"Golden-shielded, silver-sworded, man-loving, male-child slaughtering Amazons." That is how the fifth century Greek historian Hellanicus described the Amazons, and they have fascinated society ever since. Did they really exist? Until recently scholars consigned them to the world of myth, but Lyn Webster Wilde journeyed into the homeland of the Amazons, and uncovered astonishing evidence of their historic reality. North of the Black Sea she found archaeological excavations of graves of Iron Age women buried with arrows, swords, and armor. In the hidden world of the Hittites, near the Amazons' ancient capital of Themiscyra in Anatolia, she unearthed traces of powerful priestesses, women-only religious cults and an armed bisexual goddess - all possible sources for the ferocious warrior women. Combining scholarly penetration with a sense of adventure, Webster Wilde has explored a largely unknown field and produced a coherent and absorbing book, which challenges our preconceived notions of what men and women can do. Annotation. This scholarly, readable account of Amazon warriors immerses readers in mythology, history, and adventure as Wilde journeys to the steppes of Anatolia to find astonishing evidence of their historical reality. Two 8-page photo inserts. 4 maps. Chart.