One way to grasp the essential nature of a culture is to look at its charter myths. In Athens, the legendary combat of Greek heroes and Amazons held first place in popularity. The legend of these warrior women, who fight men and exclude them from their society, is the mythological archetype of the battle of the sexes and constitutes what Phyllis Chesler has called "The Universal Male Nightmare." From classical antiquity in its entirety, over eight hundred portrayals of Amazons have survived. Nowhere else were they as numerous as in Athens, representations of Greek heroes stabbing and clubbing Amazons to death could be seen everywhere in painting, in sculpture and in pottery decoration. In Figure 1, a detail of a vase painting, a feisty female warrior identified as the Amazon queen, Hippolyte, aims her spear at the exposed genitals of a naked Greek man, probably Theseus, Athens' national hero. The Amazon on the left aims the blunt end of her spear at the abdomen of another Greek fighter. To a male viewer such scenes seem to say: women threaten our manhood, and need to be subjugated to prevent them from rebelling against us. On this vase, the outcome is in doubt. . .

The Reign of the Phallus
Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens
by Eva C. Keuls
University of California Press, 1985
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