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A Brief History of the Amazons: Women Warriors in Myth and History
'Golden-shielded, silver-sworded, man-loving, male-child slaughtering Amazons,' is how the fifth-century Greek historian Hellanicus described the Amazons, and they have fascinated humanity ever since. Did they really exist? For centuries, scholars consigned them to the world of myth, but Lyn Webster Wilde journeyed into the homeland of the Amazons and uncovered astonishing evidence of their historic reality.
North of the Black Sea she found archaeological excavations of graves of Iron Age women buried with arrows, swords and armour. In the hidden world of the Hittites, near the Amazons' ancient capital of Thermiscyra in Anatolia, she unearthed traces of powerful priestesses, women-only religious cults, and an armed, bisexual goddess - all possible sources for the ferocious women.
Combining scholarly penetration with a sense of adventure, Webster Wilde has produced a coherent and absorbing book that challenges preconceived notions, still disturbingly widespread, of what men and women can do.
North of the Black Sea she found archaeological excavations of graves of Iron Age women buried with arrows, swords and armour. In the hidden world of the Hittites, near the Amazons' ancient capital of Thermiscyra in Anatolia, she unearthed traces of powerful priestesses, women-only religious cults, and an armed, bisexual goddess - all possible sources for the ferocious women.
Combining scholarly penetration with a sense of adventure, Webster Wilde has produced a coherent and absorbing book that challenges preconceived notions, still disturbingly widespread, of what men and women can do.
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2016
26 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 23, 2019
Me gustaría advertir que el título puede conducir a engaño. No estamos ante un libro que profundice en el mito de las amazonas, si no que se trata del resumen de la investigación de la autora sobre pueblos de mujeres guerreras o sociedades matrilineales en civilizaciones de la antigüedad, en las que pudo basarse el mito.
El libro está lleno de datos, curiosidades e historias sobre esto, en lugares y época de las amazonas pero también en épocas anteriores. Se cuentan infinidad de tradiciones relacionadas con el poder que emana de la sexualidad de la mujer, ritos, danzas, costumbres...
Puede que tras la lectura no seas un experto en la mitología de las amazonas, pero sí entenderás de qué fuentes pudo haberse dado forma a tal mito.
El libro está lleno de datos, curiosidades e historias sobre esto, en lugares y época de las amazonas pero también en épocas anteriores. Se cuentan infinidad de tradiciones relacionadas con el poder que emana de la sexualidad de la mujer, ritos, danzas, costumbres...
Puede que tras la lectura no seas un experto en la mitología de las amazonas, pero sí entenderás de qué fuentes pudo haberse dado forma a tal mito.
February 23, 2019
I'll admit, I wasn't expecting a lot from this book, knowing that it was written twenty years ago and wasn't particularly long. I did, however, hope to enjoy it, and thought that perhaps there would be some insights or information that other authors had not included.
I instead came away extremely disappointed, and a little angry. The author has no academic training, and cheerfully admits this, seeing it as a plus. She is instead, a television writer, and this is painfully obvious. She does her own 'research' - which consists of talking to a few specialists and only listening to things that support her theories, and translating articles in languages she is not fluent in. One chapter is almost completely based on the experiences of an American bellydancer. All of this could be forgiven, if she was just writing a light-hearted novel, but this book purports to be a history of Amazons.
What we actually get is a rambling narrative that flits between time periods and areas of the world with very little rhyme or reason. The myth of the Amazons comes from classical Greece, but because they are spoken of as coming around the same time period as the characters of the Iliad and the Odyssey, she is obsessed with finding them in Bronze Age Crete, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia, while dismissing the idea of Scythian influence after one chapter. She seems to trust the historical sources, such as Diodorus and Herodotus, almost without any sort of hesitation, though they often had no first hand knowledge of the events they write about, and were writing centuries after the fact. Any secondary school student knows that not taking an author's bias into account is a huge error.
She makes grand, sweeping statements with almost no factual basis and sexualises almost everything, including, in one memorable moment, bull's excrement. She makes vaguely homophobic statements about the 'cool lesbianism' of statues of Artemis, and confuses hermaphroditism and androgyny for fluid gender roles and non-binary expressions of gender, or simply wearing clothes the western world would think male.
Her overwhelming desire seems to be to prove some sort of theory that prior to the advent of agriculture (which happened at different rates across the globe), all societies were matripotestal and led by the worship of mother goddesses, all the while, rubbishing this as a modern feminist ideal. Her rhapsodic prose about the sexual elements of bull-leaping and the dark Dionysiac rites of ancient Greece and Rome read as a new age spiritual journey, rather than a history of actual warrior women throughout history. At no point does this book actually feel like it is focusing on real women who existed; it just feels like an imaginary story interspersed with badly regurgitated facts from historical texts and archaeologists who actually know what they're doing. The later chapters on more modern examples of warrior women could have been so interesting, but are spoilt by shoddy research and ramblings about how women are intrinsically in tune with nature.
If you are looking for books on Amazons, The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World is brilliant and wonderfully readable. For more on the Scythians, The World of the Scythians is a fantastic and concise guide, if a little dated. By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia is a great, broad-spanning account of prehistoric and ancient interactions between the peoples of Eurasia. And for accounts of Greek women's lives, Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity and The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens are also amazing!
I instead came away extremely disappointed, and a little angry. The author has no academic training, and cheerfully admits this, seeing it as a plus. She is instead, a television writer, and this is painfully obvious. She does her own 'research' - which consists of talking to a few specialists and only listening to things that support her theories, and translating articles in languages she is not fluent in. One chapter is almost completely based on the experiences of an American bellydancer. All of this could be forgiven, if she was just writing a light-hearted novel, but this book purports to be a history of Amazons.
What we actually get is a rambling narrative that flits between time periods and areas of the world with very little rhyme or reason. The myth of the Amazons comes from classical Greece, but because they are spoken of as coming around the same time period as the characters of the Iliad and the Odyssey, she is obsessed with finding them in Bronze Age Crete, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia, while dismissing the idea of Scythian influence after one chapter. She seems to trust the historical sources, such as Diodorus and Herodotus, almost without any sort of hesitation, though they often had no first hand knowledge of the events they write about, and were writing centuries after the fact. Any secondary school student knows that not taking an author's bias into account is a huge error.
She makes grand, sweeping statements with almost no factual basis and sexualises almost everything, including, in one memorable moment, bull's excrement. She makes vaguely homophobic statements about the 'cool lesbianism' of statues of Artemis, and confuses hermaphroditism and androgyny for fluid gender roles and non-binary expressions of gender, or simply wearing clothes the western world would think male.
Her overwhelming desire seems to be to prove some sort of theory that prior to the advent of agriculture (which happened at different rates across the globe), all societies were matripotestal and led by the worship of mother goddesses, all the while, rubbishing this as a modern feminist ideal. Her rhapsodic prose about the sexual elements of bull-leaping and the dark Dionysiac rites of ancient Greece and Rome read as a new age spiritual journey, rather than a history of actual warrior women throughout history. At no point does this book actually feel like it is focusing on real women who existed; it just feels like an imaginary story interspersed with badly regurgitated facts from historical texts and archaeologists who actually know what they're doing. The later chapters on more modern examples of warrior women could have been so interesting, but are spoilt by shoddy research and ramblings about how women are intrinsically in tune with nature.
If you are looking for books on Amazons, The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World is brilliant and wonderfully readable. For more on the Scythians, The World of the Scythians is a fantastic and concise guide, if a little dated. By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia is a great, broad-spanning account of prehistoric and ancient interactions between the peoples of Eurasia. And for accounts of Greek women's lives, Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity and The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens are also amazing!
May 27, 2021
Entre el libro de viajes y el ensayo divulgativo. El libro pretende ser una investigación introductoria sobre el pueblo de las amazonas, pero se queda en una pseudo investigación mal planteada desde el principio, que en lugar de limitarse a exponer aquello que se sabe sobre este pueblo mítico, se empeña en encontrar respuestas amoldando los datos para conseguir su objetivo.
Peca de no entender que las amazonas fueron un pueblo mítico, inexistente, y se empeña en buscar pruebas de su existencia donde no las hay para concluir que cualquier mujer con arrojo y valor ante los problemas es una amazona.
Un libro de pseudo historia como tantos otros que buscan probar la existencia histórica de un mito.
Peca de no entender que las amazonas fueron un pueblo mítico, inexistente, y se empeña en buscar pruebas de su existencia donde no las hay para concluir que cualquier mujer con arrojo y valor ante los problemas es una amazona.
Un libro de pseudo historia como tantos otros que buscan probar la existencia histórica de un mito.
February 7, 2025
Find ich toll, dass eine amerikanische Bauchtänzerin als Quelle herangezogen wird.
Ansonsten wars echt hilfreich, vor allem der Beginn, bei dem Kapitel, bei dem es nur Ausgrabungen über Ausgrabungen gab, hab ich erstmal eine einmonatige Pause gemacht, bevor ich mich bis zum Ende (mit ein paar übersprungenen Seiten über irgendwelche Leopardenköniginnen) durchgewurstelt habe.
Ansonsten wars echt hilfreich, vor allem der Beginn, bei dem Kapitel, bei dem es nur Ausgrabungen über Ausgrabungen gab, hab ich erstmal eine einmonatige Pause gemacht, bevor ich mich bis zum Ende (mit ein paar übersprungenen Seiten über irgendwelche Leopardenköniginnen) durchgewurstelt habe.
January 7, 2018
This book should be taken with a grain of salt, in that 1) it is almost twenty years old, so many discoveries relating to the subject might have been made in the meantime; 2) while the author herself states that the image of the Amazons has been used to instill different ideas according to various agendas throughout history, and while she claims she will try to not do that, the book does reflect quite a lot of her bias towards the subject.
That being said, the book is fun and makes a fast read. It analyzes the myth, the connections, the texts and historical evidence for or against Amazons (mainly for). My favorite chapter was the one in which graves of warrior women were discussed. There were times in which I felt the book could have diverged from the myth and origin of Amazons and go on to talk more about warrior women of every culture - it would have been a fun addition. But all in all, it was a satisfying read.
Another book written in similar manner and which deals with ancient myths that I read was The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology In Greek And Roman Times. I recommend both books to Ancient Greek history enthusiasts.
That being said, the book is fun and makes a fast read. It analyzes the myth, the connections, the texts and historical evidence for or against Amazons (mainly for). My favorite chapter was the one in which graves of warrior women were discussed. There were times in which I felt the book could have diverged from the myth and origin of Amazons and go on to talk more about warrior women of every culture - it would have been a fun addition. But all in all, it was a satisfying read.
Another book written in similar manner and which deals with ancient myths that I read was The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology In Greek And Roman Times. I recommend both books to Ancient Greek history enthusiasts.
October 28, 2023
However informative and easy to read this book was, the final message the author leaves us with by the end-namely that women needed to be oppressed by the “rational, mind-representing” male power, which is contrasted to a supposed wild, basal and body-representing female power is just so bleak and messed up that Im going to pretend I didnt read it and move on. Two stars becayse I did learn a lot.
August 3, 2016
A really fun book exploring the history of warrior women, matriarchal societies, and the "shakti" power of female-ness. Really makes me wish we still had strong matriarchal or matripotestal currents in our society. Maybe we're finally reaching a point where we can start to reclaim some of what was lost.
November 26, 2017
Websters "Brief History of the Amazons" now almost twenty years old, yet the spirit with which see searches for the essence and meaning of the amazons is as fresh and modern as any of the latest related works currently in print.
The author tackles the idea of the Amazonian women from all angles; from Classical conceptions, to modern archaeology, to the even more ancient religious roots of Anatolia and Mesopotamia , and the central idea of the female power throughout indo-European and African cultures since ancient times. What I found particularly interesting was her highlighting this 'female power' or 'Shakti', as more than simple feminism, it was something far greater, far freer, it is not something which can be seen yet its presence is none the less apparent and one which man has feared and attempted to tame for centuries, something which is only slowly starting to be revived but even so not in the form and power which it once had in the ancient past.
Even if you may not entirely fall in love with Websters ideas of Shakti, especially in contrast with more recent studies on the same topic, you will surely fall in love with her easy reading prose style. Her highly descriptive style, down to the weather of specific days, makes her book a very entertaining read and makes the reader feel as though they themselves are on the journey to the historic sites that the author herself is visiting.
Overall I would recommend this book as a strong introduction to anyone interested in the Ancient Amazons. Though brief the work is sure to hold something of interest to any Amazon enthusiast.
The author tackles the idea of the Amazonian women from all angles; from Classical conceptions, to modern archaeology, to the even more ancient religious roots of Anatolia and Mesopotamia , and the central idea of the female power throughout indo-European and African cultures since ancient times. What I found particularly interesting was her highlighting this 'female power' or 'Shakti', as more than simple feminism, it was something far greater, far freer, it is not something which can be seen yet its presence is none the less apparent and one which man has feared and attempted to tame for centuries, something which is only slowly starting to be revived but even so not in the form and power which it once had in the ancient past.
Even if you may not entirely fall in love with Websters ideas of Shakti, especially in contrast with more recent studies on the same topic, you will surely fall in love with her easy reading prose style. Her highly descriptive style, down to the weather of specific days, makes her book a very entertaining read and makes the reader feel as though they themselves are on the journey to the historic sites that the author herself is visiting.
Overall I would recommend this book as a strong introduction to anyone interested in the Ancient Amazons. Though brief the work is sure to hold something of interest to any Amazon enthusiast.
January 4, 2022
This is a brief book about Amazons (The Woman warrior not the South American Rainforest). It begin with the exploration of The Amazons description within the ancient greek mythology through the writing, play and poem. The author then expand this exploration by searching for proof at the actual site that could indicate the existence of this Women Warriors. What is fascinating is that after no concrete proof is found. The Author try to sift through the annal of history for festivity, group of people, cultural practice and civilization that could capture the ancient greek imagination as Amazonian. From matriarchal society to armed priestess to androgynous people, the author show the diffrence in culture, practice and indentity that is outside of ancient greek culture that could create and fuel the imagination of a Women Warrior soceity known as Amazon on the mind of greek people. With that, it also shows what has become of such culture and practice. As well as, who claim to inherit the spirit of Amazon in this modern ages.
While this book is fascinating and exciting to read. There is one particular statement or opinion that erred me as it went against my upbringing. Now, it is by no mean that this book is bad. While I would and will feel that statement is wrong and should not be written down, The rest of the written word is fascinated me.
While this book is fascinating and exciting to read. There is one particular statement or opinion that erred me as it went against my upbringing. Now, it is by no mean that this book is bad. While I would and will feel that statement is wrong and should not be written down, The rest of the written word is fascinated me.
January 28, 2020
I commend the author for the obvious amount of time and research that she put in to this book, but it was hard to read. The chapters seemed useless as any sort of guide; they would start off with one subject and quickly move to another, and another, and another. Not to mention the countless groups of people, ancient town names, modern town names, and names of people within these unrelated transitions were overwhelming. It took me five months to read this book! I would read and re-read sentences trying to keep up with the authors train of thought, only to be discouraged and eventually give up.
It's clear though that Ms. Wilde is truly passionate about this subject. I think with another editor or publisher that she could create something really remarkable.
It's clear though that Ms. Wilde is truly passionate about this subject. I think with another editor or publisher that she could create something really remarkable.
December 15, 2020
The book is just okay in my opinion. I definitely feel as though the author is very biased and some of the ‘evidence’ felt like a stretch; I struggled to continue reading after she compared Ellen Degeneres to the goddess, Artemis. I also found myself upset when the author painted a great picture of how an ancient ceremony took place only to be told “the above account... is not necessarily true.” Overall, it felt like it was written by someone who did a lot of research but instead filled the required word count with history from other ancient civilizations, which she then tied to the Amazons through over-sexualization and mere similarities. I did however enjoy hearing about such amazing and powerful women in myth and history!
March 11, 2021
The first couple of chapters had me intrigued. This is less of a brief history and more of a lengthy interpretation of historical peoples places and texts that COULD be evidence but weren't very convincing when put together in this format. There is a lot of information or names that I will look into on my own but the title of the book gives it too much credit.
The last half of the book was tough to get through. There was a lot of name switching (for example: Samantha also goes by Sam, or Man Or Tha depending on if you're talking to her mom, grandma, or school bully...but anyway she is 6 feet 4 inches). Im sorry what?
No pronunciation guides and it quickly turned into letter soup. I see where the author was going and yay there are some pictures but the execution was not great.
The last half of the book was tough to get through. There was a lot of name switching (for example: Samantha also goes by Sam, or Man Or Tha depending on if you're talking to her mom, grandma, or school bully...but anyway she is 6 feet 4 inches). Im sorry what?
No pronunciation guides and it quickly turned into letter soup. I see where the author was going and yay there are some pictures but the execution was not great.
September 16, 2024
If you start reading this book expecting the same quality as the other "a brief history of" books, you'll be gravely dissapointed. This book is not written by a historian and it shows. next to the actual history there are descriptions of the author how she dances, and the travel experiences she had while researching this book.
If you set expectations aside and take this book for what it is, you might still find it interesting, because the book talks a lot about past cultures and the roles of women within them.
I give this book a cautious recommendation. Don't expect too much, and you might enjoy it.
If you set expectations aside and take this book for what it is, you might still find it interesting, because the book talks a lot about past cultures and the roles of women within them.
I give this book a cautious recommendation. Don't expect too much, and you might enjoy it.
February 1, 2018
I was torn between 3 and 4 stars for this book, in the end I went with 4, purely because of the sheer amount of enthusiasm the author shows for the subject of the Amazons.
The downside of this not being an academic piece (or so says the author), is that no conclusion is reached, in fact the book seems to cut off rather abruptly. There is some great information about ancient warrior women, and their appearances in archaeology but it never quite goes far enough for my liking. I'd have liked to know more about the more Northern findings, especially.
The downside of this not being an academic piece (or so says the author), is that no conclusion is reached, in fact the book seems to cut off rather abruptly. There is some great information about ancient warrior women, and their appearances in archaeology but it never quite goes far enough for my liking. I'd have liked to know more about the more Northern findings, especially.
December 26, 2021
What looked to be an interesting historical study of the myths of the Amazon's quickly turned out to be travel writing, then orientalist travel writing, with a regular rad fem "we need to rediscover the mystical feminine energies of our lost matriarchal past" throughline. Oddly, this mapped out into a reading experience that was like watching dinosaur documentaries from the early 00s like "Walking with Dinosaurs"
August 7, 2025
Sadly, I found this pretty boring. The few black and white pictures in the middle did nothing for the book, which cried out to be a larger format with more pictures. The author tried to show that certain societies had dominating women who we might identify as Amazons - which after all are a mythological concept.
If any such societies existed, they haven't stood the test of time.
Rating 2.4.
If any such societies existed, they haven't stood the test of time.
Rating 2.4.
December 28, 2017
It was interesting enough to keep me reading. It wasn't too much like a text book, but really should a history of The Amazons be so brief. I wanted more info. But then some still believe it was just all a great myth I guess.
December 9, 2020
It’s very.... amateur third wave feminist sociological theory.
Somewhere in between a television show on travel and a pseudo historical interpretation. I wouldn’t mind her casual argument but she sort of undermines it in her methodology.
She proves her research and travel.
Quarantine read.
Somewhere in between a television show on travel and a pseudo historical interpretation. I wouldn’t mind her casual argument but she sort of undermines it in her methodology.
She proves her research and travel.
Quarantine read.
August 3, 2022
Really cannot tell you how much I disliked this. I read 50000 facts presented at random and learned none of them.
Marking as spoilers because I don’t want the author to read this, she seemed nice and must have had a fun trip looking for relics.
Marking as spoilers because I don’t want the author to read this, she seemed nice and must have had a fun trip looking for relics.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2018
One of the worst books I have ever finished. a very flimsy excuse for a book about history.
July 23, 2018
A bit outdated, with a lot of anecdotes from the author’s life, some of which were quite interesting, some of which were not. Still, I learned a lot about the amazons and it was an easy read!
September 23, 2018
There's some decent information here, but it's organized more by the author's "journey of discovery" than by anything that's really useful to the reader.
August 4, 2022
Ameno, bien documentado y con un enfoque centrado que permite ver otra dimensión del paso del "matriarcado " al patriarcado, sin ir a extremos.
September 29, 2024
Selbst Weimarer Republik ist interessanter
October 17, 2021
I loved it
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews