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| December 26, 2002 You've got to be kidding  In classical legend the Amazons were a tribe of warrior women. Their name is supposedly derived from Greek a-mazos, "without a breast," because according to the legend they cut off their right breasts so as to be better able to shoot with a bow and arrow. This folk etymology, like most folk etymologies, is incorrect, but the Amazons of legend are not so completely different from the historical Amazons, who were also warriors. The historical Amazons were Scythians, an Iranian people renowned for their cavalry. The first Greeks to come into contact with the Iranians were the Ionians, who lived on the coast of Asia Minor and were constantly threatened by the Persians, the most important of the Iranian peoples. Amazn is the Ionian Greek form of the Iranian word ha-mazan, "fighting together." The regular Greek form would be hamazn, but because the Ionians dropped their aitches like Cockneys, hamazn became amazn, the form taken into the other Greek dialects. -- American Heritage Dictionary Legends circulated in South America at the time of the Spanish conquest that there were indigenous tribes where only women fought. Based on that the name of Amazonia was given to this area. Quiz winner: Shazdeh khanoom. Sad Afarin! Quiz suggested by Darius Kadivar Send this page to a friend Do you have an interesting question to suggest for this page? Email us Response to previous quiz questions >>> HERE 
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