This Christmas, Wonder Woman is back on the screen and so is the rest of Themyscira. The
mythical land of amazon warriors has always been a popular subject in History so Nutty
History brings you the myth, the legend, and the history of this amazing female-only society.
Princess Diana of Themyscira lived on a hidden island with her mother and other Amazonian
warriors for years before she made her way to the modern world during World War I. Based on
the Prometheus legend of the creation of Man, Diana was created from clay by her mother Queen
Hippolyta and Goddess Aphrodite. She received her superpowers as gifts from various Greek gods which
helped her to become the wonder woman we know of today. Prometheus wasn’t the only source of
inspiration for Wonder Woman. Since her debut in All-Star Comics in 1941, her backstory has evolved
a lot; taking inspiration from myths of Pandora, Odysseus, Atlanta, and Artemis. But the core of
Wonder Woman’s lore has always been the legend of Amazons from Homer’s Iliad. Homer illustrated
Amazonian women as seasoned fighters, with peak physical prowess, military skill and courage.
Herodotus, who’s often called the father of history, wrote in length about Amazons.
He described them as horse riding, bow-wielding rangers; who were far from the basic domesticated
image of Greek women. Herodotus also gave a location for their tribe, Scythia. A region
located between Ukraine, Southern Russia, and western Kazakhstan. The distance between Scythia
and Greece was enough to make Herodotus’s readers believe that Scythia was an exotic, freighting,
and disparate land; ruled by the matriarchal women who fought their battles themselves. Princess
Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyte and her aunt and teacher Antiope have appeared in the legend of
Heracles and Theseus. You might recognize the two sisters as the daughters of Ares.
William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder, was a staunch feminist and insisted
on making these two women have larger roles in Wonder Woman’s universe. Through the comics,
he wanted to inspire women of the modern era to rise and take power into their own hands
by participating equally to men. That’s why Themyscira was constructed in comics
and film to create a glimpse of what an all-woman government would look like.
Folklorist and Historian, Adrienne Mayor has argued that an overwhelming amount of
evidence has shown that Amazons’ myth actually have some historical facts backing it. Recent
archaeological discoveries of graves from the fifth century B.C. suggest that the Greeks’
tales of Amazons were influenced by the lives of real equestrian nomads of Eurasia;
just like Herodotus wrote! The man is recognized as Father of History for a reason!
People who roamed Scythia enjoyed the same sort of vigorous outdoor life, sexual liberty,
and warfare as the Greeks describe them. These Scythian nomads appeared as early as the Ninth
century BC in history and their culture spread from Ukraine to Serbia by the seventh century BC.
Greeks were establishing colonies the same time around the Black Sea,
and that explains how they came to discover the factual Amazons. Later Historians wrote
more accounts about how Cyrus of Persia, Alexander of Macedon, and Roman General Pompey
encountered these Amazon-like Warrior women on their Eastern Campaigns as well. The egalitarian
lifestyle of the Scythians was very different from the settled, agricultural lifestyle of the Greeks.
It created a mystery about their homeland which evolved into the myth of the hidden island of
Themyscira. The idea of men and women having equal rights and status daunted the Greeks and so
men vanished from Amazons’ myth to allow women to become a single-gender society where they thrived
in absence of competition. When it comes down to it, the real-life Scythians were more like Wonder
Woman than the myth of the Amazons. Which is kind of crazy, if you think about it. Wonder Woman
is totally real. Whatever the case, the myth of the Amazon secret society and the minds behind
Wonder Woman created a character that has no doubt inspired many and changed the world.
What’s your favorite thing about Wonder Woman? How much more of the Amazon myth do you think is real?
And if you enjoyed this video about Wonder Woman, let us know in the comments which
superhero you would like to see on the cover next. Thanks for watching Nutty History.