Lampedo (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

for "burning torch"; also Lampeto) is an

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

queen mentioned in

Roman historiography During the Second Punic War with Carthage, Rome's earliest known annalists Quintus Fabius Pictor and Lucius Cincius Alimentus recorded history in Greek, and relied on Greek historians such as Timaeus. Roman histories were not written in Classi ...

. She ruled with her sister

Marpesia In ancient Greek and Roman legendary history, Marpesia (Greek: Μαρπησία "Snatcher"; sometimes wrongly spelled Marthesia) was Queen of the Amazons with Lampedo ("burning torch"), her sister, as a co-ruler. They ruled with Hippo ("horse ...

. The sisters called themselves daughters of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

to put terror in the heart of their enemies to show they were incredible warriors to be feared.

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so ...

’s '' Famous Women'' translated by Virginia Brown 2001; Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press; Her name was speculated to refer to traditional

New Moon In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the naked eye, except when it is silhouetted against the Sun during a solar eclipse. ...

torchlit processions in honor of

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

, goddess of the hunt.Lampedo
name meaning "burning torch" The story of the development of the Amazon nation follows the history recorded by

Ephorus Ephorus of Cyme (; , ''Ephoros ho Kymaios''; 330 BC) was an ancient Greek historian known for his universal history, now lost. Biography Information on his biography is limited. He was born in Cyme, Aeolia, and together with the historia ...

, a writer of the 4th century BC. An

aristocratic Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian co ...

faction sent Sylisios and Scolopicus, men of royal blood from

Scythia Scythia (, ) or Scythica (, ) was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the Pontic steppe. It was inhabited by Scythians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people. Etymology The names ...

, into exile. With the faction they all ultimately came to the Thermodon River in

Cappadocia Cappadocia (; , from ) is a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey. It is largely in the provinces of Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. Today, the touristic Cappadocia Region is located in Nevşehir ...

and took over the lands of the Cyrian people. They pillaged and robbed the people of the area. Most of the males were killed by the men of Scythia and their faction. The widows that were left found their situation deplorable. They then banded together in a tribe with the remaining few young males and took out their enemy and continued to wage war then against their neighboring countries. The warring women then banded together and killed the remaining husbands of the Scythians' massacre to remove the appearance that

destiny Destiny, sometimes also called fate (), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often used interchangeably, the words ''fate'' and ''destiny'' ...

had somehow treated these other married women differently and that they were special. Afterwards they then sued for peace with their enemies. To assure royal succession they then had intimate relations with the men of the adjacent areas and returned home after they knew they were pregnant. The babies that were males were killed immediately and the females were raised carefully to become outstanding warriors. The right breast of the young girls was bound or removed so that it did not hinder them from being excellent

archers Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

. The left breast was left intact for their future babies. By

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

, this practice is where the name "Amazon" (

, ''a-'' meaning "without" and ''mazos'' meaning "breast") comes from. Describing the records of the Scythians

Diodorus of Sicily Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which survive intact, bet ...

has a similar history of the founding of the Amazon nation. The same story was told by

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

, who wrote nearly four centuries earlier and is repeated by

Paulus Orosius Paulus Orosius (; born 375/385 – 420 AD), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Roman priest, historian and theologian, and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible that he was born in ''Bracara Augusta'' (now Braga, Portugal), t ...

and the Latin historian

Justin Justin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Justin (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Justin (historian), Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527) ...

. Even the famous modern writer of children encyclopedias Donald J. Sobol tells a very similar version. In Giovanni Boccaccio's '' Famous women'', a chapter is dedicated to Lampedo and Marpesia. For more, including

Bellerophon Bellerophon or Bellerophontes (; ; lit. "slayer of Belleros") or Hipponous (; lit. "horse-knower"), was a divine Corinthian hero of Greek mythology, the son of Poseidon and Eurynome, and the foster son of Glaukos. He was "the greatest her ...

slaying Marpesia, see Lampetho.

Also see

* Lampetho

Notes

References

* Justinus ''Epitoma Historiarum philippicarum Pompei Trogi'' II.4.1-16 * {{ cite book, first1=Paulus, last1= Orosius, author-link1= Paulus Orosius, title= Historiae adversus paganos, trans-title=History against the Pagans, lang=la, volume=I , pages=15.1-6 Queens of the Amazons