The Scythian warrior-women only lived out half of the Amazon myth - although they fought like warriors they were not separatists. To find the other elements of the myth I had to turn back to Greece itself. Artemis was the goddess usually associated with the Amazons. We tend to think of her as a lithe girl hunting in the woods, accompanied by various birds and beasts, but early forms of her were very different, linked with animal and human sacrifice. Artemis Tauropolis demanded the sacrifice of male prisoners who had been shipwrecked on her coast: their throats were slit (probably with an obsidian knife), their heads were cut off and they were tipped over a high cliff. In another rite animals were herded along a ditch into a fire and burned alive in honour of Artemis. Cybele, the Phrygian mother goddess, had male priests called galli who castrated themselves in order to serve her. The goddesses of Bronze Age Crete and the Aegean coast had war-dancing priestesses and priests, who may well have been an inspiration for the Amazon myth.
But the religious role of women in the ancient world was not always so dark: in Athens twice a year the married women would go off to religious festivals which celebrated the female mysteries. The Thesmophoria and Haloa festivals included bawdiness and merry-making, as well as periods of solemn contemplation and sombre ritual. Women played an important role in the Eleusinian Mysteries, as priestesses of Demeter, and at Delphi there were the prophetesses who spoke with the voice of the Oracle. So, although women had no political power, they had spiritual clout of a sort which would have been mysterious - and perhaps alarming - to men. My guess is that the Amazons became repositories for the fear and curiosity which accumulated around the idea of this power, tranformed into a wild untameable aggression which challenged and threatened the world of men.
On the vase shown at the top of the page we see Achilles killing the Amazon Penthesilea at the Trojan war. In Greek art the Amazons, though brave, sexy and determined, are always shown as being defeated in the end. They tell the story of a time when the power of the goddess and her priestesses was being transfered to the patriarchs, father gods like Zeus and Yaweh. Many people feel that this lost power is returning in these times. Maybe it is. Let's hope that, this time, the battle of the sexes will have a creative outcome for all concerned.