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An Author-Centered Approach to Understanding Amazons in the Ancient World

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An Author-Centered Approach to Understanding Amazons in the Ancient World AN AUTHOR-CENTERED APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING AMAZONS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD TammyJo Eckhart Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History of Indiana University November 2007 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee Eric Robinson David Brakke Edward Watts Leah Shopkow October 26, 2007 ii ©2007 TammyJo Eckhart ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii TammyJo Eckhart AN AUTHOR-CENTERED APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING AMAZONS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD Modern classicists have examined the function of the Amazon legend in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds for over 150 years, using a variety of methods and theories to explain the popularity and meaning of the warrior women as evidence of matriarchal societies, cultural taboos, and social anxieties, often without historical context. My research deliberately uses a historical approach to test previous conclusions about the Amazons and reveals a dynamic Greek culture where individual authors constantly competed and contributed to the developing legend. I have applied a modified theory of narratology to four specific Greek authors: Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, and Plutarch. I explored each author’s work on three levels: the story itself (the narrative), how each story fits within each author’s similar work (the metanarrative), and how it differs from previous or contemporary variations (the cultural metanarrative). This revealed the dynamic nature of the legend as well as the creativity and motivation of each individual author. Although the Amazons themselves had a specific definition as a tribe of female warriors, different pairings of heroes with Amazons or discussions of imagined Amazon societies allowed ancient authors to use them in a variety of ways. Herodotus broke free from the traditional hero-kills-Amazon legend to address their political meaning. Diodorus returned to the heroic legend but utilized embellished stories to position specific heroes as greater than others. Strabo decried embellishments as evidence of poor scholarship and pointed out contradictions between the variations. iv Plutarch used specific heroic legends as moral measurements of good leadership. The Amazon legends and these writers’ treatment of them are a window upon a changing Greek culture. v Table of Contents I. Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 1 Visual Evidence and the Original Legend.......................................................................... 3 The Meaning of the Amazon.............................................................................................. 14 The Approach: Theory and Method.................................................................................. 17 II. Herodotus: Amazons as a Cultural Explanation and Justification ............................... 29 The Amazon Legend in the Histories................................................................................. 31 The Amazons’ Place in Herodotus.................................................................................... 35 Herodotus’s Amazons in Fifth Century BCE Greece ....................................................... 42 III. Diodorus Siculus: Amazons Building Heroes ................................................................ 52 The Multitude of Amazon Legends in Diodorus............................................................ 55 How Do the Amazons Fit into The Historical Library? .................................................... 82 The Amazon Legend by the First Century BCE................................................................ 89 IV. Strabo: Amazons Becoming Fiction ................................................................................. 97 Strabo’s Amazon Legends and Confusions ................................................................... 102 Amazons and Strabo’s Agenda........................................................................................ 116 Amazons in the Early Imperial Period ........................................................................... 122 V. Plutarch: Amazons as Details........................................................................................... 135 The Amazons in the Lives of Three Great Men............................................................. 138 Comparisons and The Role of the Amazons in Plutarch’s Lives................................. 148 Amazons by the Time of Plutarch ................................................................................... 156 VI: The Amazons in the Greek World................................................................................... 164 Approaching Amazons: Modern Studies....................................................................... 167 The Value of an Author-Centered Approach ................................................................ 186 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 192 vi I. Introduction1 The original legends of the Amazons were about encounters between Amazons and Greek heroes, always conquests of one type or another, a battle with an individual woman warrior or the entire people, or perhaps a more personal kidnapping. The Greek hero, be he a demigod or an entire city of male citizens, is always victorious in these legends, as scholars have been correct to point out. But what begins quite simply as a victory develops and ends in unique ways depending on the ancient author, the personality of the hero, or the political needs of the culture that created and used the legend. As this study will show, such a trajectory characterizes the Amazons throughout Greek literature. In particular, four ancient authors whose surviving works speak of the Amazons the most — Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, and Plutarch — demonstrate the complex uses to which the stories of the Amazons and their heroic foes could be put. In order to understand how these four authors use the Amazons, we need to first understand the original Amazon legends so we may see how the authors expand upon them. The original heroic legends primarily involved four Greek heroes who reportedly have encounters with Amazons: Bellerophon, Achilles, Heracles, and Theseus. Athens, too, takes on a very heroic role, connected to yet distinct from the Theseus legends. Achilles faces an Amazon opponent during the Trojan War and is victorious. Heracles succeeds in fetching the belt or girdle from 1 Parts of the introduction are revisions of an earlier published work: TammyJo Eckhart, “A General Introduction to Amazon Mythology in the Greco-Roman World,” Aeon: A Journal of Myth and Science IV.2 (1995): 74-79. The Anglicized form of the Greek names are used throughout this study for the sake of consistency, to make it easier to follow for those not familiar with Greek, and to eliminate any confusion that might arise from variations found in the ancient authors. 1 the Amazon queen. Bellerophon faces the arrows of an entire Amazon army, but returns in one piece. Theseus steals an Amazon bride for himself. Athens defends itself against an Amazon invasion. The legends of each hero’s Amazon conquest spread throughout the Greek world, though their importance and popularity differed with each author and across the seven centuries this study will investigate. While Heracles’s and Theseus’s exploits were told far and wide, Achilles is tied to the Trojan War, and Bellerophon quickly disappears from both written and visual sources; Athenian legends rise and fall with the power of the city itself. On the other hand, all five heroic entities have certain elements in common, other than the Amazons. All have origin tales connected to deities where at least one parent qualifies as a god or goddess. All of them face periods of hardship, be it war, personal challenges or the whims of an authority figure. Of course, these common elements are true of most Greek heroes, and indeed of many heroes in legends around the world. But only Greek heroes face the Amazons. We would be incorrect if we believed that ancient authors and artists always incorporated these heroic tales when describing Amazons, or that they never introduced variations in detail when they did make use of the heroic legends. Our four authors make use of the Amazons in different ways that reflect the overall tone and purpose of their writing. For Herodotus they demonstrate political possibilities, while Diodorus uses them in the original way to promote heroes, but with much added detail. In Plutarch the Amazons are a means by which to discuss the qualities of a good leader, while Strabo uses them to point out the inadequacies of other writers. Before we can narrow our focus to these four authors’ use of the Amazons, though, we must briefly discuss the state of the evidence, what types of stories the 2 Amazons are generally part of, contemporary interpretations of the Amazons, and the theory and method that has driven this investigation. Visual Evidence and the Original Legend Some of our earliest and most numerous accounts of myths and legends take the form of visual representations. This is certainly true of Amazons.2 The main problem with identifying any visual image is the fact that most of them do not have titles informing
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