Alexander and the Amazons

Author(s): Elizabeth Baynham

Source: The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 51, No. 1 (2001), pp. 115-126
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3556333
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ClassicalQuarterly
51.1 115-126(2001)Printedin GreatBritain 115

ALEXANDER AND THE AMAZONS

in memoriam,AlexanderScobie
One of the more intriguing stories in our historical traditions on Alexander the Great
is the king's alleged sexual encounter with an Amazonian queen. The historicity of
this tale was doubted even in antiquity and in modern times is often dismissed,
understandably enough, as plain silly; for instance, in a recent paper, Elizabeth
Carney facetiously remarks, 'we are not ... really tempted to believe that Alexander
got chummy with any Amazons!" Carney's essay addresses two prominent themes in
the Alexander traditions: the series of exchanges between Alexander and Parmenion,
and the occasions when the Macedonian king shut himself away in his tent to sulk
like Achilles. She explores the complex relationship between fact, reported fact, and
literary embellishment, and clearly for Carney the Amazon tale represents a polar
end of the spectrum, which can be safely classified as 'fiction'.
But what is often passed over is why the Amazons should feature in the historical
accounts of Alexander at all, and, equally, why they are as well represented as they are
and at different times during the king's reign.2The Amazons appear, in one context or
another, in all our main Alexander sources, from the Alexander Romance (where one
might most likely expect to find them) to the sober Arrian.3 The sole exception is
the Metz Epitome-and here we cannot be completely sure that they were not in the
original text, but were mentioned just before the point where our extant text begins, or
were edited out in some stage of the epitome's compilation.
Even outside Alexander historiography the Amazons are among the most emotive
and evocative figures in Greek culture. Amazon ethnography is a complex subject.
Most traditions purporting to be 'historical' regard them as a race of female warriors,
who dwelt around the Thermodon river, close by the Black Sea in remote Scythian
territory.4 The Amazon theme was also systematically exploited in mythopoiesis
' See E.
Carney,'Artificeand Alexanderhistory',in A. B. Bosworthand E. J. Baynham(edd.)
Alexander the Greatin Fact and Fiction (Oxford, 2000), 263-85, at 264.
2 Fundamentalmodernanalysesof the Amazonin Alexanderhistoriography
are H. Berve,
Das AlexanderreichaufprosopographischerGrundlage(Munich, 1926), 2.419, no. 26; E. Mederer,
Die Alexanderlegendenbei den dltesten Alexanderhistorikern(Stuttgart, 1936), 87ff.; W. W. Tarn,
Alexanderthe Great (Cambridge, 1948), 2.326-9, J. Hamilton, Plutarch 'Alexander':A
Commentary (Oxford,1969), 123-7. More recently,see M. Daumas,'Alexandreet la reinedes
Amazones', REA 94 (1992), 347-54; J. E. Atkinson, A Commentary on Q. Curtius Rufus'
Historiae Alexandri Magni Books 5 to 7.2 (Amsterdam, 1994), 197-200; J. C. Yardley and
W. Heckel, Justin, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Books 11-12 (Oxford,
1997),1.200-3.The threeepisodesconcerningAmazonsoccurat separateintervals:the visit of
the Amazon queen,Thalestris(330/29B.c.);the negotiationswith the Scythianchief over a
marriageallianceandtheambitionsof Pharasmanes (328);andtheAtropatesincidentlatein 324.
3 For the Amazonqueenand her visit to Alexander,see Curt. 6.5.25-32, Diod. 17.77.1-3,
Strabo 11.5.4 C505, Plut. Alex. 46, Just. 12.3.5-7, cf. Just. 2.4.33. For the Amazons in the
AlexanderRomance,see Ps.-Call.3.25-6 (ed. W.Kroll,Berlin,1926).The storyof the Amazons
appearsin all theGreekrecensionsas wellas the Latintextof JuliusValerius.Themostaccessible
Englishtranslationsare R. Stoneman,TheGreekAlexanderRomance(Harmondsworth, 1991),
143-5 and A. M. Wolohojian's translationof the Armeniantext, TheRomanceof Alexanderthe
Greatby Pseudo-Callisthenes (New York,1969), 141-3. On Arrian'streatmentof the Amazon
myth,see Anab.7.13,withA. B. Bosworth,FromArrianto Alexander(Oxford,1988),65-7.
4 Thereare some variations in location;see Atkinson(n. 2), 186for a concisesummary.For
116 E. BAYNHAM

(especially Athenian); in art,5 literature,and oratory from the late sixth to the fourth
centuries B.C.In fact, as recent studies by du Bois and Blake Tyrrell have pointed out,
there is a certain current of ambiguity, tinged with downright hostility expressed in a
considerable amount of the mythological tradition.6 Heracles, Theseus, and Achilles,
three of the most popular heroes of Greek mythology, have famous encounters with
Amazons, all of which end tragically for the Amazon concerned. Achilles falls in love
with the beautiful Amazon Penthesilea after he has just dispatched her;7Theseus rapes
an Amazon and his marriage to one ends in disaster; and Heracles (at least in some
versions of the story) kills Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons, to obtain her girdle.8
The hostility may run deeper than just the concept of Amazons as barbarians or
'others'. They are portrayed as feral and unnatural creatures, at the same time as
charming and dangerously alluring. They are ambivalent beings who take on male
arete and share masculine pursuits with Artemis, as well as enjoy her protection; they
are sexually arousing but do not behave with passive servility or make good wives and
mothers for good Greek men. Yet despite the Amazons' ominous background,
Alexander III of Macedon follows his heroic predecessors.

THE ANCIENT SOURCES ON ALEXANDER AND THALESTRIS

The amorous dalliance between the Macedonian king and the Amazonian queen is
common to all three 'vulgate' authors, Diodorus, Curtius, and Justin, and can most
likely be traced back to Cleitarchus.9 In fact he is openly cited as a source for the
story by Plutarch (Alex. 46.1). In 329/8 B.C.an Amazon ruler called Thalestris'l
approached Alexander when he was campaigning in Hyrcania, a rich and settled
region in the south-east reaches of the Caspian Sea, on the border of Parthia. This
country had been described by Hecataeus as mountainous and wooded, but although
the Greeks may have heard of it, it was barely known to them, situated as it was in the
eastern part of the Persian empire."1The nomadic tribes, the Saca peoples including
the Dahae and later Parthians, lived in the desert areas to the north-east. Strabo, in

important treatments of Amazonian ethnography,see J. Carlier,'Voyage en Amazonie grecque',

Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiae Hungaricae 27 (1979), 381-405; J. Blok, The Early Amazons
(Leiden, 1995), 83-104; K. Dowden, 'The Amazons:developmentand functions',RhM 140
(1997), 97-128, at 103-16.
see D. von Bothmer,Amazonsin
treatmentof Amazoniconography,
5 For a comprehensive
GreekArt (Oxford, 1957); LIMC 1.586-668.
6 See
W. Blake Tyrrell, Amazons: A Study in Athenian Mythmaking (London, 1984); Page du
Bois, Centaursand Amazons(Ann Arbor, 1982);and more recently,Dowden (n. 4) who in
particularexploresthe significanceof the woundedor deadAmazonin mythology.
7 The episodeof Achilles'lovefor Penthesileaapparentlydatesbackto the eighthcenturyB.C.
from a referenceto Arctinus'epic Aethiopis;the most elaborateancient treatmentwas the
fourth-century A.D.poemby Quintusof Smyrna.SeeBlakeTyrrell(n. 6), 78-82, also R. Schmiel,
'TheAmazonqueen:Quintusof Smyrna,Bk. 1',Phoenix40 (1986), 185-94.
8 The traditionsgive severalnamesforTheseus'Amazon,but the most commonare Antiope
and Hippolyte;for the variousreferencesin the sources,see J. G. Frazer,Apollodorus
(London,
1921),2.143,n. 2. On HeraclesandtheAmazonqueen,seeApollodorus2.5.9(Fraser,ibid. 1.203
with n. 1); accordingto Apollonius(2.966),HeraclescaughtHippoyte'ssister,whereuponthe
queengavehimhergirdleas ransom.
9 For an explanationof the terminology,see N. G. L. Hammond, ThreeHistoriansof
Alexander the Great (Cambridge, 1983), 1ff.;cf. Bosworth (n. 3), 8-9.
"0 She is called regina in Curt. 6.5.25, basilissa in Diod. 17.77.1. Just. 12.3.5 gives the
alternativenameof Minythyia.It is possiblethatTrogusknewof anothersourcewhichoffered
moreinformationon Amazons,cf. Just.2.4.
" ForHecataeus'
descriptionof Hyrcania,seeAthen.2.70b= FGrHI F 291.
 ALEXANDER AND THE AMAZONS 117

his own version of the Amazon tale (11.5.3-4), was extremely critical of Cleitarchus'
understanding of geography. There was a common but erroneous geographical
conception which maintained that the Taurus, Caucasus, and Hindu Kush ranges
formed a vast, unbroken, east-west mountain chain.12 But thanks to Eratosthenes,
Strabo had better knowledge. Prior to his comments on Alexander's meeting with the
Amazon queen, he had noted (11.1.5) that Cleitarchus had made the 'Isthmus'
between Lake Maeotis and the Caspian far too narrow, even claiming that either sea
periodically washed over it. Also, according to Cleitarchus, Thalestris' own kingdom
was located between the Caucasus mountains and the Phasis river, near the
Thermodon (Curtius 6.5.24), implying that she would have reached Alexander easily
in Hyrcania. In fact, Hyrcania was a considerable distance-some 6,000 stades or
about 1,500 kilometres-from the Thermodon. For Strabo, the difficulty was not so
much a warrior queen coming down out of the steppes to meet Alexander, but rather
that she was supposed to be from the Phasis and the Thermodon-which, by
Cleitarchus' reckoning were quite close to the Caspian. So Cleitarchus' erroneous
geography was a good reason to debunk his credibility and the story.13
According to Diodorus (17.77) and Curtius (6.5.26) the Amazon queen arrivedwith
a fully armed escort of three hundred of her women warriors.Her expressed reason for
visiting the king (common to all the vulgate traditions) was to conceive a child by a
great father, or, as Tarn remarked,'for the same purpose for which the Queen of Sheba
visited Solomon'.14 Since Alexander had proved himself the greatest of all men and
Thalestris was superior to all other women in strength and andreia(manly courage) she
reasoned that a child born to the two of them must excel all other human beings.
Curtius adds the detail (6.5.29) that Thalestris looked the conqueror up and down first,
as though a little sceptical at what she saw; our sources suggest that Alexander was a
short man'5 and obviously his physical appearance did not match the fame of his
achievements. However, she persisted in her request and, according to Justin,
Diodorus, and Curtius, spent thirteen days with the king, presumably to maximize the
chances of conception (cf. Just. 12.3.5-7 ut est visa uterumimplesse).

12 See R. Stoneman'slucid discussion,'Romanticethnography',Ancient World25 (1994),

93-107, at 99-102;also on Cleitarchus' of geography,see L. Pearson,The
faultyunderstanding
Lost Historiesof Alexanderthe Great(New York,1960),214-15, with n. 14;on the Thalestris
episode,220-1.
13 ForCleitarchus'descriptionof the Isthmus,seeFGrH137F 13.
14 See Tarn (n. 2), 2.323.
According to Xenophon, Anab. 1.2.12, another queen, Epyaxa of
Cilicia, was rumoured to have had sexual intercourse with Cyrus the Younger in order to keep his
favour,while her husband cultivated Cyrus' opponent, his brother Artaxerxes.
5 Cf. Curt.7.8.9;Alexanderis said to be of modicushabitus,cf. the Itinerarium
Alexandri13
which describes the king as being of 'medium height'. The traditions are not specific on
Alexander's
height,beyondtheimplausibleinformationof Ps.-Call.3.4 (cf.the Armenianversion
[ii. 3], 120) that Alexander was only 3 cubits tall (about 4 ft. 6 in.). While it is likely that people in
antiquitywereon averageshorterthantheyarenowin westernsociety,Ps.-Call.'scontext,namely
the personalduelbetweenAlexanderandPorus,suggestsdeliberateexaggerationof Alexander's
shortnessfor dramaticeffect;see E. Baynham,'Who put the "Romance"in the Alexander
Romance? TheAlexanderRomanceswithinAlexanderhistoriography', AHB9.1 (1995),1-13. We
shouldalso keepin mindthat the height(or lack of it) of a famouspersonagemay be defined
accordingto a particularperspective.For example,hostileBritishtraditionshaveconsistently
describedNapoleon Bonaparteas 'short' when he was about 5 ft. 6 in. tall, certainlynot
exceptionally short even by today's standards. Elsewhere, our Alexander sources are emphatic
thathe was shorterthanHephaestion(cf.Diod.17.35.5,Curt.3.12.6,Itin.37) and Darius(Diod.
17.66.3,Curt.5.2.13),butsincewe do not knowhowtalleitherof thesemenwas,thecomparison
is not particularly
helpful.
118 E. BAYNHAM
From Plutarch we learn that the Thalestris story had a very early origin, yet the way
that Plutarch casts the tale is quite interesting. He says 'the majority of sources' (ol
IoAAoLA'yovacv) record the tale as an actual event of the reign, including the so-called
first-generation historians, Cleitarchus of Alexandria, Polycleitus of Larisa, and
Onesicritus. Then he counterbalances the claim by giving another list of writers-
again including contemporary sources such as Ptolemy and Aristobulus-who
asserted that it was a plasma (a fiction). But it is not entirely clear whether Plutarch
meant that Ptolemy and Aristobulus had actually stated that Thalestris' visit was
nonsense, or whether they had merely omitted it-and certain evidence tends to
support the latter. Arrian at 7.13.3 claims that the episode of Atropates and his troop
of bogus Amazons was not in Ptolemy and Aristobulus, and if, at an earlier stage,
either of them had claimed outright that the visit of Thalestris was fiction, it would
have been a good opportunity for Arrian to have said so. In other words, since Arrian
himself is clearly doubtful about the existence of Amazons in Alexander's time, open
denial of the Amazon queen story by his two main authorities could only have
strengthened his case.16But if Aristobulus and Ptolemy knew of the Thalestris tale
(and it seems very likely that they did), they may have found the idea either absurd or
slightly distasteful. In any case Ptolemy occasionally omitted personages from his own
history who appear as important figures in traditions elsewhere: a most celebrated
example is his omission of his mistress Thais from his account of the burning of the
royal palace of Persepolis. Moreover,the alleged contemporary doubt surrounding the
Thalestris episode is illustrated by other anecdotal evidence; according to Plutarch
(Alex. 46.2), when one of Alexander's successors, Lysimachus, was listening to
Onesicritus' history and heard of the king's encounter with the Amazon, he was
supposed to have smiled and pointedly asked, 'And where was I at the time?'
Plutarch is non-committal on the story's historicity, but it is significant that he felt
compelled to address it and display some knowledge of its distribution in the literary
traditions. This was possibly a literary topos, since Strabo (11.5.4) also claims that
there were many writers who discussed Amazons (including Thalestris). The parallel
between Plutarch and Strabo is quite striking; although Strabo does not give a list of
names, his general sentiment is that those historians who are considered to be 'most
believable' (o01r tTevUOEVOL CLdALata) do not mention the episode of Alexander and
the Amazon queen, whereas those that do vary in their descriptions. We do not know
the authors whom Strabo considered trustworthy,but since he followed Eratosthenes
in considering that Cleitarchus was unreliable,it is possible that Eratosthenes himself
may have originally given a similar compilation to Plutarch's list. Since we know
virtually nothing about the last four authors whom Plutarch cites, we cannot be certain
that they all pre-dated Eratosthenes; it is possible that Plutarch may have also known
the latter'swork and supplemented it with some additional esoteric names.'7
Powell's thesis that Plutarch simply took the names of his sources from some kind
of Hellenistic encyclopaedia has largely been rejected;18likewise, Tarn's suggestion of

"6So A. B. Bosworth,A HistoricalCommentary on Arrian'sHistoryof Alexander(Oxford,

1995),2.102.
'~ See Hamilton(n. 2), 124-6 on Plutarch'slist;Philonof Thebes,Hecataeusof Eretria,and
Philipthe Chalcidianare unknown;Philipof Theangelain Cariawrotea chroniclein the third
century, cf. FGrH no. 741.
8 See J. E. Powell,'Thesourcesof Plutarch'sAlexander',JHS 59 (1939),229-40; for Tarn's
criticisms,see (n. 2), 2.308. Recentdiscussionof Plutarch'suse of sourceshas shownPowell's
view to be unsubstantiated; see, in particular,C. Pelling,'Plutarch'smethod of work in the
 ALEXANDER AND THE AMAZONS 119
a separate monograph on the Amazons, although supported by some scholars, also
seems unlikely.19Instead, interest in Amazons seems to have been more general.
Educated critics in the Graeco-Roman world did take Amazon stories seriously
enough to consider whether they were truth or fiction and to entertain the notion that,
although these women did not exist in their own times (or even Alexander's), they may
have done so at an earlier time. In fact, the extinction of the Amazons offered
considerable opportunities for speculation. Although the sceptical Strabo claims that
the Amazons are a good example of myth related as history (cf. 11.5.3-4), he does not
reject outright the idea of their existence (Strabo 10.5.1, cf. Plutarch, Theseus 27).
Most Graeco-Roman critics seemed to place the race's decline after the death of
Penthesileia, who had been killed during the Trojan War.20In an interesting variant,
Trogus claims that Alexander's paramour Thalestris died soon after returning to her
kingdom and her race died with her (Just. 2.4.33). The topos of the Amazons'
disappearance was also embraced by Arrian (as we shall see), but his interest seems to
have been fairly peripheral. In some of his other works he merely refers to the regions
where the Amazons were supposed to have lived.21
However, if the Thalestris episode was not true, we have to ask why Cleitarchus (or
Onesicritus)22would have fabricated it with its particular emphasis, and secondly, if
there is a kernel of historical truth to Alexander and the Amazon, where might we find
it? I shall return to the first question presently:for now the second issue is somewhat
easier to answer.

THE MAKING OF THE MYTH AND ITS TRANSMISSION

Most modern scholars have followed the direction offered by Plutarch. He notes
(Alex. 46.3) that in Alexander's correspondence to his regent Antipater the king does
not refer to a meeting with an Amazon, but alleges that a Scythian chieftain had
offered him his daughter in marriage. We cannot say whether Plutarch saw these
letters himself or even if they were authentic, but the material clearly refers to events
from 328 B.C.;hence a little later than his immediately preceding context of 330/29
B.C. One should emphasize that Plutarch's overall account in chapters 45 and 46
is very confusing in terms of location and chronology. In Alexander 45 Plutarch
discusses Alexander's adoption of Median costume, which took place when the king
had marched into Parthia; this episode leads into a digression on Alexander's wounds
and physical toughness, which Plutarch illustrates with an anecdote relating to
Alexander's crossing of the Jaxartes (Alex. 45.4). He then introduces the incident of
the Amazonian queen and it is unclear whether the 'here' of the opening sentence
(cvrai3Oa, Alex. 46.1) refers to the country beyond the Jaxartes, or whether Plutarch
had shifted his narrative back to Hyrcania. Certainly it is from that location that he
continues events in chapter 47. As we have seen, Cleitarchus was explicit that the
meeting with Thalestris took place in Hyrcania. Given Plutarch's general approach in
chapter 46 of balancing authors who claim the Amazon queen was real as against
those who deny her existence, it seems more likely that he has simply used the letter to

Roman lives', JHS 99 (1979), 74-96, also 'Plutarch'sadaptation of his source material', JHS 100
(1980), 127-40.
'9 See Tarn (n. 2), 2.308, with Hamilton (n. 2), 124.
20 See Bosworth (n. 3), 66.
21 Arrian, Peripl. 15.3, cf. Bithyn. F 48-50.
22 So P. P6dech, Historiens compagnons d'Alexandre(Paris, 1984), 87-9.
120 E. BAYNHAM

Antipater, which belongs to a slightly later time, to support those writers who were
sceptical. He does not mean that both incidents happened beyond the Jaxartes.23
A more elaborate version of the diplomatic negotiation between Alexander and the
Scythian chieftain appears in Arrian (4.15.1-3) and Curtius (8.1.9), again with some
differences in the location and time. According to Arrian, when Alexander was on the
Tanais, he sent some envoys to the Saca people beyond the river (Arrian 4.1.1); these
later returned to him in Bactra, accompanied by representativesof the new Scythian
king, who proposed the hand of his daughter (in order to strengthen the alliance
between himself and Alexander). If Alexander himself was reluctant to undertake
such a union, the Scythian king was equally agreeable for leading Macedonians to
marry noble Scythian women. Within the same context Arrian also refers to the arrival
of the king of the Chorasmians, Pharasmanes, who governed a large region south of
the Aral Sea. He tried to entice Alexander into joining him in a campaign of conquest
by saying that his territory had a common frontier with the Amazons. Tarn evidently
misinterpreted Arrian's emphasis; rather than accept that Pharasmanes had learned
enough of Greek traditions and habits to cleverly use Amazons as a bait, he argued
that somebody in Alexander's entourage, or even the king himself, had asked the
Chorasmian ruler about Amazons out of curiosity and Pharasmanes, not really having
a clue about what the Amazons were supposed to be, but showing 'the usual Oriental
desire to please' replied, 'Oh-yes, I have lots: in fact they are my neighbours.' Tarn
supported this condescending speculation with an Irish joke, completely missing the
point that Pharasmanes had wanted to use Alexander in order to extend his own
territory.24As indicated earlier,Arrian's other referenceto Amazons (Anab. 7. 13) was
related as a logos. It concerns an incident that supposedly occurred in 324 B.C.after
Alexander had returned from his campaign in India. Atropates, the satrap of the large,
wealthy, and powerful province of Media, sent Alexander a troop of one hundred
female cavalry,who he declared were Amazons. They were armed with little axes and
light bucklers instead of regular cavalry shields, and it was claimed that their right
breasts were smaller than their left (possibly because their left shoulders and breasts
had been padded) and were uncovered in battle.25But the reference to their fighting
techniques was undoubtedly meant to enhance the story. Although the description
concurs with certain aspects of traditional Amazonian appearance, within Arrian's
passage they sound very decorative and deliberately sexy. It is possible that these
women were even intended for sexual gratification-prostitutes who had been taught
to ride and who were playing out a contrived fantasy. While Arrian himself does not

23 On the problemof
'vTavaOa,see Hamilton(n. 2), 123. Atkinson(n. 2), 198 suggeststhat
Onesicritus,ratherthanCleitarchus, mayhavebeenPlutarch'ssourceforbothepisodes.
24 See Tarn(n. 2), 2.327-8,withn. 1:A prospectivetenant,inspectingan Irishshoot, became
suspiciouswhento everyquestionthe keeperrepliedthatthe birdswereverynumerous,and said:
'I don't supposeyou have any EncyclopaediaBritannicashere?''None havecome this year',
repliedthe Irishman,'butlast yeara pairnestedon the island.'On Pharasmanes' ambitions,see
A. B. Bosworth,'A tale of two empires:Alexanderthe Greatand HernainCort6s',in Bosworth
and Baynham(n. 1),23-49, at 41, who comparesPharasmanes' effortswiththoseof Cort6s.The
latter'soriginalcommissionfromVelhazquez hadincludedsearchingforAmazons.
25 The smallerrightbreastsof the womenmay havebeen an allusionto the traditionthat
Amazonwomencauterizedtheirrightbreastsin orderto drawbowseasily(cf.Curt.6.5.28,Just.
2.5. 11, Strabo,11.5.1,504)andhencepartof the colour,likethe referenceto the troop'salleged
participationin battle.But thereis nothingin Arrian'stext whichsuggeststhat suchmutilation
had been actuallybeen carriedout on Atropates'Amazons.If they did appearlop-sided,one
explanation might be that since a shield is normally carried on the left arm, the women may have
given their left sides additional padding for support and comfort-which perhaps created the
impression that their right breasts were smaller.
 ALEXANDER AND THE AMAZONS 121

state this, it is evident that he considered the women to have been intentionally dressed
as Amazons (7.13.6). In any case, Alexander'sreaction was the opposite of the satrap's
expectation. To Tarn'sgreat approval, the king sent the troop away so that they would
not be molested by his army (7.13.3); the inference is that unlike true Amazons, they
were not capable of looking after themselves and Alexander did not take them
seriously as soldiers. It is also possible that if tales of the king's earlier alleged liaison
with an Amazon queen were already in circulation, he wished to retain exclusive rights;
in other words, he might not have wanted encounters with Amazons to become
commonplace and for his marshals and troops to enjoy similar favours. Curiously, the
very basis of the vulgate version, namely Thalestris' initiative to procure a child by the
best father available, has apparently been reduced or garbled to a heroic 'play-acting'
remark on Alexander's part. He tells the women in Amazon costume to give their
queen a message that he would visit her one day and impregnate her. Thus there
appears to be a link between the two accounts; however, it does not necessarily mean
that the Atropates story directly spawned the tale of Thalestris, or vice versa.26The
boast could have been more general: virility and fecundity were prime attributes of
Alexander's ancestor and great role model Heracles. Not only the Argeads of
Macedonia but half of the Peloponnese claimed descent from that most beloved and
lusty of Greek heroes.
If the Atropates episode is historical and not simply a late invention,27it is likely
that the wily satrap was trying to flatter the king and maintain his favour. He was
evidently already highly placed. His daughter had been given to Perdiccas at the mass
marriage ceremony at Susa and he had arrested and personally delivered to Alexander
at Pasargadae a Mede called Baryaxes, who had tried to proclaim himself a king of the
old pre-Persian Median stock.28 Arrian's preceding context provides us with some
plausible reasons for Atropates' elaborate presentation of a group of attractive women
warriors.While Alexander was en route from Opis to Ecbatana, he passed through the
Nesaean plain, where the Persian royal horse herds, formerly consisting of 150,000
pure-bred mares, had been so seriously depleted by brigandage during the king's
absence that they were now down to about a third of the original number.29Since they
were pastured in Atropates' satrapy, they would have been his responsibility. The
Amazon charade could well have a ploy to distract Alexander's attention or to amuse
him: on his return to Carmania, the king had been ruthless in executing satraps and
subordinates whom he had decided had abused their power when he was away.But it is
also possible that the display was calculated merely for entertainment. Alexander him-
self held lavish games, theatrical shows, and parties at Ecbatana and the presentation
of the make-believe Amazons may have been part of the festive atmosphere.30
Nevertheless the story prompts an academic digression from Arrian, himself a man
of considerable education and literary reputation. He doubts that Amazons were
around in Alexander's time, because Xenophon, who had lived earlier in the fourth
century, had not seen any. In fact the sole reference to Amazons in Xenophon's
26 See below, n. 31.
27 So P. A. Brunt, Arrian. History of Alexanderand Indica (Cambridge, MA, 1983), 2.495.
28 On the marriage of
Atropates' daughter to Perdiccas, see Arrian, Anab. 7.4.5; Baryaxes
6.29.3.
29 Cf. Diod. 17.110.6, with a variant in the
figure.
30
The victimsincludedmanyPersiannobles,Astaspes,Orxines,Abulites,and Oxathres;see
E. Badian,'Harpalus',JHS 81 (1961), 16-43, at 17 and now also a detaileddiscussion,'Con-
spiracies',in Bosworthand Baynham(n. 1), 50-95. On the entertainmentsat Ecbatana,Arrian,
Anab.7.14.1,Diod. 17.110.8;see also Badian'sremarks(nextnote).
122 E. BAYNHAM

Anabasis (4.4.16) concerns their weaponry and it is impossible to tell from the context
whether Xenophon regarded the Amazons' existence as genuine, or whether he was
merely referringto familiar iconography.
To summarize, the Saca princess episode and the Pharasmanes story have been used
to explain how the Thalestris story may have developed. In a similar fashion, others
have seen a link between the Atropates episode and the tale of Thalestris.31 But
recently Bosworth has pointed out that Cleitarchus clearly reported two separate
episodes: Thalestris' visit to Alexander in Hyrcania, and the Scythian king's offer of
his daughter when Alexander was at Maracanda (Curt. 8.1.9). For Bosworth, the most
likely historical explanation of the Thalestris story was that Alexander may have been
visited in Hyrcania by some native princess of Sacan stock, accustomed to ride and
shoot, who came with a mounted group of females that were also carrying weapons.32
Since it seems highly likely that there were nomadic Scythian women who practised
these customs, Greek identification of them with Amazons must indeed have been
irresistible.33In addition, if Bosworth is right about Alexander's staff not only
consciously promoting the king's heroic emulation of predecessors like Dionysus and
Heracles, but also finding evidence which suggested that these benefactors of mankind
had been there before the king, one could also suggest that his meeting with an
Amazon was an inevitable part of such contemporary mythopoiesis.34 Both Heracles
and Achilles had had encounters with Amazons; therefore Alexander must have one.
Indeed, we would be more surprised if the traditions had said Alexander never even
saw an Amazon, let alone made love to one. The durability of the Amazons' appeal is
also demonstrated in Plutarch'sLife of Pompey, whose subject was well known for his
imitatio Alexandri. Plutarch's source was most likely Theophanes, Pompey's historian
and propagandist, who had a role not unlike that of Alexander's Callisthenes. When
Pompey had defeated King Cosis during the Mithridatic campaign, his men came
upon Amazonian weapons and boots but no female bodies. Nevertheless, according to
Appian (Mithr. 103.482-3), Pompey displayed wounded female prisoners-who were
supposed to be Amazons-in his triumph; if these barbarianwomen had been dressed
up accordingly, Pompey's sense of theatre was no less than than Atropates'.35
Yet I think we can add a little more. Amazons would have obvious appeal to

3' Mederer(n. 2), 90-1 and Berve(n. 2), 2.419;so too, E. Badian,Cambridge Historyof Iran
(Cambridge,1985),2.484withn. 2.
32 Bosworth, Arrian 2. 103,cf. R. LaneFox,Alexander the Great(London,1973),276.
3 Bosworth(n. 32). Also, nearlytwenty years ago, archaeologistsexcavatingaroundthe
Don in the territoryof the formerSoviet Union claimedto have found clear evidenceof a
gynaecocracywithinthe Sarmantian/Sauromatian culture,whichwas the name of the female
tribethat Herodotus4.110-18described.See K. F Smirnov,'Une Amazonedu IVesi cle avant
n.e. surle territoiredu Don', DHA 8 (1982),121-41.Not all scholarsacceptthesefindings;more
cautiousis G. Clarkin her reviewof BlakeTyrrell(cf.LCM 10. 5 [1985],78-9), and some reject
the ideaof anyhistoricitybehindthemythcompletely;see Blok(n. 4).
34 See A. B. Bosworth, Alexanderand the East (Oxford, 1996), 98-133.
35 Plutarch,Pompey35.3.Accordingto Strabo(cf.FGrH188F 4 = Strab.11.5.1),Theophanes
located the Amazonsnear the Albani (in the vicinityof the Thermodon).On the episode's
relationto Pompey'simitationof Alexander,see L. BallesterosPastor,'La Leyendade las
Amazonas en la Historia de Mitridates Eupitor', Xa^pE.Homenaje al Prof F Gasc6 (Seville,
1997),241-7, at 246, n. 29 for bibliography.
See also H. Heftner,Plutarchundder Aufstiegdes
Pompeius: ein historischer Kommentarzu Plutarchs Pompeiusvita(New York, 1995), 252-4. On
Pompey's imitatio Alexandri in general, see 0. Weippert, Alexander-Imitatiound r6mische Politik
in republikanischerZeit (Diss. Julius-Maximilians-Universitit zu Wiirzburg, 1972), 69-104;
C. Bohm, Imitatio Alexandri im Hellenismus (Munich, 1989). I am grateful to Dr Jane Bellemore
fordrawingmyattentionto Pompey'sAmazons.
 ALEXANDER AND THE AMAZONS 123

pan-Hellenic sentiment, but if Cleitarchusor others were trying to give the story a pan-
Hellenic spin, one might have expected Alexander and his army to have triumphed
over the barbarian warrior women in military contest. After all, the victory of Greek
over Amazon had been stridently proclaimed in iconography and literature for more
than two hundred years. Moreover, Thalestris in our main historical accounts is not
described as a foreign enemy who willingly submits to Alexander and offers him tribute
as the Amazonian leaders do in the Alexander Romance.36Instead, the vulgate text is
explicit that Thalestris has deliberatelychosen Alexander in order to create a child with
him, and the implication is worthiness of partnership,not domination and submission.
In Curtius, Thalestris is accorded due recognition of her royal rank; she sends
Alexander a message that a queen is on her way to meet him and she is immediately
given permission to proceed (Curt. 6.5.26).
The context of the Thalestris story in the vulgate also provides some clues. In
Diodorus, Curtius, and Justin Thalestris' visit occurs just before Alexander's adoption
of Persian dress and customs. The Latin accounts-Justin, Curtius, and the Metz
Epitome-give a very negative tone to this aspect of Alexander's orientalism, as does
Arrian.37The derivative writers, especially Curtius and Arrian, would both have been
very well aware of its treatment in subsequent times as a rhetorical topos, and Arrian
gives his own opinion rather than those of his sources. Yet there is sufficient evidence
to indicate that contemporary Macedonian reaction (at least in some quarters) to
Alexander's Median garb was hostile.38Diodorus' account is the least critical, even
alleging (17.77.7) that Alexander employed Persian customs ratherjudiciously at first,
as he was wary about offending his fellow Macedonians. The source for the vulgate
tradition on the king's change of attire was most likely Cleitarchus and it is difficult to
know what his own attitude to this issue may have been. If, as seems certain,
Cleitarchus was writing during Ptolemy's regime,39 much would have depended on his
master's example; one would surmise that he could hardly condemn Alexander for
wearing the costume of his subject peoples if Ptolemy Soter himself was already
dressing as pharaoh. Although it seems highly unlikely that Ptolemy ever adopted
native costume, at least certainly not as his usual attire, there may have been some
degree of Egyptian cultural recognition.40
36 Ps.- Call. 3.25-6: the Amazons offer to pay Alexander 100 talents of gold annually as well as
send him a force of 500 warriors and 100 horses to serve with him for a year. There is no sexual
liaison between Alexander and the Amazon queen in Pseudo-Callisthenes.The Amazons describe
themselves as a race numbering 270,000 virgins and stipulate that if any woman from the force
sent to Alexander loses her virginity, she is to remain with his army. In the y recension the
Amazons ask Alexander for a portrait and he sends them his spear to worship (see Stoneman [n.
3], 195). This may have had a sexual innuendo for a contemporary audience although of course
the military symbolism is foremost. However,on Alexander'schastity as a motif in the Alexander
Romance,see Stoneman(n. 12), 103.
37 Curt.6.6.2ff.,Just.12.3.8-4.11,Diod. 17.77.4-6,MetzEpit.1-2;cf. Plut.Alex.45.1-2, Mor.
330a,Arrian,Anab.4.7.4,Val.Max.9.5 ext 1. Arrianinitiallycriticizesthe king'scostumeas part
of his eastern excesses; he modifies his attitude in the necrology at 7.29.4.
38 Cf. Plut. Alex. 45.3, Arrian, Anab. 4.14.2 and Curt. 8.7.12, where Alexander's Median dress
is given as a grievance by Hermolaus.
39 The date of composition for Cleitarchus' history is controversial: see E. Baynham,
Alexanderthe Great:The UniqueHistoryof QuintusCurtius(Ann Arbor,1998),69, n. 43. The
majorityof scholars now favourc. 310 B.c.as the most likely time for the compositionof
Cleitarchus' history; see most recently, L. Prandi, Fortunae realtacdell' opera di Clitarco, Historia
Einzelschriften 104 (Stuttgart, 1996), 66-71.
4 The literary evidence for much of Soter's internal reign in Egypt is very thin. In Athenaeus'
section on truphe, Ptolemy I is not recorded as having worn foreign or extravagant clothing,
124 E. BAYNHAM

This is not the place to explore Alexander's orientalism or the so-called 'policy of
fusion'. There are, however, two pieces of evidence that have not been given full
attention before, not so much for their significance in the promotion of reconciliation
between Asiatics and Macedonians, but ratherfor their possible connection to the tale
of Thalestris.

THE AMAZONIAN QUEEN AND 'VERSCHMELZUNGSPOLITIK'?

First, the Alexander Sarcophagus, which was probably commissioned by the ruler of
Sidon, Abdalonymus, is one of the earliest, extant examples of attested Alexander
iconography. Abdalonymus was made ruler of Sidon, most likely by Hephaestion,
after the battle of Issus in 333.41 The precise date of the monument, excavated in the
royal necropolis, is uncertain, but it was probably made some time between 317 and
306 B.C.42One side displays a hunting scene in which Persians and Macedonians
co-operate together and the figure usually identified as Alexander is wearing an
eastern-style chiton with sleeves and an overfall, like those of the Persians.43
Alexander's adoption of mixed dress post-dated Abdalonymus' appointment by some
three years, and it was commemorated in marble on his sarcophagus, along with the
message of harmony. It is not likely that Cleitarchus or any of the other early
historians saw the sculpture for themselves, rather that Abdalonymus was continuing
to celebrate a strand of official propaganda originally emanating from his late
sovereign lord of Asia, which had filtered back to his own court.4
Secondly, in Curtius' account of the army's mutiny in 324 B.C.,when Alexander
delivers a passionate speech to his assembled foreign troops (10.3.11-14), he claims the
reason for his marriages to Roxane, the daughter of the Bactrian noble, Oxyartes, and
Darius' daughter was to beget offspring, so that by this sacred alliance (hoc sacro
foedere) he might abolish all distinction between vanquished and victor, since Asia and
Europe now belonged to the same kingdom (Asiae et Europae unum atque idem regnum
est). This is the clearest emphasis that the future was to belong to an 61ite class
consisting of the children of these mixed marriages; one might also recall the king's
unlikeAlexanderor DemetriusPoliorcetes;cf. Athenaeus12.535f-6a,537d. Fromthe earliest
Ptolemaic period, dedicatory statues of the royal house from the Greek ruling class used
Egyptian styles and material with bilingual inscriptions, which seems to have been encouraged by
the king (see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria [Oxford, 1972], 1.70 with nn. 233, 234), but
elsewhere in the late fourth and early third centuries cultural fusion between Greeks and
Egyptians remained limited. It is difficult to determine what Ptolemy's court or private dress may
have been.
41 On the appointment of Abdalonymus as ruler of Sidon, see Curt. 4.1.19-21, Just. 11.10.8-9;

cf. Diod. 17.47; also Berve (n. 2), 2.3 no. 1, R. A. Billows, Antigonos the One-Eyed and the
Creationof the Hellenistic State (Berkeley, 1990), 444-5 for prosopographical information.
42 On the Alexander Sarcophagus in general, see V. von Graeve, Der Alexandersarkophagund
seine Werkstatt (Berlin, 1970); W. Messerschmidt, 'Historische und ikonographische Unter-
suchungen zum Alexandersarkophag', Boreas 12 (1989), 64-92; A. Stewart, Faces of Power,
Alexander's Image and Hellenistic Politics (Berkeley, 1993), 294-306; on the monument's date,
see also now O. Palagia, 'Hephaestion's pyre and the royal hunt of Alexander', in Bosworth and
Baynham (n. 1), 167-206 at n. 84.
43 The 'Alexander' figure on the other side of the sarcophagus also wears Oriental dress; see
Palagia (n. 42), nn. 89 and 90.
" On
Abdalonymus' support of cultural integration in the iconography of the sarcophagus,
see J. Borchardt, 'Die Dependenz des K6nigs von Sidon von persischen Grosskdnig', in R. M.
Boehmer and H. Hauptmann (edd.), Beitrdgezur AltertumskundeKleinasiens,Festschriftfir Kurt
Bittel (Mainz, 1983), 105-20, at 119-20.
 ALEXANDER AND THE AMAZONS 125

earlier statement justifying his marriage to Roxane (8.4.25-6), namely that his ancestor
Achilles had also united with a captive female.45
Of course, in using any reference from a speech in Curtius, one is faced with the
problem of determining how much was in the original source and how much was
Curtius' own rhetorical interpretationand embellishment. The speeches in Curtius are
normally held up as the most notorious examples of free composition by the historian,
and without a model for comparison such as we have elsewhere (for instance with the
speeches of Hermolaus, or the mutilated Greek captives),46where we can say Curtius
probably elaborated on material that he had before him, it is often very difficult to
judge either way. In this case we do have both a corresponding context and the barest
outline of a speech (in oratio obliqua) from Justin'sepitome of Trogus (12.12.1-2). In
particular, there is the same emphasis on uniting the conquered and conquerors
through marriage, which suggests that Trogus may have used the same source as
Curtius.
It is also important that the theme of cultural fusion through children is given
ambivalent treatment in both Curtius and Justin. In the former, despite Alexander's
posturing, his marriage to Roxane is given very hostile colouring, especially from the
Macedonian perspective. Their resentment was not so much because Alexander was
marrying a non-Macedonian. After all, marriage to foreign princesses was a common
Macedonian diplomatic court practice. Philip II was the son of an Illyrian woman
while Alexander himself was descended on his mother's side from the Molossian royal
house. Rather,the problem was that Roxane was from a conquered race and Alexander
was intending to father a child from beaten stock who would then rule over the victors
(8.4.29: ex captiva geniturusqui victoribusimperaret).The question also surfaces again
during the debate on the succession among Alexander's generals after the king's death
in Babylon (10.6.13)47 where vehement objections are raised to either Roxane's child (if
it proves male) or Barsine's son, Heracles. But how do we know whether Curtius or
Justin/Trogusare in fact reflecting contemporary thought from an early source and not
just Roman rhetoric and prejudice?48This is a difficult question, since Diodorus'
treatment of the disputed succession at Alexander's death is extremely sparse and
Arrian's history of the period survives mainly in the brief excerpts of Photius.49yet
there is a contemporary tradition, albeit anecdotal, that indicates Alexander himself
had been trying to promote the idea of the value of marriage to barbarian women.
According to Nicoboule, an obscure figure who is credited with an early account
describing Alexander's final days, at Medius' banquet the king allegedly declaimed a
large section from Euripides' play the Andromeda. We do not know what lines
Alexander quoted, but the play's subject was the marriage of Perseus (Alexander's
ancestor) to the Ethiopian princess,Andromeda.soHowever,even if the tale is true, any

45 Thecaptivefemalemeantis mostlikelyto be Briseis.

46 Curt.8.7.1-2 (Hermolaus),5.5.5-6;see Baynham(n. 39),48-51.
47 Cf. Just.13.2.5-13.
48 So N. G. L. Hammond, A History of Macedonia (Oxford, 1988) 3.102, n. 1, who claims that
the Macedonian infantry had accepted Roxane's unborn child and had even given her a guard
(App. Syr. 52). But we do not know at what stage this happened; it could well have occurred after
the infantry had been forced to accept Perdiccas' settlement. Besides, in addition to protecting
Alexander'spregnantwidow,the guardwouldhavealso preventedany attemptto smugglein a
changeling.
49 Diod. 18.2(theclaimsof Alexander's
offspringareomittedin thiscontext);cf. Arrian,Succ.
1.1.
=
50 See Athen. 12.537 d FGrH 127 F 2; also A. B. Bosworth, 'Alexander, Euripides and
126 E. BAYNHAM

political message it contained was clearly rejected by Alexander's companions; despite

the extravagant festivities of the mass marriages at Susa, only one marshal, Seleucus,
kept his Persian bride after Alexander's death.
Where does the Thalestris story fit into this? The difference is that her child would
be free-born--the proud offspring of the bravest of men and the bravest of women.
This was the ideal-which Roxane could never measure up to. Alexander's Amazon
queen therefore representsa shift in ideology from previous perceptions of the warrior
woman; she means something quite different. Cleitarchus turned her into a
counter-symbol, promoting eugenics between monarchs. Thalestris did not linger
around Alexander's court to share in his brave new world, but, ironically, Cleitarchus
may have carefully accounted for her absence. According to Curtius, Alexander asked
her to undertake military service with him; her response was that she needed to return
to her own kingdom. But she would be carrying the embryo of her future heir, which
she hoped would be female. She promised that she would return a male to his father
(Curt. 6.5.30-1). Elsewhere and perhaps outside Cleitarchus'history, she is recorded as
returning to her kingdom and sadly, if somewhat conveniently, dying shortly after her
arrival.51There was no scion left to become yet another pawn in the struggles between
Alexander's marshals on the king's death, because Thalestris herself never existed
beyond the imaginations of Cleitarchus and some of his contemporaries. Yet she was
not intended as a warning to Alexander about the dangers of unity with orientals,52
nor as a sign of his moral degeneration. On the contrary, by dint of her very identity
as a powerful icon to the Greeks, she became an early romantic expression of an
aspiration, namely reconciliation between the conquerors and the barbarians (or
rather,those who were deemed worthy) that was to prove equally fleeting and illusory.53
Universityof Newcastle, NSW ELIZABETH BAYNHAM
[email protected]

Dionysos', in R. W Wallace and E. M. Harris (edd.) Transitions to Empire, Essays in Greco-

Roman History, 360-146 B.c., in Honor of E. Badian (Norman, 1996), 141-66, at 144 with nn.
23-6.
5I Just.2.4.33;see also above,n. 10.
52 So Daumas(n. 2), at 352ff.
53 This articlewas first presentedas a seminarto the Departmentof Classicsand Ancient
History,Universityof WesternAustralia.I am gratefulto the staff and postgraduatestudents
who attendedfor their remarks;to Dr Neil O' Sullivan,Dr JudithMaitlandfor additional
references,andparticularly to ProfessorA. B. Bosworthfor his carefulreadingof this paperand
his numeroussuggestions.I shouldalso liketo thankthe editorsand the anonymousreaderfor
Classical Quarterlyfor their helpful comments.