The Amazons The Real Warrior Women of the Ancient World

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Paperback (15 Jun 2017)

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Publisher's Synopsis

Since the time of the ancient Greeks we have been fascinated by accounts of the Amazons, an elusive tribe of hard-fighting, horse-riding female warriors. Equal to men in battle, legends claimed they cut off their right breasts to improve their archery skills and routinely killed their male children to purify their ranks.

For centuries people believed in their existence and attempted to trace their origins. Artists and poets celebrated their battles and wrote of Amazonia. Spanish explorers, carrying these tales to South America, thought they lived in the forests of the world's greatest river, and named it after them.

In the absence of evidence, we eventually reasoned away their existence, concluding that these powerful, sexually liberated female soldiers must have been the fantastical invention of Greek myth and storytelling. Until now.

Following decades of new research and a series of groundbreaking archeological discoveries, we now know these powerful warrior queens did indeed exist. In Amazons, John Man travels to the grasslands of Central Asia, from the edge of the ancient Greek world to the borderlands of China, to discover the truth about the warrior women mythologized as Amazons.

In this deeply researched, sweeping historical epic, Man redefines our understanding of the Amazons and their culture, tracking the ancient legend into the modern world and examining its significance today.

Book information

ISBN: 9780593077603
Publisher: Transworld
Imprint: Bantam Press
Pub date:
Edition: Export ed
DEWEY: 398.352
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: xiv, 301 , 16 unnumbered of plates
Weight: 456g
Height: 153mm
Width: 233mm
Spine width: 27mm