Wild Women: The Amazons
by
Elizabeth Snider
Conclusion
The concept of women warriors is simultaneously fascinating and terrifying for those who are part of a patriarchal, male-dominated society. The novelty of the idea of women independent of men is alluring, but at the same time threatening to men accustomed to a position superior to women. Thus, despite ample evidence supporting the existence of women, it is only recently that scholars have begun to seriously consider who the Amazons really were, where they lived, and what their lives may have been like. Now that women are claiming status equal to men, and finally beginning to achieve that status, research into the existence of Amazons has increased. The results of that research, and the changing postion of women in our own society, makes it seems more likely than ever that Amazons did, in fact, exist.
Introduction
The Amazons: Fact or Fiction?
The Ninth Labor of Hercules
Theseus and Antiope
Achilles and Penthesilea
This site was written as a requirement for the honors seminar Images of Women in Ancient Art.
This Honors Seminar is taught by Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, Associate Director of the Honors Program, and Professor of Art History at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, USA.
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