barbarians; and he ordered them to carry word to their queen that he was coming to her in order to procreate children by her.[1] But this story has been recorded neither by Aristobulus nor Ptolemy, nor any other writer who is a trustworthy authority on such matters. I do not even think that the race of Amazons was surviving at that time; for before Alexander's time they were not mentioned even by Xenophon,[2] who mentions the Phasians, Colchians, and all the other barbaric races which the Greeks came upon, when they started from Trapezus or before they marched down to Trapezus. They would certainly have fallen in with the Amazons if they were still in existence. However it does not seem to me credible that this race of women was altogether fictitious, because it has been celebrated by so many famous poets. For the general account is, that Heracles marched against them and brought the girdle of their queen Hippolyte into Greece.[3] The Athenians also under Theseus were the first to conquer and repulse these women as they were advancing into Europe[4]; and the battle of the Athenians and Amazons has been painted by Micon,[5] no less than that of the Athenians and Persians. Herodotus also has frequently written about these women[6]; and so have the Athenian writers who have honoured the men who perished in war with funeral orations. They have men-
- ↑ The queen is called Thalestris by Diodorus and Curtius.
- ↑ This is a mistake, for Xenophon does mention the Amazons in the Anabasis (iv. 4, 16). For Trapezus and the Phasians see his Anabasis (iv. 8, 22; v. 6, 36.)
- ↑ See Diodorus, iv. 16. This was one of the twelve labours of Hercules.
- ↑ See Plutarch (Theseus, 26).
- ↑ "The Battle of the Amazons" was a celebrated painting in the Stoa Poecile at Athens, executed by Micon, son of Phanichus, a contemporary of Polygnotus about B.C. 460. Cf. Aristophanes (Lysistrata, 678): "Look at the Amazons whom Micon painted on horseback fighting with the men." See also Pausanias (i. 15; viii. 11).
- ↑ Cf. Herodotus, iv. 110-117; ix. 27.
