterosexual as an Ancient Greek could be...)

Edited January 2, 2020 by Orphalesion

[Space Commander Travis]

Oh yes, that's a very common fantasy, um, so I hear anyway. In some circles, um, yes ... 

[psyche101]

24 minutes ago, Orphalesion said:

He doesn't have hair, so he's clearly a Reptilian.
 

Weirdly enough, if you look at the tales and art the Greeks produced about the Amazons, the horde of wild, masculine women who used men only for sex and then killed them does seem like to have been an erotic fantasy for many Ancient Greeks. 
Or maybe it's not weird, I don't claim to understand the heterosexual mind (well...as heterosexual as an Ancient Greek could be...)

If one could choose a method of death, it seems the best way to go

[Golden Duck]

15 minutes ago, psyche101 said:

If one could choose a method of death, it seems the best way to go 

 

[psyche101]

1 minute ago, Golden Duck said:

 

Monty Python?

[Golden Duck]

Just now, psyche101 said:

Monty Python?

I was going to say it sounds like the last scene from Farcry 3; but, thought better of it.

Now look where I am.  Like that chick-flick Sliding Doors that I've never seen.

[llegendary]

How could they tell if the skeletons were female? Either way, these people most likely were male.

[Passing through]

4 hours ago, llegendary said:

How could they tell if the skeletons were female? Either way, these people most likely were male.

The pelvis and also the skull features can determine the sex of the person. I'm sure i have read somewhere that ancient Greeks were well aware of female warrior tribes.

One of Hercules's labours was to steal the girdle of the Amazon queen was it not.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Passing through

[Eldorado]

Did the Amazon female warriors from Greek mythology really exist?

"Thanks to archaeology, we now know that Amazon myths, once thought to be fantasy, contain accurate details about steppe nomad women, who were the historical counterparts of mythic Amazons," Mayor, who is also the author of "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World" (Princeton University Press, 2014), told Live Science in an email.

Current article at Live Science