thumb|4th century AD Amazonomachy mosaic from Daphne, a suburb of [[Antioch on the Orontes (modern Antakya, Turkey); Louvre, Denon Wing]]
thumb|Relief now in [[Vienna]]
In Greek mythology, an Amazonomachy (English translation: "Amazon battle"; plural, Amazonomachiai () or Amazonomachies) is a mythological battle between the ancient Greeks and the Amazons, a nation of all-female warriors. The subject of Amazonomachies was popular in ancient Greek art and Roman art.
Amazonomachy in Myth
Throughout all of antiquity, the Amazons were regarded as a race of female warriors descended from Ares, fiercely independent and skilled in hunting, riding, archery, and warfare. They worshiped Ares and Artemis, respectively the god of war and the goddess of the hunt, and their geographic locations were notably associated with Scythia and the Asia Minor.
In Greek epic narratives, the Amazons were perceived to be non-Greek heroic figures who challenged the strength and masculinity of Greek heroes on the battlefield, such as Achilles, Bellerophon, Heracles (Hercules), Theseus, and the Athenians.
Ninth Labor, Hercules
During Hercules’ ninth labor, Hercules was given the task by Eurystheus to retrieve the royal girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyta for his daughter.
Symbolism of Amazonomachy
Amazonomachy represents the Greek ideal of civilization. The Amazons were portrayed as a savage and barbaric race, while the Greeks were portrayed as a civilized race of human progress.
According to Bruno Snell's view of Amazonomachy:
<blockquote>For the Greeks, the Titanomachy and the battle against the giants remained symbols of the victory which their own world had won over a strange universe; along with the battles against the Amazons and Centaurs they continue to signalize the Greek conquest of everything barbarous, of all monstrosity and grossness.</blockquote>In Quintus Smyrnaeus's The Fall of Troy, Penthesilea, an Amazonian queen, who joined on the side of the Trojans during the Trojan war, was quoted at Troy, saying:
<blockquote>Not in strength are we inferior to men; the same our eyes, our limbs the same; one common light we see, one air we breathe; nor different is the food we eat. What then denied to us hath heaven on man bestowed?</blockquote>
According to Josine Blok, Amazonomachy provides two different contexts for defining a Greek hero. Either the Amazons are one of the disasters from which the hero rids the country after his victory over a monster, or they are an expression of the underlying Attis motif in which the hero shuns human sexuality in marriage and procreation.thumb|217x217px|Heracles in the battle against an Amazon, 6th century BC
J.J. Bachofen understood Amazonian myths as remnants of a prehistoric matriarchy. In other words, as popularized in the 21st century, matriarchy was conceptualized by him through the phrase "Mother Right". He theorized that the Amazons were not merely mythical creatures but were derived from the historical manifestation of a time when women held immense power in society. In his view, society initially revolved around female dominance, which was reflected in the Greeks' engagement with Amazonian motifs in art. However, he believed society transitioned to patriarchy at the dawn of civilization, seeing male domination as necessary for progress.
Bachofen’s thesis was highly influential, and it was incorporated into several schools of thought, including Freudians, Structuralists, and Feminists. At the end of the 19th century, American psychologists interested in Amazonomachy integrated Bachofen’s matriarchy ideals with Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic framework. Schultz Engle argues that Amazon warriors were often depicted riding horses as a response to the incompetence of Scythian males. She theorized that Scythian men were weakened due to orchitis, a condition causing inflammation of the testicles, which she attributed to spending long hours on horseback. Using Amazonomachy as a sexual and psychological allegory, she then posits that the Amazons, in contrast, derived masturbatory pleasure from riding horses.
Structuralists also expanded on Bachofen’s argument about matriarchy, asserting that the Amazons represented the opposite of the Greek polis, in which male domination shaped society into a "men’s club". This binary approach argued that marriage was for women, while war was for men. Later, scholars would apply a binary framework to analyze Amazonomachy and its myths, conceptualizing oppositions such as "barbarians" vs. "civilization" and "masculinity" vs. "femininity".
Critics have challenged the interpretation of Amazonomachy as a symbolic critique of Athenian patriarchy and male anxieties. Mary Lefkowitz pointed out the existence of Amazonomachy in myths predating the strict sex segregation of Athens, so she rejects the notion that the Amazons should be interpreted as a response to gender norms. In addition, in any battles the Greeks may have had against the Amazons, both men and women would suffer during the conflicts, which contradicts the idea that Amazonomachy functioned solely as a tool against Athenian patriarchy. She also compared the Greeks' battle against the Amazons to their battle against the Centaurs to further highlight the logical flaws in feminist arguments. If, as feminists argue, Amazonomachy symbolizes the suppression of women, then by the same line of logic, Centauromachy should also symbolize the suppression of horses. As evident, in the 5th century BC, the Achaemenid Empire began a series of invasions against Greece. Because of this, some scholars believe that in most Greek art of that time, Persians were shown allegorically through the figure of centaurs and Amazons. Thus, the increase in Amazonomachy to further reinforce the concept of the "other" against the Greeks could reflect Perikles' and the broader Greek society's anxiety over citizenship.
According to Jeremy McInerney, Kleidemos' account of the Attic War was politically connoted in such a way that Theseus' defeat of the Persians not only represented the victory of Athens as a whole, but also reaffirmed certain values of Athenian democracy, likely during a period of political and historical tension in the 4th century BC.
Modern interpretations also view the amazonomachy as largely symbolic of the conflict between the ancient Greek patriarchal model of civilization against (the influence of) the foreign, gender-transgressive female. The various amazonomachiai in Greek myths were typically concluded with the triumph of some Athenian male hero (such as Hercules or Theseus) over famous Amazons, who were killed in combat or sexually subjugated by Greek men. According to these modern scholars, the male hero's quintessential defeat of the Amazons in mythology (as well as Amazon grave markers) reinforced and reminded the Greek populace of the supremacy of Athens' patriarchal model of civilization and society.
thumb|Herakles fighting the Amazons, side A from an Attic black-figure neck amphora.
Ancient Greek Pottery
Amazons began to be featured prominently on Attic vases from around 570 BCE onward until the middle of the 5th Century. During the beginning of this time period, Amazons were most popularly depicted on Attic black-figure pottery, depicting Amazon battle scenes during the Trojan War or, more commonly, during Hercules' legendary ninth labor. Some of such vessels were inscribed with names of Amazons, with Andromache being named the most often, though none of the non-Herculean battles possessed such inscriptions. Hercules was quite often portrayed on such vessels to be in single combat against three Amazons or more. The non-Greek values associated with the Amazons are reflected in their attire. Most significantly, the clothing Amazons were depicted wearing, such as Attic tunics, chitons, or Corinthian caps, played a key role in representing their foreign identity. These elements were drawn from eastern cultures familiar to the Greeks at the time. Thus, the foreign aspects of Amazonian attire were culturally constructed and were limited primarily to the East Greek islands. Portraying the Amazons as parthenoi, the symbol of defying societal norms also reflects the ‘otherness’ as well. This is demonstrated by the depiction of Amazonomachy in Amphora (storage vessel): Herakles in Combat with the Amazon Andromache, White-ground alabastron: Amazon and Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar).
Amazons were eventually seen on red-figure pottery as black-figure pottery gradually became less popular during the last quarter of the 6th Century. It was also around this time that Theseus also became a common feature in art depicting the Amazonomachy. She also wears a Scythian cap with two points. These garments are unfamiliar to Athenian tradition but instead reference Scythian attire, which would have been recognizable to Athenians at the time. However, she is still identified as an Amazon warrior due to the lack of a pointed beard. As Athenians began to familiarize themselves with Eastern-style attire and customs by 550 BCE due to increasing contact, artists often employed Eastern characteristics to represent the ‘Other’ in art. The west metopes of the Parthenon depict a battle between Greeks and Amazons. Despite its mutilated state, scholars generally concur that the scene represents the Amazon invasion of Attica.
Shield of Athena Parthenos
The shield of Athena Parthenos, sculpted by Phidias, depicts a fallen Amazon. Athena Parthenos was a massive chryselephantine sculpture of Athena, the main cult image inside the Parthenon at Athens, which is now lost, though known from descriptions and small ancient copies.
Frieze from Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
thumb|[[Mausoleum at Halicarnassus]]
Several sections of an Amazonomachy frieze from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus are now in the British Museum. One part depicts Heracles grasping an Amazon by the hair, while holding a club behind his head in a striking manner. This Amazon is believed to be the Amazon queen Hippolyta. Behind Heracles is a scene of a Greek warrior clashing shields with an Amazon warrior. Another slab displays a mounted Amazon charging at a Greek, who is defending himself with a raised shield. This Greek is believed to be Theseus, who joined Heracles during his labors.
Other
Micon painted the Amazonomachy on the Stoa Poikile of the Ancient Agora of Athens, which is now lost.
Phidias depicted Amazonomachy on the footstool of the chryselephantine statue of Zeus at Olympia.
In 2018, archaeologists discovered relief-decorated shoulder boards made from bronze that were part of a breastplate of a Greek warrior at a Celtic sacrificial place near the village of Slatina nad Bebravou in Slovakia. Deputy of director of Slovak Archaeological Institute said that it is the oldest original Greek art relic in the area of Slovakia. Researchers analyzed the pieces and determined they were once part of a relief that depicted the Amazonomachy.
thumb|Sarcophagus depicting the battle between Greeks and Amazons.
Roman Sarcophagi
Many representations of Amazons from the Roman times have also been found, with images of the amazonomachy included on mosaics, coins, friezes, votive reliefs, and so on. Notably, more than 60 sarcophagus reliefs have been found to depict scenes of conflict between the Amazons and Greeks.
Many of these writers' renditions of the battles between the Amazons and Greeks were based on the distribution and of graves attributed to the Amazons throughout Athens. Plutarch's account later goes on to cite Kleidemos in his description of how the Attic amazonomachy corresponded with the placement of some of the Athenian Amazon graves: <blockquote>The left wing of the Amazons extended to what is now called the Amazoneion … and the Athenians fought against this, attacking the Amazons from the Mouseion hill, and the graves of the fallen are along the wide street that goes to the gate at the Heroon of Chalcodon, which they now call the Peiraic Gate.
Despite the lack of conclusive evidence pointing to the existence of the Amazons, some modern scholars and archaeologists have claimed that such steppe nomad horsewomen could have potentially existed as the Amazons’ historical counterparts. Though their actual connection to the mythical Amazons is controversial, there is evidence which supports the historical existence of such steppe warrior women, as modern excavations in the 20th century have discovered more than 1,000 tombs of tribes such as the Saka-Scythians across the Eurasian steppes, of which about 300 of these burials have been identified to be those of armed warrior women (as of 2016).