Ancient matriarchy

[Maia]

This is an idea that has been current for some time among archaeologists and other scholars of ancient history, though has fallen into disrepute to a certain extent through being politicised. While there are many variations in detail, the basic concept is that ancient agricultural societies tended to be matriarchal in structure, but changed to a patriarchal system with the advent of metal working and warfare.

http://www.mother-god.com/matriarchal-history.html

+++It is remarkable that the many varied and highly expert author-archaeologists in the excellent series Ancient People and Places express their wonder at the evidence they have found that women were once pre-eminent in each of their areas of research, from the Near East to Ireland. Each writes as if this ancient dominance of women were unique and peculiar to his archaeological province. Yet taken all together these archaeological finds prove that feminine pre-eminence was a universal, and not a localised, phenomenon.+++ (Elizabeth Gould Davis)

One example is Kvenland (literally Queenland), recorded in Alfred the Great's Orosius in the 9th century, and described, very precisely, as being located in what is today the northern part of Sweden.

In Tacitus's Germania, from the 1st century, is the following.

+++Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and, agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage.+++

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/tacitus1.asp

Since the Suiones are known to be the Swedes, it seems that the Sitones, ruled by a woman, are the same as the Kvens of nearly a thousand years later, ruled by a queen.

Another example can be found in the work of Diodorus Siculus, writing in the 1st century BC, who provides a detailed account of the Amazons of Libya, and their conquest of the Atlanteans.

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/ ... s/3D*.html

To summarise:

The Amazons of Libya were far more ancient than the more well-known ones on the Thermadon river, and disappeared many generations before the Trojan war.

Libya was also home to other races of warlike women, such as the Gorgons.

The Amazons dwelt in western Libya. In their society, women were required to serve in the army and maintain their virginity while doing so. After their years of service were over, they were allowed to bear children, but retained all political power for themselves, while the men stayed at home and raised the children. Female children had their breasts seared to they wouldn't develop and become a hindrance in warfare. (I have to point out here, though, that this idea is based on an ancient misunderstanding of the etymology of "Amazon".)

The home of the Amazons was a large, fertile island in the far west called Hespera, in the marsh Tritonis, near Mount Atlas. (The Greek term Libya covered the whole of North Africa, not just the modern country of that name.)

After conquering their neighbours the Amazons founded a city called Cherronesus.

They then set out to conquer the Atlanteans, who dwelt along the coast.

Led by their queen, Myrina, the Amazons advanced against the Atlanteans with a huge army of cavalry. They destroyed the city of Cernê, whereupon the other Atlanteans surrendered to her. The Amazons and Atlanteans now became friends, with Myrina as their queen, and together attacked the neighbouring Gorgons, who, as mentioned earlier, were also a race of female warriors, and these, after being taken captive by the Amazons, rose up against them. After much slaughter, the Amazons prevailed.

Myrina went on to conquer large areas of Arabia, Syria, and the Taurus mountains, after making a treaty of friendship with the king of Egypt. (Diodorus names the king of Egypt as Horus, but this isn't much help, as all the kings of Egypt had Horus as part of their official name.)

Myrina then conquered the island of Lesbos, and set up a sanctuary to the goddess on another Greek island, Samothrace.

The Thracians attacked Myrina and her army, defeated them, and eventually drove them back to Libya.

Diodorus then moves onto describing the Atlanteans, telling us nothing more about the Amazons, or their queen, Myrina, though in an earlier passage he does say that the Amazons were later completely wiped out by Hercules.

Are these and similar stories mere fable, or are they based in fact?

[Sculptor]

It is no surprise that feminism is being accused of trying to re-colonise archaeological interpretation for political ends and being ridiculed for doing so when they used ideas which are clearly mythical in nature.

There was no Atlantis. There was no Heracles. and there were no Amazons.

These have about as much credibility as Krypton, Superman, and Wonder woman.
Maybe 2000 years in the future after a recovery from an apocalypse other clowns shall try to understand the Twentieth Century by reading DC comics - but I hope not.

[Maia]

It is no surprise that feminism is being accused of trying to re-colonise archaeological interpretation for political ends and being ridiculed for doing so when they used ideas which are clearly mythical in nature.

There was no Atlantis. There was no Heracles. and there were no Amazons.

These have about as much credibility as Krypton, Superman, and Wonder woman.
Maybe 2000 years in the future after a recovery from an apocalypse other clowns shall try to understand the Twentieth Century by reading DC comics - but I hope not.

I think most legends have some sort of basis in reality. The interesting part is finding out what that is.