Rudenko, Sergei I., Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen, trans. M. W. Thompson, J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1970
Schmidt, Ricarda, ‘Sparagmos, Weiblichkeit und Staat: Gewalt als Produkt von Erziehung in Penthesilea and Die Hermannschlacht’, in Heinrich von Kleist: Konstruktive und destruktive Funktionen von Gewalt, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg, 2012
Sporleder, Rolf F., ‘The Bassae-Frieze: 200 Years of Guesswork’, in Christoph Klose et al. (eds), Fresh Perspectives on Graeco-Roman Visual Culture, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, 2015
Stone, Brad, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, Transworld, London, 2013
Strabo, Geography, XI, 5, 1–5
Tarbell, Frank, ‘Centauromachy and Amazonomachy in Greek Art: The Reasons for Their Popularity’, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1920
Thevet, André, Les Singularitez de la France antarctique, autrement nommée Amérique, 1555
Vinogradova, Lyuba, Defending the Motherland: The Soviet Women Who Fought Hitler’s Aces, MacLehose Press, London, 2015
Wilde, Lyn Webster, On the Trail of the Women Warriors, Constable, London, 1999
Woollett, Anne T., and Ariane van Suchtelen, Rubens and Brueghel: A Working Friendship, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2006
Wright, Celeste Turner, ‘The Amazons in Elizabethan Literature’, Studies in Philology, Vol. 37, No. 3, 1940
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With thanks to: Karl Baipakov, Almaty; Nazand Begikhani, University of Bristol; Zana Cousins-Greenwood, Centre of Horseback Combat, Hemel Hempstead; Nujin Derik, Kurdistan, Syria; Pettra Engeländer, Independent European Horseback Archery School, Hofbieber, Germany; Xavier Jordana, GROB, Barcelona; Isabel Käser, SOAS, London; Lajos Kassai, Kaposmérö, Kaposvár, Hungary; Eileen Murphy, Queen’s University, Belfast; Hermann Parzinger, Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; Arzu Pesmen, London; Ricarda Schmidt, Exeter University; Sinam Sherkany, Kurdistan, Syria; Aladdin Sinayic, London; Katie Stearns, Flying Duchess Ranch, Seattle, USA; Henry Vines, Transworld, London, and Brenda Updegraff, Hampshire, for superb editing; and all at Felicity Bryan Agency, Oxford.
PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All photos courtesy of the author unless otherwise stated.
Battling Amazons © De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images; Amphora © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK/Bridgeman Images; Parthian shot © CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images; Urfa mosaic © Mick Palarczyk.
Temple of Apollo © Bettmann/Getty Images; Bassae Frieze © Martin Beddall/Alamy Stock Photo.
Achilles battles Penthesilia © De Agostini Picture Library/G. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images; the Greeks battle the Amazons © PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
Pazyryk tomb © Alexander Demyanov/Shutterstock.com; Pazyryk excavations © Sisse Brimberg/Getty Images; the royal couple of Arzhan 2 © V. Efimov.
Tattoos on the skin of the Ukok Princess © Sputnik/Science Photo Library; reconstruction © Elena Shumakova, Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; skull with a sword wound © Eileen Murphy.
Comb © AKG Images; stag © Heritage-Images/CM Dixon/AKG images; saddle decorations © De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images.
Stag © AKG Images/De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti; gold earrings © De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images; hunter pursuing a hare © Heritage-Images/CM Dixon/AKG Images; sword and scabbard © Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images; plaque © AKG Images/De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti.
Gold Man © Franka Bruns/AP/Rex/Shutterstock.
1676 map of California © Historic Map Works LLC and Osher Map Library/Getty Images.
Love feast of the Amazons © Granger/Bridgeman Images.
Waorani © John Wright; theatrical costume © Florilegius/SSPL/Getty Images; French educational card © Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images.
Battle of the Amazons by Peter Paul Rubens © PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
Dahomey lithograph © AKG Images; Russia’s Night Witches © AKG Images/Universal Images Group/Sovfoto; Kurdish soldiers © Vianney Le Caer/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images.
Lajos Kassai © Kassai Horsearchery School; Zana Cousins-Greenwood © Rosie Hallam/Barcroft Media; Pettra Engeländer © Pettra Engeländer/Independent European Horseback Archery School.
Sensation Comics cover © DC Comics/Image Courtesy of The Advertising Archive.
INDEX
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Abdullah, Asya 272
Abeokuta, Dahomey enemy 194, 197, 201, 202, 203, 206–7
Abomey
museum 192
taken by French 210–11
Abzug, Bella 260–1
Achaemenid empire 71
Achaeus 11
Achilles 11
and Penthesilea 12–16
Kleist version 183–7
possibly in Bassae Frieze 21–2
Acropolis 1, 2
Action Comics, Superman 252
Acuña, Cristóbal de, on Amazons 151
Admete, and Hippolyte’s girdle 4–7
Aella 7
Aeschylus, Eumenides/Oresteia 9–10
Africa, scramble for 196
Agaja king of Dahomey, women bodyguards 192–3
Age of Aquarius 247
Agee, Joel, Penthesilea translation 182n40
Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, and infinitesimal calculus 179
Ajax, and Penthesilea 14–15
Akishev, Kemal, and Saka kurgan 68
Akkadian records, Scythians 37–8
Akkerman kurgan 54–5
al-Anfal campaign 270n61
Aladdin 264–5, 270
Alans (Aryans)
Sarmatians become 101
as Ossetians 101–2
in Britain as Roman troops 102
in north-eastern Turkey 102
in Spain 103
Albert and Isabella of Antwerp 163–4, 165
Alcippe 7
Aleppo, Kurdish women fighters at 271
Alexander the Great, and Amazons 38–42
appearance, Curtius on 40
All Star Comics xviii
Wonder Woman 255–60
All-American Publications 252
Almaty, Kazakhstan 67
alphabetical script 10
Altai Mountains 54
Scythians, frozen graves 74–7
Altai Republic, Ukok Plateau Ice Maiden 79–88
Amadís de Gaula (Montalvo), influence 128–34
Amazons
defining trait: distinct groups 213–16
explorer-invented communities
Brazilian river communities 138–49
and men 141–2
wealth of gold 142
California, Montalvo’s fictional island 128–34
Christine de Pizan on 126–7
Hurons descended from, Lafitau on 152–3, 214
Greek classical
appearance, Curtius on 40–1
as xenophobic product 25
at Siege of Troy 11–16
attack on Athens 2
invade Greece 9–10
name origins xvii-xviii
Themiscyra, and Alexander the Great 38–42
Theseus and 8–10
why depicted 23–6
in later art/literature 159–90
du Boccage feminist Enlightenment version 173–7
Colombiade 178
Les Amazones 173–8
Kleist version 183–8
Rubens/Brueghel version 164–5
Rubens realist version 166–7
Wonder Woman version 256–7
myths
and modern world 123–57
‘Amazon’, as cliché/pejorati
ve term 264
breast myth 40–1, 43–9
Greeka.com repeats 47
ignored in art 46
Kleist version 183, 186
psychologists repeat 47–8
women of modern times
Dahomey ahosi women’s army 191–212
Kurdish women fighters 263–73
modern horseback archery 117–21
Soviet women air fighters WWII 216–40
Amazon River 132–49, 155–6
communities 137–49
and numbers 144–5
languages 144
amazon.com 156–7
and Amazons 123
amazonomachies (‘Amazon battles’) art theme 16–17, 21
as machismo prop 23–6
amber beads, Baltic
at Arzhan 2 61
Pokrovka 98
American Amazons idea (Marston), press on 251
American Medical Association endorses birth control 251
American Scholar 253
American/America see also United States of America
Amosova, Serafima, on Kociok’s attack 238–9
Amu Darya, Sarmatians move from 94
Andromache, on Penthesilea 12
Animal-style artefacts 53, 59, 61, 85, 87, 98, 101
Antigone 25
Antiope (Amazon)
and Theseus 9–10
du Boccage Les Amazones 176–7
possibly in Bassae Frieze 21
Rubens/Brueghel version 164–5
Antwerp, Catholic renaissance 163–4
Apassionata, horseback archery show 118
Aphrodite, Amazons and, Wonder Woman version 256–7
Apollo
Apollo Epikourios statue, Bassai 17–18
in Bassae Frieze 20, 22–3
Arcadia, Bassae 17–20
Archaeology magazine 73
archery, flight 106
archery, horseback, Kassai revives as sport 106–21
Areopagus 1–2
Amazons at 9–10
Ares (god of war) 1, 4
Argippaei, bald Scythians 35, 54
Argos 3
Ariapeithes, Scythian king, and Olbia 32
Arimaspians 53
Aristotle, on polis xvii, xviii
Aronova, Raisa 227
Arrian (Greek general), and Alans 102
Artemis (Diana), in Bassae Frieze 20, 22
Aryans see Alans
Arzhan kurgans 56
kurgan 1, artefacts 56, 58–9
kurgan 2, artefacts 59–61
Arzu 264
Assam silk 86
Assyrians
and Cimmerians 31, 37
and Scythians 88
Atakpamé people, Togo 193
Athena, Parthenon statue 16–17
Athenian men
and gods 2
women as threat 25
xenophobia 25–6
Athens, early 1–2
429 BC plague 17
Amazons attack 2, 9–10
council 1–2
athletes, modern 49
Aurelian, Amazon captives, Gibbon on 171
aviation, women and, USSR 216–40
Aviation Group 122 219–40
Aymyrlyg cemetery, remains 61–7
Azov Sea 7–8, 237
Baga Turgen Gol (BTG) burial area 88–91
Basques 265
Bassae (Bassai) temple 17–20
Bassae Frieze 19–26
Bassi, Laura, professorship in anatomy 179
Batman (Detective Comics) 252
Batman v. Superman, Wonder Woman in 262
Bayan-Ölgii 88
Bayol, Jean, on Dahomey 207–8
Beecroft, John 206
Begikhani, Nazand 272
Béhanzin, King of Dahomey, fights French 209–11
Bella (Kassai’s horse) 110
Benedict XIV, Pope, support to women in science 178–80
Benin
Dahomey, ahosi ‘Amazons’ 191–212
slave trade 193, 196, 197, 198, 206
Bershanskaya, Yevdokiya, Night Bombers 223, 230
Bezos, Jeff, and amazon.com 156–7
bioarchaeology 62
black Sparta (Dahomey) 191–212
Black Sea Scythians 5, 7–8, 26, 31, 32, 35–7, 59
kurgans 52–4
Boccaccio, Giovanni, Teseida delle nozze di Emilia 124–5
Bocher, Joachim 18–19
Bochkareva, Maria, Women’s Battalion of Death (WWI) 216
Bologna Academy 179
Brazilian river lands, ‘Amazon’ communities 138–49
Britain, Sarmatians as Roman troops 102
British Museum, and Bassae Frieze 20–2
Brok-Beltsova, Galina, on USSR women fliers 224–5
Bronze Age peoples, inner Asia 30–1
Bruegel, Pieter the Elder 163
Brueghel, Jan, and Rubens, The Battle of the Amazons 163–5
Brueghel, Pieter the Younger 163
BTG (Little Turgen River) massacre/burial area 88–91
Bug River, Herodotus on 31–2
Burton, Richard
with East India Company 194–6
in East Africa 195–6
in West Africa 196–206
on Dahomey women’s army 200–6
takes British gifts to Glele 197–206
Byrne, Ethel 244
Byrne, Olive
and Family Circle magazine 250, 252, 253, 258–9
and Marston 246–53, 258
Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez, ‘finds’ Amazon California 133–4
Califia, Montalvo’s Amazon queen 128–9
California, Montalvo’s fictional Amazon island 128–34
‘found’ by Cabrillo 133–4
Carpathian Mountains 32
Carter, Lynda 261
Carvajal, Gaspar de, on Amazon river communities 137–49
account lost until 19th century 147–8
Caspian Sea 38
Sarmatians east of 94
centauromachies art theme 16, 21–2
Center for the Study of Eurasian Nomads 69
Centre of Horseback Combat 118–20
Cervantes, Don Quixote 129
Châteaubriand, Paradise Lost translation 173
Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘The Knight’s Tale’ 125
Chekhov, Anton, ‘The Steppe’ 33
China, and Tuva 56
bride carriage 77
beads, Pokrovka 98
Chisholm, Shirley 260–1
Chugunov, Konstantin 60
Churchill, Winston, on Dum-Dum bullets 208
Cimmerians 31, 37
clay-shoveller’s fracture 65
Cockerell, Charles 20
Columbus, Christopher, and Americas 131–2
Columbus, Diego, and Esplandian 131
Comédie Française 177
comic books 251–8
early, accused of fascism 252
Condamine, Charles Marie de la
on New World 178
Cortés, Francisco 133
Cortés, Hernán, seeks fictional Amazon California 133–4
Cotonou, French at 207, 208
repel Dahomean attack 208
Cousins-Greenwood, Karl 119–20
Cousins-Greenwood, Zana, and horseback archery 118–20
Crimea Scythian dynasties 37
cultural evolution, tracing 214
Curtius, on Alexander and Amazons 39–41
Cyrus the Great, and Scythians 37–8, 42, 127
d’Alembert, Jean 170
Dahomey
France and 207–12
human sacrifices, Burton on 202–3
women’s army, ahosi ‘Amazons’ 191–212
Burton on 200–6
women ‘reborn’ as men 204–5
women’s shadow administration 192, 198–9
Dalzel, Archibald, on Dahomey
women bodyguards
193
‘Dan Dare Pilot of the Future’ xvi
Danube and Don kurgans 55
Danube, grassland culture limit 31
Darius the Great 71
failed invasion of Scythian lands 94–6
Darwin, Charles, Origin of Species 196, 214
Davis-Kimball, Jeannine
on Golden Man (woman) 68–74
on Pokrovka kurgans 96–101
Warrior Women 70, 97
Dayika Gulé 271
DC Comics, formerly Detective Comics, Marston and 253
defenestrations, Prague 160
Delle, Todd, and horseback archery 115
Democratic Union Party, Syria 272
Detective Comics, Batman 252
Diana the Wonder Woman 241, 255–8, 259, 260
Diderot, Denis 170
Diodorus, on Hippolyte 6, 7
Dionysus (Bacchus) ritual 184
Dnieper River 54
Herodotus on 31–2
Scythian dynasties 37
Don River 7–8, 55, 94–5
Germans cross 228
Scythian dynasties 37
du Boccage, Anne-Marie le Page
La Colombiade: Faith Transported to the New World 178, 180
Les Amazones 173–8
Paradise Lost verse translation 173
salon 172–3, 178
du Châtelet, Émilie, on Newton’s Principia 179–80
Duncan, John, on Dahomey women’s army 193
Dzhatkambaev, Auelkhan, on Altai and Ice Maiden 83–4
Dzhigitovka Federation, horseback archery 120
Eagle comic xvi
egalitarian societies 215
Egypt, and Cimmerians 37
El Dorado (Golden Man) land, search for 134–49
Elgin Marbles 20
Elizabeth I, Queen of England 149–51
Eller, Cynthia, Gentlemen and Amazons 215n48
embalming
Ice Maiden 81–2
Pazyryk 76–7, 87
Scythians, Herodotus on 35–6, 76–7
Encyclopedia Britannica 248, 249
Engeländer, Pettra, and horseback archery 117–18
Engels, Aviation Group 122 at 220–5
Enlightenment
feminist, du Boccage, Les Amazones 173–7
rationalism 169–80
Eriboea 7
Erkinova, Rimma 83
Esplandian (Montalvo), influence 128–34
etymology, folk 44–5
Eumenides (Furies) 2
Eurystheus, King of Argos/Mycenae/Tiryns 3–4
Everett, Dan, and Piraha people 145–6
experimental psychology 245–60
and movies 249–50
Family Circle magazine 250, 252, 253, 258–9
fashionable mythology 24–5
female genital mutilation 48
feminist Enlightenment, du Boccage, Les Amazones 173–7
feminist writings, United States 241–4, 260–1