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0a Amazon StaterSilver Stater 20mm Struck circa 440-410 B.C.
Soloi in Cilicia
Amazon kneeling left, holding bow, quiver on left hip
ΣOΛEΩN, Grape cluster on vine; A-Θ to either side of stalk, monogram to lower right
Sear 5602 var.; Casabonne Type 3; SNG France 135; SNG Levante
This coin depicts an amazon in historically accurate garb. Unfortunately, the bow is corroded away on this piece, but it is pointed toward her. She wears the Scythian hat, which also has a bit along the top corroded away. The quiver on her hip is an accurate portrayal of the gorytos (quiver), which was nearly two feet long, fashioned of leather, and often decorated. Fortunately, there is redundancy in this image, and a second bow is shown as in its place in the gorytos, which had separate chambers for arrows and the bow, where the archer stored it while not in use. The amazon has just finished stringing her bow and is adjusting the top hook to make sure the strings and limbs are properly aligned. She has strung the bow using her leg to hold one limb in place so she can use both hands to string the weapon. Her recurve bow was made of horn (ibex, elk, ox) wrapped with horse hair, birch bark, or sinew (deer, elk, ox) and glue (animal or fish) wrapped around a wood core. The bow was about 30 inches long. Arrow heads from grave sites come in bone, wood, iron, and bronze with two or three flanges; the shafts were made of reed or wood (willow, birch, poplar) and fletched with feathers. Poisoned arrows were sometimes painted to resemble vipers. A Scythian archer could probably fire 15-20 arrows per minute with accuracy to 200 feet and range to 500-600 feet. Distance archery with modern reconstructions suggests a maximum unaimed flight distance of 1,600 feet. (Mayor 209ff)
Soloi was founded about 700 B.C.and came under Persian rule. According to Diodorus, when the amazons were engaging in conquest in Asia Minor, the Cilicians accepted them willingly and retained their independence. Soloi may be named after Solois, a companion of Theseus, who married the amazon Antiope. The amazon on the coin may well be Antiope. (Mayor, 264-265)Blindado
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1ab Marcus Licinius CrassusFormed First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey in 60 BC, killed at Carrhae in Parthia in 53 BC.
Denarius, minted by son, P Licinius Crassus, ca 54 BC.
Bust of Venus, right, SC behind
Amazon with horse, P CRASSVS MF.
Seaby, Licinia 18
These coins were probably minted to pay Crassus' army for the invasion of Parthia, which led to its destruction. My synthesis of reviewing 90 examples of this issue revealed a female warrior wearing a soft felt Scythian cap with ear flaps; a fabric garment with a decorated skirt to the knees; probably trousers; an ornate war belt; a baldric; a cape, animal skin, or shoulder cord on attached to the left shoulder; and decorated calf-high boots. She matches the historically confirmed garb of the real amazons—Scythian horsewomen—and of course holds her steed. The horse’s tack is consistent with archeological discoveries of tack in use by Scythians and Romans.
Adrienne Mayor writes that amazon imagery on Greek vases suddenly appeared in 575-550 BC, initially depicting them in Greek-style armor. By the end of the century, as the Greeks learned more through direct and indirect contact with Scythians, they began to appear wearing archeologically confirmed Scythian-Sarmatian-Thracian patterned attire. (Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014, 199-200). To this, artists added their own creative ideas regarding colors, fabric patterns, and decorations. “They dressed the warrior women in body-hugging ‘unitards’ or tunics, short chitons or belted dresses, sometimes over leggings or trousers. . . . In paintings and sculpture, pointed or soft Scythian caps with earflaps or ties (kidaris) soon replaced the Greek helmets, and the women wear a variety of belts, baldrics (diagonal straps), corselets, shoulder cords or bands, and crisscrossing leather straps attached to belt loops like those worn by the archer huntress Artemis. . . . Amazon footgear included soft leather moccasin-like shoes, calf-high boots (endromides), or taller laced boots (embades) with scallops or flaps and lined with felt or fur.” (Mayor, 202)
The artists apparently had detailed knowledge of gear used by real Scythian horsewomen to equip their imagined Amazons. “Archeological discoveries of well-preserved sets of clothing confirm that real horsewomen of ancient Scythian lands dressed much as did those described in Greek texts and illustrated in Scythian and Greek artwork.” (Mayor, 203)Blindado
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1ab_2 Marcus Licinius CrassusFormed First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey in 60 BC, killed at Carrhae in Parthia in 53 BC.
Denarius, minted by son, P Licinius Crassus, ca 54 BC.
Bust of Venus, right, SC behind
Amazon with horse, P CRASSVS MF.
Seaby, Licinia 18
These coins were probably minted to pay Crassus' army for the invasion of Parthia, which led to its destruction. My synthesis of reviewing 90 examples of this issue revealed a female warrior wearing a soft felt Scythian cap with ear flaps (visible in this example); a fabric garment with a decorated skirt to the knees; probably trousers; an ornate war belt; a baldric; a cape, animal skin, or shoulder cord on attached to the left shoulder; and decorated calf-high boots. She matches the historically confirmed garb of the real amazons—Scythian horsewomen—and of course holds her steed. The horse’s tack is consistent with archeological discoveries of tack in use by Scythians and Romans.
Adrienne Mayor writes that amazon imagery on Greek vases suddenly appeared in 575-550 BC, initially depicting them in Greek-style armor. By the end of the century, as the Greeks learned more through direct and indirect contact with Scythians, they began to appear wearing archeologically confirmed Scythian-Sarmatian-Thracian patterned attire. (Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014, 199-200). To this, artists added their own creative ideas regarding colors, fabric patterns, and decorations. “They dressed the warrior women in body-hugging ‘unitards’ or tunics, short chitons or belted dresses, sometimes over leggings or trousers. . . . In paintings and sculpture, pointed or soft Scythian caps with earflaps or ties (kidaris) soon replaced the Greek helmets, and the women wear a variety of belts, baldrics (diagonal straps), corselets, shoulder cords or bands, and crisscrossing leather straps attached to belt loops like those worn by the archer huntress Artemis. . . . Amazon footgear included soft leather moccasin-like shoes, calf-high boots (endromides), or taller laced boots (embades) with scallops or flaps and lined with felt or fur.” (Mayor, 202)
The artists apparently had detailed knowledge of gear used by real Scythian horsewomen to equip their imagined Amazons. “Archeological discoveries of well-preserved sets of clothing confirm that real horsewomen of ancient Scythian lands dressed much as did those described in Greek texts and illustrated in Scythian and Greek artwork.” (Mayor, 203)
Blindado
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Amazon on HorseThe Amazon Queen Omphale?
AE20, Lydia, Mostene, ca 100 BC
Laureate head of Zeus right
ΛYΔΩN MOΣTHNΩN, Amazon on horseback right, holding bipennis axe over shoulder; EP (or EB) to left, monogram to right
SNG Copenhagen 284, Waddington 5101 (if EB)
Adrienne Mayor, in "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World," records the following:
"In a legend preserved by Plutarch, when Heracles took [Amazon Queen] Hippolyte's golden belt, he also carried away her battle axe, which he presented to another powerful mythical queen, Omphale of Lydia. . . . Queen Hippolyte's axe, says Plutarch, was handed down from Omphale to the kings of Lydia. That is, until King Candaules (d. 718 BC) disrespected the Amazon's axe and carelessly gave it away. Hippolyte's precious axe ultimately ended up in the Temple of Zeus at Labranda in Caria. The original axe shape was not specified in the tale, but by the time it was placed in Zeus's temple it was described as a solid gold labors, the symmetrical double-headed ritual axe traditionally associated with Zeus and Minoan goddesses. . . . (219-220.)"
As Mayor points out, the actual Scythian women horse warriors, who were the original amazons, did not use such and axe in battle, but rather the single-headed sagaris. But the double-headed axe appears on various ancient coins depicting amazons. The coin is historically accurate, however, in portraying the amazon as a horse-mounted warrior.
Given the Lydian origin of the coin, the obverse of Zeus, and reverse of an amazon with an axe shaped like the one at Zeus's temple, it is reasonable to suggest that she is Omphale.
Blindado
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Amazon on Horse 2AE 23, Eumeneia in Phrygia, minted MA as Caesar 139-161
Draped and cuirassed bust of Marcus Aurelius, Μ ΑΥΡΗΛΙ ΟΥΗΡΟΣ ΚΑΙ
Amazon on horseback r, holding labrys over shoulder, ΕΥΜΕΝΕΙΩΝ ΑΧΑΙΩΝ
BMC 59; RPC IV online 1992 (temp.); SNG Copenhagen 396; SNG Tübingen
Phrygia was a territory roamed by Scythian tribes, among whom rode the female horse warriors from whom the notion of amazons arose. Despite its Phrygian origin, the iconography of the amazon is similar to depictions on Roman sarcophagi and other sculptures that depict the warrior women in a thigh-length dress with sandals and often bareheaded. This one has a cape billowing behind her. The image is mythical insofar as the amazons did not use a double-headed axe in combat.Blindado
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Kyme the AmazonAEOLIS. Kyme. Epirus Marcellus, procos III (69-96)
AE 19
Bust of the Senate, ΘEON CVNKΛHTON
Amazon Kyme standing left, holding trident and globe, EΠPIΩ MAPKEΛΛΩ / KY
RPC II, 971, SNG Copenhagen 144
It's hard to say for certain, but it looks like Kyme is wearing a Scythian pointed hat with ear flaps, trousers, and boots, which would make this a fairly accurate portrayal if a female Scythian horse warrior, who were the actual historical amazons. There are only two examples of this coin in acsearch.
Thanks to Pekka K for the proper attribution.Blindado
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The Amazon Kyme City of Kyme
Bronze 17mm
2d century BC
Artemis, holding long torch, greeting the Amazon Kyme, holding scepter
KY; Two figures (Apollo and Kyme?) in quadriga right
SNG München 512; SNG Copenhagen 113; SNG von Aulock 7698
According to the geographer Pomponius Mela, writing about 43 AD, amazons had long camped in Pontus when they dominated Anatolia. They had worshipped Artemis at Ephesus and named the town Kyme (Cyme) after the amazon leader who drove out the native inhabitants. (Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons, 47-48). Kyme wears Scythian garb as depicted elsewhere, but an amazon most likely would not have worn a helmet.Blindado
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The Amazon Kyme 2City of Kyme
Bronze 16mm
2d century BC
Artemis, holding long torch, greeting the Amazon Kyme, holding scepter
KY; Two figures (Apollo and Kyme?) in quadriga right
SNG München 512; SNG Copenhagen 113; SNG von Aulock 7698
I purchased this second coin because the obverse shows better than any example I can find that Kyme has a Scythian gorytos (quiver) hanging from her left hip, underscoring the historical accuracy of the depiction.Blindado
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The Amazon Kyme 3 (Vespasian) Kyme, Aeolis
AE 19
70-73 AD
Laureate head of Vespasian r. ΒΑϹΠΑϹΙΑΝΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΑ ΚΑΙϹΑΡΑ
The Amazon Kyme standing l., holding globe and trident, ΑΝΘΥ ΕΠΡΙΩ ΜΑΡΚΕΛΛΩ ΤΟ Γ ΚΥ
RPC II 970, Cop 144; Stumpf 319
Adrienne Mayor's The Amazons has a section on the amazons at sea, but that does not share much light on this coin. The amazon queen Kyme was the legendary founder of the city Cyme on the Black Sea coast. The engraver portrays an historical accurate amazon wearing a short dress, trousers, belt and baldric, and a Scythian gorytos (quiver) on her left hip. He has added a crown, as befits the notion of a queen.
Blindado
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