The Amazons have been an enduring Hellenic legend for better than 2800 years. They were said to be a tribe of woman warriors inhabiting the steppe region around the Sea of Azov (other variants of the tale speak of the upper Danube, or the Caucasus, as their homeland). Sourced out of a culture noted for the extreme lengths to which it repressed its women - treating them as little more than domesticated animals - the tale of the Amazonoi is fairly clearly an elaborate version of the "upside-down" story; a tall tale relating a circumstance in which every normal mode of society is turned on it's head. According to the myth they met a Scythian tribe, the Gargarii, once a year to mate and kept only female children, selling or giving the boys to neighboring tribes, or in some cases mutilating them and retaining them as slaves. The Amazons were supposedly ruled by two queens, one for internal matters and one for war. A number of complex tales grew up around the idea, eventually having them invade Asia Minor, found the city of Ephesus, retreat back into the north, and at other times interact with every Hellenic warrior-hero from Herakles through Theseus to Alexander. Why, then, do I bother including them in this archive? Because there may be a germ of truth to the story. I don't believe in the existence of an all-female tribe of warriors, but recent archeological evidence in the region has supported the idea of at least some steppe-dwelling females achieving status as warriors. Then too, the Central Asian Massagetae, ruled at an early date by the warrior-queen Tomyris lends some credence to the idea. Herodotus tells us that the Scythians knew of the Amazons, refering to them as Oiorpata ("man-slayers"), and while he is as often called the "Father of Lies" as he is the "Father of History", he apparently lived among the Scythians for a time, and may very well collected first-hand data about what that people believed concerning their part of the world. So, here is a listing of Amazonian queens, with a bit of commentary as well. Take it with whatever degree of skepticism you feel is necessary.