The Amazons were said to be descendants of Ares, who fathered their race. Their martial nature and devotion to warfare reflected their divine parentage from the god of war.
In the Iliad, Priam recalls fighting alongside the Phrygians against the Amazons in his youth. Despite that earlier conflict, the Amazons later came to Troy's aid under Penthesilea after Hector's death.
Dionysus fought and defeated the Amazons during his mythological campaigns in the east. According to Diodorus Siculus, Dionysus routed the Amazons near Ephesus, and many were slain in the pursuit.
Heracles' ninth labor required him to obtain the war girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. When Hera incited the Amazons to attack, Heracles killed Hippolyta and defeated her army at Themiscyra.
Theseus abducted the Amazon queen Antiope, provoking the Amazons to invade Attica and besiege Athens itself in a war that raged to the foot of the Acropolis before Theseus drove them back.
⚠ The abducted Amazon is called Antiope by Apollodorus (Epitome 1.16) and Hippolyta by other sources. Plutarch (Theseus 26-28) discusses both traditions.
Themiscyra on the river Thermodon was the capital of the Amazons, where they ruled an all-female society devoted to warfare and horsemanship. Heracles sailed there to obtain Hippolyta's girdle.
The Amazons, the warrior women descended from Ares, were led by their founding queen Otrera, her daughter Hippolyta who wielded the war girdle, and Penthesilea who brought them to fight at Troy.
The Amazons worshipped Artemis as their patron goddess. Her independence, mastery of the bow, and association with the hunt mirrored their own warrior culture. Some traditions credited the Amazons with founding the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
Iobates sent Bellerophon against the Amazons as the third impossible task meant to destroy him. Riding Pegasus high above their arrows, Bellerophon routed the warrior women and returned unscathed.
Hera caused the battle between Heracles and the Amazons. Disguised as an Amazon, she spread the rumor that Heracles intended to abduct Hippolyta, provoking the Amazons to attack when Hippolyta had been ready to surrender the girdle peacefully.
As the son of the Amazon queen Hippolyta, Hippolytus inherited the Amazons' devotion to the wild and to chastity, traits that defined his character in Euripides' play.
Iobates sent Bellerophon against the Amazons as one of his impossible tasks, expecting the warrior women to kill the hero. Bellerophon defeated them from the air on Pegasus, further proving his divine favor.
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