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From: silber@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Matriarchial Cultures (was Re: Why
Message-ID: <53400005@uiucdcsp>
Date: Wed, 26-Mar-86 15:18:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsp.53400005
Posted: Wed Mar 26 15:18:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 01:06:11 EST
References: <488@ccivax.UUCP>
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Nf-From: uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU!silber    Mar 26 14:18:00 1986



Sorry to disapoint you, but the "Amazons" are almost surely mythic, at least
in large part.  Pliny (I think) mentions them, but he also mentions people
with only one arm and one leg who move by hopping.  Interestingly enough, his
account is literary evidence that the early Greeks drew the bow to the chest
(a half pull) rather than to the ear like latter people.

The last sovereign ruler of Palmyra (a mideastern country which included
what is now Syria and Lebanon) was a woman, Queen Zenobia (or Xenobia), who
took over the crown when her husband died and led an unsuccessful revolt against
Rome (under Marcus Aurelius).  Bodacia was a queen in Briton who led a revolt
against the Romans as well, although she appears to have had little control
over her nobles or troops.

			Ami Silberman