The Amazons of Libya

The historian Diodorus of Sicily, 100 B.C. (who is regarded as an unreliable source by other historians), describes de Amazons of Libya, which at that time was a name used for all North of Africa west of Egypt. This Amazon reign was a gynaecocracy, that is, only women were allowed to hold high office, including the military. According to the legend, the realm was ruled by a Queen Myrina, who with thirty thousand female soldiers and three thousand female cavalry swept through Egypt and Syria all the way to the Aegean, defeating numbers of male armies along the way. After Queen Myrina finally fell in battle, her army scattered.

But the army did leave its imprints on the region. The women of Anatolia took the sword to crush and invasion from the Caucasus, after the male soldiers were all slaughtered in a far-reaching genocide. These women trained in the use of all types of weapons, including bow and arrow, spear, battle-axe and lance. They copied their breastplates from the armour of the Greeks.

They rejected marriage as subjugation. So that they might have children, they were granted a leave of absence, during which they copulated with randomly selected males from nearby villages.

Only a woman who had killed a man in battle was allowed to give up her virginity.

(Excerpt from the book “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets´ Nest”, from the acclaimed trilogy by Stieg Larsson)

Amazon in battle - Greek relief 4 BC.

On a personal research, I found that the Amazons are widely refer to in Greek mithology, with paintings and sculpturs available in museaums around the world, as per this example.