The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-09-12
AMAzONS OF RUSSIA
RECALL GREEK MYTH
FABLE SAYS ANCIENT FEMALE
WARRIORS FORMED ARMIES
BUILT CITIES.

New York World: That women in
considerable number have Joined the
fighting ranks of the Russians may be
accepted as a fact, and vague stories
that Teutonic. or, at least, German
women are also bearing arms seem to
be confirmed by statements coming to
us that the Russian Amazons recently
captured some of their Teutonic fight
ing sisters.
The prevailing war has brought out
a startling reversion to barbarism, and,
in this particular action of women, an
other remarkable reversion to the GUS
toms of primitive peoples. The Greek
myth of the Amazons has puzzled an
thropologists and given rise TO vari-
Gus conclusions. Some have attri-
buted il to folk lore and other have
dismissed it as pure fable, but, as some
thinker long ago suggested even myths
have a foundation Of fact. The myth
of the Amazons was conspicuously IL
Illustrated in Greek art, especially in
the friezes of the temples.
According TO a very ancient tradition,
the Amazons were a nation of women,
or to be more specific, three nations;
the Asiatic Amazons from whom the
others were supposed to have branch
ed off dwelt on the shores of the
Black sea, and among the mountains
of the Caucasus, especially in the
neighborhood of Trebizond, on the river
now called Termeh. They were said TO
have at one time subdued the whole of
Asia, and to have built the cities Of
Smyrna, Ephesus, Cumae and others.
Queen Killed by Hercules.
Their queen, Hyppolyte, or, by other
accounts, Antiope, was killed by Her
cules. as the ninth of the labors i'm
posed on him by Eurystheus consisted
in taking from her the shoulder belt
bestowed by Mars. On one Of their ex-
pedtions the Amazons came to Attica
IN The time Of Theseus They also
marched under their queen. Penthesilea,
to the assistance Oh Priam against the
Greeks. They even appear on the scene
in the time Of Alexander the Great,
when their queen Thalestris, paid him
a visit.
one branch of the Asiatic was the
Scythian Amazons who subsequently
married among the Scythians and with
drew into Sarmatia. The other branch
was the African Amazons, who under
their queen. Myrina, subdued the Cor
gons and the Atlantes, overran Egypt
and Arabia, and built their capital on
the Lake Tritonis, TO be eventually an
initiated by Hercules. The Amazons
according to the myth permitted no
men TO remain among them. They al
ways marched TO battle under their
queen and formed for a long time a
formidable state They held occasional
intercourse with men of the neighbor
ing states, but if boys were born tC
them they either sent them 10 Their
fathers or killed them
The girls, however, they brought w
and trained for war. A part of their
training was to burn off their right
breasts so they might not be incapaci
tated for bending the bow. 1t was from
that custom they were called Amazons
which meant breastless. Another de
rivation Of the word is from the
Circassian "maza" signifying the moon
which suggests that the myth was in
some way connected with the worship
OF the moon, which prevailed in tn,
neighboring regions OF Asia.
Separated from the exaggerated anC
poetical embellishments OF the Greeks
the myth probably had its origin II
the new well recognized fact tina
among primitive peoples the womel
frequently, if not usually. fought In wa
alongside the men. This fact was frs
brought TO the attention Of European
in the sixteenth century by the e1
perience Of the Spanish Adventures
OreIlana, who. ascending the Amazoi
IN 1851, was attacked by a tribe o
Tapuya Indians, whose women Tough
side by side with the men. From tina
fact Orellana called the stream IN
River Of the Amazons"
AmaZOns in DahOmey.
During the last century travellers D.,
turning from Africa brought stories q
an army Of Amazons In the Kingdor
Of Dahomey who We're particular
dreaded for their valor and ferocity b
the peoples Of the neighboring state
Ihose stories greatly exaggerated th
number OF the Dahomey Amazons, a
well as their fighting qualities, bl
scarcely their ferocity 1t was not unit
the sixties, when the English trayelC
and consular agent, Sir Richard Franc
Burton, visited Dahomey that the actu,
facts We're ascertained Burton foun
Indeed a corps OF Amazons. but instea
Of an army 1t was more properly
bodyguard Of the kind Instead Z
numbering thousands they consisted
only about 1900. True. he was To-
they were formerly much more hume
Gus, but had been killed Off in a recei
war But the savage Is always pror
90 eXaggerate what he has seen. Blu
ton found they were subject 10 stri,
discipline in some respects. but did n,
always live up 20 the mark. For e.