The Greek legend of the Amazons experienced a resurgence to relevance in 2017, thanks to the

blockbuster film Wonder Woman.

The ancient mythical tribe of female warriors became the cultural icon they once were over

2,000 years ago.

Long ago in ancient Greece, images of Amazons adorned the walls of temples, and Greek artists

built statues depicting them in all their might. Today, these same women warriors boast billboards,

as well as action figures and cardboard cutouts, the statues of our modern era. Now they are an icon

for female power and prowess, an emblem of equality, and a beacon for idolatry.

Who we choose as our idols in a given time period is reflective of our beliefs, and the cultural

status of the Amazon's as a force for good is a recent one.

Though today, in our modern mythology, the Amazon tribe is one of

action heroes, in ancient Greece, originally, the Amazon tribe was the boogeyman, or perhaps

better, the boogie woman. They were a manifestation of male insecurity, the nightmare of any Greek man,

an all-female society of vicious fighters, foreign, hostile, and willing to fight to the death,

a society that didn't depend on males. Homer referred to them in the Iliad as the equal of men, and undoubtedly,

unbelievably, this thought was enough to make some Spartans shudder.

Hercules himself, the Ubermensch of ancient Greece, had to fight them as part of one of his 12 labors, and, thankfully, for readers with fragile masculinity, Hercules won.

Most historians write off this all-female society as a myth.

There is absolutely evidence of female warriors among the Scythians

who could have inspired the legend of the Amazons, but these real-life women fought alongside men.

The notion of an exclusively female society is considered bunk by mainstream historians. But biologists might

disagree with their fellow academics on this point. If you zoom out from our current society,

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