Staring into the laptop screen while sitting alone in the professor's living room, Daniela held her breath and awaited her next glimpse into a world she could not have imagined only weeks before. Suddenly a website opened, presenting the following text:

The Penthesilea Sisterhood

VADE MECUM

(for Anaea_4356)

[Note: This document upon closing will self-delete. Its encryption will not permit copying or printing.]

Illumination I: The Naming of Our Ancient Sisters

In their own tongue, the ancient Greeks had imported a foreign name for our very independent female ancestors. They encountered these women in their explorations of the 'uncivilized' world to the east. Their fascination for Aμαζóνες-"Amazons" is evident through their inclusion of them into their own rich mythology. Unfortunately, there was a similar-sounding word in ancient Greek: αμáζος- "a-mazos," which literally meant "without a breast." This misnomer caused an original misconception about the Amazon culture which has been perpetuated throughout history. The disturbing mental image of a clan of women without one of their breasts, gave rise to other false notions about this warring, nomadic tribe, which wandered freely on horseback at the fringes of the Black Sea.

The truth was, there was never a custom of breast removal among this break away clan of female warriors. Yet, this indication of a brutal tribal practice remained throughout history for some three-thousand years. The belief was further misconstrued as it was thought the practice was thought to better enable the proficiency of the women as archers in battle. It was even further fanaticized that Amazon women would remove a breast from all the young members of their clan while still in infancy or early childhood in order to perpetuate these skills of war. Today, after much research into the matter, there are other etymological derivatives for the name "Amazon" which leave the mastectomy notion obviously false and the most unlikely.

As contemporary females today, and coming from many societies, our organization has devoted much study and contemplation to the research and preservation of our ancient sisterhood-the original Amazons. We are now quite certain that an explanation for this name remains outside this early and faulty hypotheses. In fact, as to any truth of the practice at all, there are no known images in Greek or other formative art depicting Amazons which support it. Existing artifacts where Amazon women appear in representative form, some three millennia ago until today, show no signs of this process or its effects. There are simply no known historical records featuring our warring women as the victims of mastectomy.

On the contrary, instead of mutilated women, images of the Amazons in Classical Greek and Hellenistic art represented popularly in vase paintings, bas relief stone carvings, statuary or bronze castings, are beautifully rendered and show no such mutilation. They show the young women as healthy warriors, sporting two youthful and often bare breasts. These women are sometimes erotically featured in their combative positioning with men and their bodies give a robust, graceful, even heroic impression rather than any marred image the Greek phrase "a-mazos" would imply.

A more plausible theory behind the name, suggested for our equestrian sisters who would ride across the plains cohesively wielding deadly weapons, comes from the language of the Greeks' own archenemies, the Persians. In their more Asian vernacular, "ha-mazon" denoted the concept of an "enemy warrior." It is not hard to believe, then, that this phonetic representation could have been adopted by the Greeks when they encountered the warlike women in these northeastern, remote territories they were reported to occupy.

There are, moreover, other ancient Greek terms which might have given our celebrated women warriors their well-accepted title throughout history. Firstly, we must also consider the word αμáζα-"a-máza," which means "without grain" or "without cereal." This could refer to the fact that these nomadic women, as a culture, did not know farming and took their food historically from hunting and gathering. By their nature of migration and constant raids or defense from raids, they did not settle in one place long enough to grow crops associated with harvested grains. Such was the life of all nomadic tribes at the fringe of civilizations developing outside of the 'Agricultural Revolution.' Their food would have been primarily meat, hunted or taken in raids, and plant life gathered while on the move. Such a lifestyle would not allow for sustenance from cereal varieties of plants used to make bread, typical of the development of more stationary cultures. This origin of the name would have distinguished them as specifically diverse and more foreign from the harvest-based cultures and city-centered peoples such as the Greeks themselves.

Yet another possible ancient Greek derivative of the name 'Amazon' comes from the word αμáσσος "a-mássos," which means "without touching." This could simply refer to the Amazons' notorious principle of maintaining a separatist society, that is, living apart from or "out of touch" with men. This characteristic is also a bit of a misnomer, however, as they apparently did sexually "touch" men, at least once annually, aside from fighting with them. It was apparently allowed only during a brief time in the summer when reveling and an orgiastic 'mating period,' which they allowed for, would lead to a birthing cycle for their members each year.

This custom would have been the intended pattern of the younger, more fertile members of the clan who would become impregnated during the mid-summer and engage in a subsequent 'birthing season' in the spring. This unique cultural tradition was designed for the anticipated reproduction of their female offspring, aAnd, hence, the perpetuation of their unique society. The cultivation of only female babies and the nurturing of them into their nomadic way of life, inclusive of warfare skills, insured their continuance as a strong, transient nation. It also contributed to the Amazon's compelling mystique in history and myth.

Once again, Daniela read the texts on the computer with fascination and the underlying sensation that she was being let in on very remote and secretive information. She read on with great interest . . .

The successful achievement of this reproductive cycle was carried out through this brief and emotionally detached sexual contact with male members of surrounding and sometimes former warring societies. It was no doubt with men from nomadic groups the Amazons knew well and encountered in their own annual migrations. The following spring, after the birthing and successful survival of the new generation of children, all the male infants were removed from the society. Though sometimes rumored in legend to be killed by their Amazon mothers after birth, these male babies were most probably returned to their fathers' tribes for some form of material exchange related to their survival. This was most likely for horses, food, and weapons-the staple sustenance of Amazonian life.

Along the Syrian coast of the Mediterranean, the seafaring Phoenicians, who traded with and influenced the Greeks in ancient times, also may have played out a role in this mysterious moniker of 'Amazons,' the name we have come to know our ancient sisters by today. The Sumerian and Hittite cultures, occupying the large territory since Neolithic times, worshipped androgynous female goddesses. Their religious rites were presided over by a priestess class of women, capable of powerful control. One of the means of their power was through hypnotic reveling and dance. It has been recorded that this 'bewitching' element by female priestesses and deities could cause hysteria and trepidation, particularly in the men of those cultures.

There is even evidence today of trancelike states instigated through such intense devotion which may have included human sacrifice in its rituals. The belief in control through "enchantment," which these women could apparently produce, also commanded respect and great loyalty from their subjects. There are legends in the early literature describing male devotees performing complete subservience, self-mutilation, castration and even suicide during such frenzied revelries devoted to these powerful females as priestesses and rulers. These and other ancient practices of goddess worship are only now being understood more fully as recent research on the earliest roots of the warring women's' culture is being brought to light.

From the early Phoenician dialect, we have an additional linguistic clue for a possible link to the "Amazons," involving such female devotion. The phonetic word for 'mother' in this culture was "Am" and the word for 'lord' was "Azon." When pronounced in combination, "am azon," it certainly approximates both the concept and phonetic construction of the name with which we are familiar.

Additionally, in the northwestern Caucasus Mountains, bordering the Black Sea, there is an area known as the Circassian coast. The ancient peoples of this region, within the greater sphere of the ancient Scythian domain, believed today to be the distant ancestors of our sisters, worshiped Cybele and other variants of a goddess to the moon. She was known as "Maza" in the Circassian dialect, a name which translates as "moon." This too, might present some connection to the sound of the name and geographical area so often used to describe the culture we presently idolize and thematically preserve today.

Our contemporary organization as a sisterhood considers itself as an extension of the original Amazonian culture, idealistically, and in reference to our independence and collaboration as women. One of the most profound discoveries in our current age was the knowledge that the spirit and practice of isolation from men, and reliance upon other females for support and success, was specifically kept alive since those ancient times right up to the present day. This, we have learned, has happened over time secretly and systematically. It continued during all the ages since the Amazons' own era began to dissolve, sometime around 1150 BCE.

It seems the eternal wish of the Amazons to maintain an independent stance from men was in fact preserved following their disappearance by certain powerful and forward thinking women throughout history. These were determined and courageous females who refused to let that vision of their ancient sisters die. In all cases they were organized and proceeded secretly "off the radar screens" of their own times. These women had to work tirelessly within the framework of repression, which was firmly kept in place to hinder their progress at every step. In some cases such females were of royal blood or had inherited power strong enough to carry out bold plans to move our society along in a continual march toward the future.

Evidence of a Consilium Reginae, a 'secret compact of queens' existed during the middle ages and Renaissance Period, specifically among certain female royals of the most powerful empires of the age. It had as its 'hidden agenda' to preserve their own ideas of solidarity and independence as women. The motivation to continue with the Amazonian tenets of belief was transferred by these women of power and title from their respective courts into the hands of hard-working and trusted others who had often given up or risked their allegiance to a religious faith or a political system to carry on the movement. Many had to work outside the dictates of their customs and traditional rolls as women in their own societies to preserve this sisterhood of which I proudly write of to better inform you.

Daniela stood up without finishing the text before her. She moved toward the now dark window feeling her whole body tingle with a strange excitement. As she looked into the distance outside-seeing only the glow of the starlit night above the horizon, she seriously wondered: Could it truly be that such a female society existed today, growing on every continent? She was being asked to believe exactly this. Yet she could not help but realize the professor's amazing existence-hiding out in her remarkable island house, and her curious past circumstances, were indeed compelling evidence that what the text explained was real.

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