XXIX.
Amazons –
Greek name for Goddess-worshipping tribes in north Africa, Anatolia, and the Black Sea area.
The ancients said Amazons were the first to tame horses, which may well account for their armies’ legendary invincibility. In open country, mounted troops whether male or female would have a decided advantage over foot soldiers.
In Amazonian myths, the Goddess was often worshipped as a mare: India’s mare-mother Saranyu, mare-headed Demeter, or Cretan Leukippe the “White Mare,” whose priests were castrated and wore female dress. Among Scythians also, men entered the service of the Goddess by castrating themselves and adopting women’s clothing. The only deity shown in Scythian art was the Great Goddess, whom the Greeks called Artemis, or Hestia, or Gaea (the Earth).
Scythians were governed by priestess-queens, usually buried alone in richly furnished kurgans (queen-graves). Five kurganswere discovered together at Pasyryk in southern Russia in 1954.
Greek myth says Amazon tribes occupied Cappadocia, Samothrace, and Lesbos, and founded the cities of Smyrna, Ephesus, Cymes, Myrine, and Paphos all leading centers of Goddess-worship.
Ass-eared king Midas, a son of Cybele, died of drinking bull’s blood. In other words, he was connected with the Taurobolium or bull- sacrifice made in honor of both Cybele and Isis. Midas has been identified with Mita (“Seed”), a king of the Moschians or “calf-men,” who invaded the country of the Hittites from Thrace during the second millenium B.C. Midas’s Golden Touch and ass’s ears link him with the cult of Set and the Golden Calf (Horus), whose image was worshipped by the Israelites (Exodus 32:2-4).
THE WOMAN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS AND SECRETS, BARBARA G. WALKER

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