ATALANTA, THE FIRST AMAZON
Throughout history many women have stood out as hunters, warriors and queens, without giving up femininity, sex and motherhood.
The first Amazon tales we may find them in Greek myths although there was no place in Greek society for women who loved to fight like men, chase game, wander and pick their own sexual partners at will.
First Amazon was Atalanta, daughter of King Iasos left to die on the mountains by her father and nursed by a mother bear. When found by hunters they named her Atalanta and she became an athlete and skilled hunter. Self-reliant, she was able to wrestle like a bear and outrun any man or animal.
Stories tell she roamed alone in the wild forests carrying her bow and spear and killed a pair of Centaurs who tried to rape her. Because of her bravery she was the only woman invited to join the mythical expedition to kill the terrible Calydonian Boar, accompanying some of the most mythical and prominent Greek heroes such as Theseus the founder of Athens, the Argonaut Jason, Peleus and Meleager the leader of the expedition that fell in love with her.
The boar’s ferocity was such that it killed several of the expeditionaries, but Atalanta proved to be the most courageous and skilled for being the first to strike the beast that had the coup de grace at the hands of Meleager. This one because he loved her offered Atalanta the skin and the head of the bear and ended up dying at the hands of his relatives enraged by the award of a prize to a woman.
Having once again proved her strength and bravery, Atalanta met her biological parents who, disgusted by her wandering life, intended to marry her, which she approved but only with the man who could overcome her in a race. The conditions were to give each competitor an advantage but each one who lost, would also lose his life at her hands. Atalanta wanted to find someone who was worthy of her and have as companion someone with whom she could have an egalitarian relationship, and so did her hopeful suitors.
Many young men eagerly lined up to race her and many lost their lives until one named Hippomenes found a ploy to beat her with the help of Aphrodite, who by trickery gave her three delightfully irresistible apples, compelling her to waste time eating them thus allowing Hippomenes to win the race.
Atalanta was a man-killer but she was not a man-hater and consented to be Hippomenes mate. From then on, they spent their days as hunting companions and impetuous lovers until one day through lust they had sex in a holy place which made them in the midst of their orgasms to become a pair of lions.
This fable became so well-known in Arcadia that it was still told to tourists from the Roman period in Tegea birthplace of Atalanta, where the enormous Calydonian Boar fangs were shown to visitors (until Emperor Augustus had them brought to Rome). Pausanias the renowned Greek traveler visited the temple in 180 AD and was amazed by its monumental frieze carved by Skopas in 350 BC, which magnificent illustrated the mythical hunt for the Calydonian Boar. In 1880 French archaeologists unearthed fragments and sculptures where they found what pausanias had still seen: hunting hounds, the head of the Calydonian Boar, the image of Atalanta, and an altar covered with boars' tusks dedicated by generations of hunters to the memory of Atalanta, as well as a lion and a lioness representing the transformation of Atalanta and Hippomenes into a pair of lions.
Atalanta life and story is unique among Greeks and idyllic. She was bold, armed and dangerous; she defends herself with bow and spear; she challenges and kills men and win heroic honors in a male-dominated world. And last, she rejects traditional marriage and enjoys sex with lovers of her own choosing.
Amazon-like women were real, although myths were made up. Archaeological discoveries of battle-scarred skeletons of warrior women buried with their weapons and horses prove that there were undoubtedly warlike women among the Scythian nomadic tribes of the steppes of Eurasia and the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
