Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-09-14
THE ORIGINAL SUFFRAGETTES.
Amazons Who Had an Army Entirely
of Their Own Sex.

Amazons Who Had an Army Entirely
of Their Own Sex.
Fresh evidence has been discovered
of the actual existence Of a race Of
AmaZons, women who fought like men
and constituted an army entirely Of
their own sex. Surely it will be well
come news to the suffragettes and de-
Tenders Of wOmen's rights to know
that even in primitive times women
could perform the sternest duties Of
men. The suffragettes may think that
the discovery will shatter one Of the
strongest arguments of their oppo-
nents-that women are unable to per-
form the highest duty of a citizen,
| which Is to defend ones country in
time Of war.
The latest discovery concerning the
Amazons has been made at Belmonte,
in central Italy. The remains found
| here belong to the age Of the Etrus-
| cans, a mysterious race, who reached
high state of civilization centuries
"ciN Va aiy
portance in the world.
At Belmonte two ancient tombs have
been eXcavated from beneath the
ground. Around the stone work Of
| each runs a frieze depicting female
warriors in many episodes of war.
| The Amazons drive chariots and ride
| horses. None but women appear in
| their army. One woman drives a char
| lot, while another Is fighting with
spears or with bow and arrows.
They are invariably conduering the
men in their combats. They plunge
the spear and sword into their male
opponents with remorseess ferocity.
| The poor men are represented as flee
| ing for their lives or receiving the
death thrust The female warriors
seem more than able to deal single
handed with the men, and have tre-
mendously brawny arms.
Within the tombs were found the
remains of two women Of sturdy frame.
With them were their bronze helmets,
armor, swords and spears.
1t is believed that one Of these wo-
men is Camella, the Virgin Queen Of
the Volscians, a redoubtable warrior
mentioned by Virgil.
1t was not possible to decide from
the inscriptions whether the right
breast had been removed in order to
facilitate the use of sword and spear,
as ancient tradition asserts to have
| been the custom. This has long been
a vexed point among archaelogists.
| The ancient Greeks asserted that the
AmaZons were mutilated in this way.
It has been explained by the theory
| that the word Amazon" happened to
resemble the Greek words, meaning
without a breast" but was really a
foreign word with an entirely different
meaning.
Upon this point it is surely sgni-
ficant fact that in the large Amazon
guard of the late King of Dahomey the
superhuous portion of the bust was
entirely removed on both sides. 1t
would seem as If there were a wide
spread appreciation Of the utility Of
this barharous practice.
There is now a vast amount Of evil
dence indicating the existence of real
Amazons in many countries in an
cient times. Among the ruins of Her
culaneum recently, unearthed, were
found some exquisite bronze statues Of
In, Goh attitudes Tho
figures were dressed i'm distinctive ma
tional costume, different from any
thing worn by Greeks or Romans,
which seems strong evidence that they
the imagination of the artist, who was
a Greek.
According to Greek legend, the ANA
IONS were a race of women dwelling
i'm Asia Minor. Their primitive home
was in Cappadocia, on the banks of
the Thermodon, not far from the now
famous ruins Of BoghaZ-Keui. From
here they issued forth to conquer the
people of Asia Minor and to found an
empire which reached to the confines
of Greece.
The state was governed and COM
posed entirely of women, when wo-
man wished a husband she might OBJ
tain one from neighboring state. but
he was treated very much as pris-
oner on probation i'm the Amazon coun-
try and was never allowed to live
there permanently. Male children born
in the country were either killed or
sent to neighboring states.
The Amazons devoted themselves
principally to war and hunting. They
are credited with having built many of
the most famous ancient cities of the
coast of Asia Minor-among them
Myring and Kyrne, Smyrna and Ephe-
sos At these places they wOrshiped
their goddess with a ceremonial of un-
surpassed gorgeousness.
The ruler combined the functions of
queen and priestess. At Ephesos she
was at one time called the queen-bee."
one of the most famous queens OF
the AmaZons was Penthesilea, whose
deeds are recorded in the Iliad. The
Troians secured her as an ally in the
great siege of Troy, when their cause
was failing and their hero, Hector, had
been slain by the Greeks.
Penthesilea came with a band Of
5000 Amazon warriors. Many ancient
writer's speak of the ferocity with
which they fought After a few en-
counters with the AmaZons the Greek
soldiers fled in terror at the sound of
their peculiar shrill war cry.
Queen Penthesilea slew many Of the
bravest Greek warriors, but was her
self slain at last by Achilles, the un-
beaten Greek champion. When the
hero bent over his fallen foe and con-
templated her youth and beauty, he
regretted what he had done and wept
bitterly.
Thersites, an insolent brawler. ridi-
culed the grief of Achilles, and was in