LP0048 - Amazons versus Atlantis - Forgotten legends, from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History

Legendary Passages #0048 - Amazons versus Atlantis - Forgotten legends, from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History. Last time Heracles explored North Africa and created the Pillars of Heracles during his labors. This time we examine local legends from before the Age of Heroes, focusing on the Amazons near Carthage and the peoples of the Atlas mountains, dubbed Altlanteans. These Amazons lived on an island called Hespera in the Tritonis marsh in Tunisia or Algeria. That land was more hospitable millennia ago, full of fruit trees and herds of animals. The women controlled the government and fought in wars, while the men stayed at home and raised the children. The Amazons founded a city named Cherronesus, rule by the ambitious Queen Myrina. Seeking to expand their territories they made war with the Atlantean city of Cerne. They sued for peace; so the Amazons next attacked the race of Gorgons, but failed to destroy them. Queen Myrina befriended the Egyptians, subdued Syria, and became something of a female Alexander the Great. Eventually Sipylus the Sythian, and Mopsus the Thracian killed Myrina and dispersed the Amazons, and their conquests are all but faded from history. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html Amazons versus Atlantis, a Legendary Passage, from Diodorus Siculus' The Library of History, translated by C. H. Oldfather. Book III [52] - [55] But now that we have examined these matters it will be fitting, in connection with the regions we have mentioned, to discuss the account which history records of the Amazons who were in Libya in ancient times. For the majority of mankind believe that the only Amazons were those who are reported to have dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Thermodon river on the Pontus; but the truth is otherwise, since the Amazons of Libya were much earlier in point of time and accomplished notable deeds. Now we are not unaware that to many who read this account the history of this people will appear to be a thing unheard of and entirely strange; for since the race of these Amazons disappeared entirely many generations before the Trojan War, whereas the women about the Thermodon river were in their full vigour a little before that time, it is not without reason that the later people, who were also better known, should have inherited the fame of the earlier, who are entirely unknown to most men because of the lapse of time.  For our part, however, since we find that many early poets and historians, and not a few of the later ones as well, have made mention of them, we shall endeavour to recount their deeds in summary, following the account of Dionysius, who composed a narrative about the Argonauts and Dionysus, and also about many other things which took place in the most ancient times. Now there have been in Libya a number of races of women who were warlike and greatly admired for their manly vigour; for instance, tradition tells us of the race of the Gorgons, against whom, as the account is given, Perseus made war, a race distinguished for its valour; for the fact that it was the son of Zeus, the mightiest Greek of his day, who accomplished the campaign against these women, and that this was his greatest Labour may be taken by any man as proof of both the pre-eminence and the power of the women we have mentioned. Furthermore, the manly prowess of those of whom we are now about to write presupposes an amazing pre-eminence when compared with the nature of the women of our day. - We are told, namely, that there was once on the western parts of Libya, on the bounds of the inhabited world, a race which was ruled by women and followed a manner of life unlike that which prevails among us. For it was the custom among them that the women should practise the arts of war and be required to serve in the army for a fixed period, during which time they maintained their virginity; then, when the years of their service in the field had expired, they went in to the men for the