Amazonomachy
The Amazonomachy was the legendary battle between the Athenians and the Amazons who invaded Athens — depicted alongside the Centauromachy as a key symbol of Greek triumph.
The Meaning of Amazonomachy
After Heracles took Hippolyta's girdle (or after Theseus abducted the Amazon Antiope), the Amazons invaded Attica and besieged Athens itself. The battle raged around the Areopagus and the Acropolis before the Athenians drove them back. The Amazonomachy was depicted on the Parthenon, the shield of Athena Parthenos, and the temple of Apollo at Bassae. Like the Centauromachy, it symbolised civilised Greece defeating foreign barbarism — though some modern scholars note the Amazons' courage was as admired as it was feared.
Symbols
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Centauromachy
💭 conceptBattle of Lapiths and Centaurs
The Centauromachy was the famous battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding of Pirithous — it became Greek art's favourite symbol for the clash between civilisation and barbarism.
Theseus and the Amazons
💭 conceptNarrative
The Athenian king's conflict with the warrior women that brought war to the gates of Athens itself
Amazonomachy
💭 conceptwar, gender
The recurring mythological battles between Greek heroes and the Amazons, depicted on temples and pottery as a symbol of civilisation's triumph over the "other."
Aspis
💭 conceptwarfare, art
The elaborately decorated shield of Heracles described in a poem attributed to Hesiod, depicting scenes of gods, war, and daily life in a tradition echoing the Shield of Achilles.
God of War
💭 conceptWar, bloodlust, battle rage, courage
Ares embodies the brutal, violent side of warfare and was feared even by his fellow Olympians.
Battle of Marathon
💭 conceptwar, divine intervention
The 490 BC battle where Athenian hoplites defeated Persia, believed by the Greeks to have been won with the aid of Pan, Theseus, and the hero Echetlus.
Sack of Troy
💭 conceptNarrative
The brutal destruction and plundering of Troy during the night following the wooden horse stratagem
The Trojan War
💭 conceptWar, fate, heroism
A ten-year siege of Troy by a coalition of Greek kings, sparked by the abduction of Helen and shaped by the rivalries of the gods.
Gigantomachy
💭 conceptwar, cosmology
The great battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants, fought to defend the divine order established after the Titanomachy.
Battle of Salamis
💭 conceptwar, divine intervention
The 480 BC naval battle where the Greek fleet destroyed the Persian armada in the straits of Salamis, attributed to the intervention of Ajax and the Aeacidae heroes.
Armour of Achilles
💭 conceptArtefact
Two sets of divinely forged armour worn by the greatest Greek warrior, both crafted by Hephaestus
Mycenaean Culture
💭 conceptHistory
The Late Bronze Age Greek civilisation whose warrior aristocracy forms the historical basis of Homeric epic