The Amazons: From Herodotus to Wonder Woman

Two millennia of fascination with mythical female warriors

A lot of the best myths start with a simple premise: Somewhere, far away, there’s a society very different from our own.

Let’s think about what an ancient Greek person would have known about the world. They’d have some familiarity with nearby cultures like Persia and Egypt; they might have met someone from there, or know someone who had traveled to such lands. They would understand that these societies were quite different from their…