thumb|upright=1.3|An 18th-century [[Rococo painting of The Amazon Queen Thalestris in the Camp of Alexander the Great, by Johann Georg Platzer]]
According to the mythological Greek Alexander Romance, Queen Thalestris (; ) of the Amazons brought 300 women to Alexander the Great, hoping to breed a race of children as strong and intelligent as he. According to the legend, she stayed with the Macedonian king for 13 days and nights in the hope that the great warrior would father a daughter by her.
Sources
Several of Alexander's biographers dispute the claim, including Plutarch, a highly regarded secondary source. He mentions fourteen authors, some of whom believed the story (Onesicritus, Cleitarchus), while others took it to be only fiction (Aristobulus of Cassandreia, Chares of Mytilene, Ptolemy I of Egypt, Duris of Samos).
Plutarch also mentions when Alexander's secondary naval commander, Onesicritus, was reading the Amazon passage of his Alexander history to King Lysimachus of Thrace who was on the original expedition, the king smiled at him and said "And where was I, then?"
Historicity
The story is rejected by modern scholars as legendary. Perhaps behind the legend lies the offering by a Scythian king of his daughter as a wife for Alexander, as the latter himself wrote in a letter to Antipater.
Another possibility is the story was inspired by the contingent of 100 women warriors sent by Atropates to Alexander in 324 BCE. They were called Amazons, arriving on horse and carrying light battle axes and pelta shields. The king sent them back, fearing their presence might incite his male troops to molest them, but he gave them the message he would visit their queen to beget children by her, referencing the popular Amazon custom. These women have been interpreted as product of the Achaemenid custom to train female bodyguards, mere prostitutes playing roles, or true members of Eurasian tribes where women were trained for war, like Scythians themselves,