Evening star., 1915-11-28
81 MACON" and "Amazonian" as
" applied to belligerent women

| 66 "A MAZoN' and "Amazonian' as
~ applied to belligerent women
are words which easily come
from the lips of vast number of per-
sons who have rather feeble and in
distinct acquaintance with them. Habit
guides most persons into the appropri-
ate use of the words. but the story of
| the Amazons to most of them is in an
unopened book. The word Amazon
makes it's appearance frequently in
print in these days of war, and this
is particularly true when the cables
bring news of woman fighting in the
| battling hosts of Europe.
The original Amazons did not live in
Brazil on the banks of the Amazon
river In this belief there is a slight
confusion of names. They lived in that
region where the flames of war are
burning, where Russ and Turk. Briton
and Turk and French and Turks are
fighting.
1t was over in the Black sea. or the
Euxine country where the war goo
Ares dwelt, and where the Argonauts
had many of their remarkable adven-
lures in search of the golden neece
1t was said many. many years ago
that the Amazons dwelt in Pontus, but
these fierce, yet in some ways sehu-
mental women spread themselves over
numerous districts and they were re-
ported to have been in northern ASA
Minor, Colchis. Caucasus. Thrace ana
Scythia. and they seem to have oeen
unusually Industrious among the is
lands of the Aegean. AS the founders
of cities they. displayed commenda oie
activity and classic reporters or classic
scribes whose stories are even now heid
| in high esteem. credit the AmaZons
L INy~I. SprlN ~ n
Cyme and Myrina. No doubt they laid
| out and built other cities. but it is not
necessary to lengthen the list to prove
the achievements of these women as
house builders. If not as home build
| ers, and as town mana gers.
The people of remote antiquity had no
doubt about the reality of these women
and many circumstantial stories were
! written about them by Homer. another
author whose name has come down to US
as Arctinus. and old Herodotus devoted a
/ good deal of space in his history Of the
world to these women.
The first home of the Amazons as deter
mined by various classic authors was near
the River Thermedon and they were the
offspring of Ares, the war god. and the
"
they built, and which might properly be
called their home town, was Themiscura,
which stood in the neghborhood of the
modern Trebizond. Their country was a
| no mans land. Only women were ad-
mitted. They were governed by their
| own queens, several of whose names may
] be read, and thus 1t might appear that
| they were the original suffrag agettes,
though unquestionably of the militant
variety.
| The Amazons were not altogether man
haters. They had some interest in those
| men called Gargareans. from whose name
| one might reasonably guess they were
not mollycoddles. II has never been
charged that the Gargareans used powder
| puffs or slept with pink rose in their
| hair. If they used any cosmetics at all
| they probably. like the Budini, in some
| way related to the Scythians. painted
| their whole bodies with deep blue and
| red.
| The Amazons used to pay an annual
visit to the Gargareans at Mount Cau-
casus, thereby showing that it was an
early custom for women to propose as
well as call first. The male children Of
| the Amazons and Gargareans were sent
| back to be reared by their fathers or
mercifully put to death. The girl babies
were taken in hand by their mothers and
brought up athletically with view to
constant preparedness. Here is a very
early example of daughters being more
highly esteemed than sons.
Homer had something to say of
Amazons in the Phrygian and Lycian