Its highest point, where the river pours out its might
From the brows themselves. You should pass beyond
Their peaks that neighbour the stars, and take the road
Towards the south, where you’ll come to the man-hating Army of the Amazons, who will one day live
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 720-725
Ancient Greek historians used the story of the Amazons for various political, social, and personal reasons. In turn, the stories of the Amazons and their respective endings varied based on the author, the hero, and the political climate of the culture that shared and used these myths. For example, Herodotus is credited with using the Amazons to explain different political possibilities of governance and livelihood in his Histories, while Diodorus is thought to have written about the Amazons in ways to promote individual heroes in new ways. Plutarch, as another example, mentions the myth of the Amazons in the context of describing stories that showcase the qualities of a good leader. These differing agendas among authors change the framework in the portrayal and understanding of the Amazons and, thus, their legacy.
About the Sauromatai the following tale is told: — When the Hellenes had fought with the Amazons, — now the Amazons are called by the Scythians Oiorpata, which name means in the Hellenic tongue “slayers of men,” for “man” they call oior, and pata means “to slay,” — then, as the story goes, the Hellenes, having conquered them in the battle at the Thermodon.
Herodotus, Histories 4.110
When their children were born the babies were turned over to the men, who brought them up on milk and such cooked foods as were appropriate to the age of the infants; and if it happened that a girl was born, its breasts were seared that they might not develop at the time of maturity; for they thought that the breasts, as they stood out from the body, were no small hindrance in warfare; and in fact it is because they have been deprived of their breasts that they are called by the Greeks Amazon.
Diodorus, Library 3.53.3
Well, then, such were the grounds for the war of the Amazons, which seems to have been no trivial nor womanish enterprise for Theseus. For they would not have pitched their camp within the city, nor fought hand to hand battles in the neighbourhood of the Pnyx and the Museum, had they not mastered the surrounding country and approached the city with impunity.
Plutarch, Life of Theseus 27.1
Most authors and artists viewed the Amazons as part of a collective whole. Still, sometimes, they are featured individually, suggesting some interest among the Greeks in the Amazons as people. They were interested in where they lived, how they lived, their specific religious practices and social norms, and how matriarchal and female-dominated societies could exist. Their understanding of “the Other” revealed itself in their attempts at explaining the Amazons’ history, behaviors, and physical features.
Despite the different interpretations of what the Amazons mean and represent for the Greeks, some characteristics always remain true: the Amazons are women, warriors who live in groups, and barbarians.
KING: Foreign maidens, your tale is beyond my belief — how your race can be from Argos. For you are more similar to the women of Libya and in no way similar to those native to our land. The Nile, too, might foster such a stock, and like yours is the Cyprian impress stamped upon female images by male craftsmen. And of such aspect, I have heard, are nomad women, who ride on camels for steeds, having padded saddles, and dwell in a land neighboring the Aethiopians. And had you been armed with the bow, certainly I would have guessed you to be the unwed, flesh-devouring Amazons. But inform me, and I will better comprehend how it is that you trace your race and lineage from Argos.
Aeschylus, Suppliant Maidens 277-292
The Amazons were once the daughters of Ares, living by the river Thermodon, and they alone of the inhabitants of that region were armed with metal, and first of all they mounted horses, by which they unexpectedly, because of the inexperience of their adversaries, overtook those who fled from them, and they left their pursuers far behind. So for their spirit they were thought men, rather than women for their nature. For they seemed to surpass men in spirit rather than to be inferior in physique.
Lysias, Funeral Oration 4
After Orithya, Penthesilea occupied the throne, of whose valour there were seen great proofs among the bravest heroes in the Trojan War, when she led an auxiliary force thither against the Greeks. But Penthesilea being at last killed, and her army destroyed, a few only of the Amazons, who had remained at home in their own country, established a power that continued (defending itself with difficulty against its neighbours), to the time of Alexander the Great. Their queen Minithya, or Thalestris, after obtaining from Alexander the enjoyment of his society for thirteen days, in order to have issue by him, returned into her kingdom, and soon after died, together with the whole name of the Amazons.
Justin, History of the World 2.4