AMAZONS AS ROLE MODELS?

• Authors: WENSKUS Otta
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

It is a moot point whether the Greeks would have developed myths about Amazons even if they had never heard about female warriors. Be that as it may, their mythical Amazons fulfill several ideological functions. The most important of those is probably to represent an unnatural menace which has been successfully defeated by the Greeks. However, there is no denying that from the late sixth century onwards the Greek depiction of Amazons, on vases or in writing, has often (but not always) been influenced by their knowledge of Sarmatian mounted archeresses, at least some of whom were almost certainly also warriors. Yet it is naive to say that the Greeks were right all the time, that Amazons did exist and that they had a wonderful time killing enemies and living a life characterised by companionship, fulfilled sexuality and gender equalitiy. The Amazons constructed by Adrienne Mayor resemble the heroines of Klingon legend told by Klingons in the Star Trek spin offs.

Keywords

EN

Amazons; Sarmatians; archeresses; Star Trek; Klingons

• Publisher: Inter Litteras Research Centre, STEFAN CEL MARE University, Suceava, Romania; STEFAN CEL MARE Publishing House
• Journal: Concordia Discors vs Discordia Concors: Researches into Comparative Literature, Contrastive Linguistics, Cross-Cultural and Translation Strategies
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 5
• Pages: 21-43

Contributors

author

WENSKUS Otta

• University of Innsbruck, Austria