Why were Amazon women called Amazon?

Question

Amazon Women had no connecton to the Amazon River in South America did they?

Answer 1

No, the mythological Amazons had nothing to do directly with that river in South America, which hadn't really been discovered yet at the time the mythological characters came about. They were called Amazons probably because of their habit of cutting off one breast in order to make use of weapons easier (at least the people making these stories up believed it would make using weapons easier ;) In Ancient Greek a-mazos would mean "breastless."
According to Wikipedia, the Amazon River got its name after Spanish warriors saw the native women in the area participating in battles, and associated it with the myths thereby giving the area and its river the name.

Answer 2

There are a number of theories but most likely, the word probably derived from an Iranian word "hamazon" for "warriors".

BTW, the one breasted thing is likely pure fiction. None of the artistic depictions of Amazon women show them anything but full breasted (which is actually another likely etymolgy for "Amazon")

Answer 3

Amazons in myth:
History's first mention of a race of warrior women is found in Homer's ILIAD, an account of the Trojan War, probably written in the 8th or 7th century B.C.. Homer's Amazons, a race of fierce women who mated with vanquished male foes and kept only the female children they bore, were believed to occupy the area around the Black Sea. Amazon women also crop up in Greek myths. One of the labors of Hercules, for example, required him to acquire the girdle of the Amazon queen, Hippolyte. The Amazons of Greek mythology most likely had no connection to the women of the steppes, says archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball. "I think the idea of the 'Amazon' was created by the Greeks for their own purposes," she says.
A history of sorts:
The works of the Greek historian Herodotus, written around the 5th century B.C., describe a group of female warriors who lost to the Greeks at the battle of Thermodon. Herodotus' Amazons were taken prisoner and put on ships, but overwhelmed and killed the Greek crew. Unable to sail themselves, the women drifted to the shores of the Black Sea, to the territory of the Scythians, a nomadic culture of Iranian descent. The women, Herodotus says, intermarried with the Scythian men, and convinced their new husbands to move northeast across the flat grassy plains, high mountains, and searing deserts of the Russian steppes, where the group eventually evolved into the Sauromatian culture.

Answer 4

In classic Greek history the Amazons were a tribe of women warriors. They founded four civalizations including the island of Lezbos. I'd guess it's a comparrison.

Answer 5

not as such just from the Spanish who gave the Amazon River its name as they saw female warriors fighting them as others have said here. there is proof that Ladies did fight as graves have been discovered and excavated on the Steppes in Russia with warrior attire and weapons buried with them.

Answer 6

They were the amma of all zon, ie., mother of all zon(whatever zon is), hence Amazon. Did you know they used to remove a breast so they could throw the spear far. Do you think that Wonder Woman should be one boob less?

Answer 7

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