Amazons (Ἀμαζόνες, Ἀμαζονίδες): Warrior Women and Biblical Echoes

The Amazons—a mythical race of warrior women—stand as one of the most enduring legends of the ancient world. In Greek tradition, they were fierce fighters, often portrayed in epic clashes with heroes like Heracles, Theseus, and even warriors in the Trojan cycle. Their image came to symbolize both the allure and the threat of female power. Though the Amazons are not part of Israel’s history, a puzzling reference in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) at 2 Chronicles 14:14 seems to place them in the biblical record, raising questions about scribal transmission, cultural imagination, and translation.

1. Amazons in Greek Myth and Culture

The Amazons were described as:

• Warrior Women: Renowned for courage, often called antianeirai (“a match for men”).

• Foes of Heroes: They appear in myths surrounding Heracles’ ninth labor (the girdle of Hippolyte), Theseus’ defense of Attica, and battles connected to the Trojan War.

• Cultural Symbols: Their imagery filled Greek art, literature, and cultic traditions, including supposed tombs in Greece and annual sacrifices in Athens.

• Founders and Ancestors: Cities in Asia Minor, especially Ephesus, celebrated their founding legends as tied to the Amazons.

While their geographic setting began around the Black Sea, Greek imagination gradually placed them further toward the edges of the known world. They became both real and symbolic—boundary figures of what was “other” to Greek culture.

2. The Enigma of the Amazons in 2 Chronicles

The Septuagint translator of 2 Chronicles 14:14 introduced the Amazons into the biblical narrative:

• The Masoretic Text describes King Asa’s victory over Zerah the Cushite, mentioning captured tents and livestock.

• The LXX text, however, adds τοὺς Ἀμαζονεῖς, a masculine form of “Amazons” found nowhere else.

• Problems with this reading:

  • The context is livestock and tents, not people.

  • Amazons were never portrayed as herdsmen or flockkeepers.

  • The masculine form itself is textually strange.

Scholars suggest the word may be a scribal corruption, possibly from Alimazoneis, a garbled form of lammaḥăneh (“the band” or “camp”), later linked with “Arabs” in 2 Chronicles 22:1. If so, the reference to Amazons is not original but the result of transmission error.

3. Later Jewish and Christian Interpretations

• Jewish Tradition: Beyond this obscure LXX appearance, Amazons did not play a role in Jewish literature or biblical interpretation.

• Christian Writers: Beginning in the third century, some Christians referred to Amazons either as:

  • Historical Peoples: exotic tribes in distant lands.

  • Symbols of Disorder: representing unnatural ways of life, rebellion, or female aggression against social order.

In Christian imagination, the Amazons became cautionary figures, reminders of the inversion of God’s created order.

Conclusion

The Amazons were never part of Israel’s history, yet they entered the biblical conversation through the quirks of the Greek Septuagint. As a result, they stand as an example of how cultural myths and scribal slips could cross into the biblical world. In mythology, they symbolized the allure and threat of female strength; in biblical translation, they illustrate the complexities of text and transmission. Ultimately, the Amazons remind us how ancient peoples wrestled with the “other”—whether through myth, mistranslation, or moral reflection.