The Amazons and the Reproach of Egypt
by John Salverda
by John Salverda
It is from Diodorus Siculus where we learn that the Amazons came originally from Libya, a land that we suppose began at the Western bank of the Nile River and ran to the shore of a huge lake called Lake Triton that occupied the entire Sahara Desert (not now, but anciently). Diodorus himself identifies this as the land of Mount Atlas and the Gorgons. They then took a large army of women into Egypt where they became allied to the Pharaoh, who was, at that time, Horus the son of Isis. (Diodorus places this mass movement of the Amazons into Egypt chronologically just before the deeds of Perseus.) From there they came up out of the land of Egypt under their Queen whose name has variously been handed down to us as "Myrina," "Marian," or as an alternative version of the name, given to us by Robert Graves has it, "Mariamne." Diodorus goes on to say that they then invaded Arabia and took over Syria before they eventually showed up in Asia Minor. This association of the Amazons with the Libyans also associates them with the Egyptians, for the Nile delta was peopled largely with Libyans who worshipped a Goddess named "Tanit," after whom the leading city of the district, and the capitol of Egypt, was named "Tanis" (not to mention the entire nation of Tunisia which is also her namesake). Tanit was perhaps even more well known as a "Phoenician" goddess while the Egyptians more regularly called her Neith or Nut and the Hebrews knew her as Anat or Zion, the Greeks used the name Athena. The Amazons were in fact well known worshippers of the warrior goddess Athena (Pallas Athene, Baalath Zion), who was identified, even in ancient times, with Tanit the chief goddess of the Egyptian city of Tanis, which city was otherwise known to the Hebrews by the (suspiciously "Zion" sounding) name of "Zoan," the very name of the Hebrew home during their period of Egyptian slavery.
Now, the question arises; When were the Amazons in Egypt' Diodorus himself gives us a clue to the answer, for he says that Horus, the son of Isis, was the Egyptian Pharaoh at the time. Since it was this same Horus who famously defeated Seth in a well known cataclysmic battle, and established the Osirian religion in Egypt. And since the Greeks have identified this conflict with the battle of Zeus against Typhon, and the establishment among the Greeks of "Olympianism," we can logically suppose that the Amazons came up out of Egypt under Mariamne about the same time that Zeus battled Typhon. Quoting Herodotus, "Before men, they said, the rulers of Egypt were gods, ... Of these gods one or another had in succession been supreme; the last of them to rule the country was Osiris' son Horus, whom the Greeks call Apollo; he deposed Typhon [Set], and was the last divine king of Egypt. (Histories 2. 144. 1) I consider this is to be a fair chronological reference for I have shown in an article called "The Olympians," that this was the exact same time that THE ALMIGHTY battled Leviathan (typical symbolic poetry used by the Hebrews to indicate the Red Sea crossing) and the Hebrews came up out of Egypt. Now, if the Amazons came up out of Egypt at about the same time that the Hebrews did, then perhaps we can find some mention of the Amazons in the Scriptural account of the Exodus. As we know, the Scriptures do mention that a large compliment of "mixed company" came up out of Egypt with the Hebrews, however, we certainly could not rely on such a general statement as this to identify the Amazons, but then, we don't have to.
There was a group of specifically women who were detached from the men, and were lead separately, by "Miriam," the little understood "sister" of Moses, at the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt. Furthermore these women had a very Amazonian sounding law that was enforced amongst them while they were in the land of Zoan, insisting that the male babies born must be put to death, but the girls should be preserved alive. Just as the name Mariamne, from the Greek stories, has it's equivalent Hebrew form Miriam, (thought to be Hebrew for "rebellion" but just as likely from an originally Egyptian name such as "Meri-Amon,") so, if the Greek word "Amazon" were the corruption of a Hebrew word, as many so called "Greek" words were, it could be referring to the "mothers" (ama) of "Zoan." Now, the question must be asked; How many groups, of specifically women, were lead up out of Egypt by a leader named "Miriam," into the land of Arabia and Syria, in the days when God/god fought the great dragon, were there'
