I can't believe it's been more than five years since my last attempt to write about catfights between the Amazons in Ancient Greece. The project was too ambitious, and I gave up after Chapter II since it didn't make good use of the amazing photos that inspired me to write.
One hundred ODE TO FOX episodes later, I finally worked up the courage to restart this project, in the same style as the IWFC comics. The work will be more laborious as there will be more plot, more narratives and dialogues, in the style of a Homeric epic.
Please check it out on my website:
daswritersite.wordpress.comIt has its own section under the title "the Cybelea" as it is a completely separate work from the rest of the IWFC storyline. Thus far, I have only written the prologue, which is also posted below, and a brief bio of all the fighting Amazons appearing in the comics. I hope you will all enjoy it. Let me know what you think.
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The Cybelea - Prologue
Hello, catfight fans from all around the globe. I am Stefanos Cosse, the owner of the IWFC. Many of you are curious how I was first introduced to the world of female combat, and I believe now is a good time to recount an interesting anecdote from my adolescence.
You may have guessed from my name that I'm Greek. I was born and raised in Athens before moving to Foxton. We Greeks are always very proud of our long history. Growing up, I was fed a healthy dose of Homeric epics and mythologies. “Courage and honor, temperance and perseverance, heed those lessons from the Iliad and the Odyssey." My father used to always tell me, "These books will guide you for the rest of your life." But whenever my mind could roam free, it often wandered off to those tantalizing places where Athena took on Ares and his sister Aphrodite in the battle for Troy, or where Hera struck down her step daughter Artemis, or where Odysseus conquered the enchantress Circe in her own bed. I guess I didn't draw the right lessons from these books as my father had wished. And it wasn't just the classics that captured my fancy. There was a comic shop down in the Piraeus that I used to go quite often after school and on weekends to buy comic books with my lunch money, and read them afterwards by the seaside. I remember one fateful Saturday morning that forever changed my life. I went down to the Piraeus as usual, flipping through my favorite comic in the shop when I heard a hoarse voice from behind me.
"Reading that American trash again, boy?"
I turned around, it was the owner of the shop, a portly old man in his seventies with a distinctively long grey beard. Papa Aoidos, that’s what we all called him because he was so good at telling stories.
"Wonder Woman is my favorite comic, Papa Aoidos!" I didn’t think his comment was fair.
"Then you must know her origin, Stefanos. Where is she from?”
"Of course, she is an Amazon from Themiscrya.” That was too easy for a big fan like myself.
"Do you know the real history of these Themiscryan Amazons?” The old man pressed on.
I didn’t think I understood his question. "No...you mean these female warriors actually existed?"
“Yes, of course they did. The real Themiscryans, quite different from Wonder Woman, all had golden hair like rays of the sun. And that name, Diana...that's a bastardized Roman name."
Papa Aoidos, like most Greeks, wasn't very fond of the Romans.
"The Amazons, they thrived in ancient times, long before recorded history, before even the great Trojan War, during the dark ages of myths and legends. Have you heard of the Attic Wars, my boy?"
"No…” I wasn’t sure whether I should be embarrassed for my ignorance.
“Young man, you really ought to know the history of your own people better." He grew a little impatient, “Do you ever wonder why there was no sign of the Athenians in Homer’s epics when we were the strongest polis in Ancient Greece?"
“I don’t know, Papa Aoidos. I never thought about that.” I got a bit tired of the old man’s didactic tone, but something about the fighting Amazons aroused my curiosity.
“It's because Attica was ravaged by those cursed Amazons almost one hundred years before the Trojan War, in the second Attic War. So when Agamemnon rallied the Greek heros at Aulis, Athens was but a shadow of its former self." The old man explained and was eager to tell me more, "Melissa, look after the shop for me, would you? I have much to teach this young lad here."
Melissa, his granddaughter, was doing her homework by the counter. She was about my age, a very pretty girl with long shiny black hair. She always wore a short tank top and a pair of fit blue jeans that accentuated her features really well. As the old man clasped my hand and pulled me out of the shop, she gave me a sweet but mischievous smile, teasing at my misfortune of having to be her grandpa’s latest victim.
"Come boy, let's go to the seaside where we can have some peace.” The old man grabbed his cane at the front door and urged me on. I followed as he lumbered down the street faster than I’d ever seen him. Luckily the oceanfront was only one block away. Arriving there, we sat down by the ruins of the ancient Themistoclean Wall. It was such a serene place back then, unlike the tourist trap it has become today.
I let the old man catch his breath a bit before asking, “So Papa Aoidos, please tell me more about these Amazons."
"It's a long story, my dear boy. You see, originally there was only one race of the Amazons, the Maeotides, dwelling far north of the Black Sea, in the frozen lands around the Sea of Azov. They were a small tribe of Scythians, but made up exclusively of women. Their hair were dark, just like all the other ancient races around Pontus. It is said one day, as the Sun God Helios was driving his golden chariot across the sky, he saw Neaera, a Maeotian warrioress with unsurpassed beauty. He instantly fell in love, but she fled from him. Helios pursued her relentlessly northward, across the frozen plains, until they reached the icy glaciers. There he finally caught up to her and subdued her. For six months each year, they made heated love. Altogether she bore him twelve daughters, known as the Heliades (daughters of Helios)."
"And they were all blondes, I guess?" A smarty-pants at my young age, I could not help but interject.
"Indeed, just like the Sun God himself. And when the golden-haired sisters grew up, each a remarkable warrioress, they returned to the Maeotides. But the austere tribe elders would not accept these exotic beauties. In search of new land, they headed south, across the Black Sea, and founded Themiscrya along the Thermodon River. Hence the birth of the Themiscryan Amazons. In time, they grew to become the largest Amazon tribe. But ages passed, our Greeks ancestors had made no direct contact with them. All until that fateful day when King Eurystheus of Tiryns ordered the legendary Heracles to retrieve Hippolyte’s golden Girdle of Ares for his daughter, Admete, who yearned to own this glittering possession of the queen of the Amazons."
"Oh, that was the nineth of the Twelve Labours of Heracles!" I seized the moment to impress the old man with my knowledge of the ancients, “But why would the princess want Hippolyte’s girdle?”
"My dear boy, in antiquity, an article of clothing was believed to magically transfer the owner’s personal qualities to the wearer. Hippolyte’s girdle was a richly ornamented war belt said to have been awarded by the war god Ares to the Amazons’ champion fighter. And she certainly would not give it up without a fight. For three days, the Amazons battled Heracles and his Greek companions with casualties on both side. Finally it was agreed that the warring parties would pick out three of their best warriors to to face each other in single combat for the coveted prize. In the first match, the young Amazon Orithyia prevailed over her male opponent Timiades. But her sister Antiope succumbed to the Greek hero Thetheus in the second match. And finally Hippolyte, the queen herself, faced off against Heracles. They fought from noon til sunset when the overmatched but recalcitrant Amazionian champion finally collapsed from exhaustion. Heracles declared himself victorious and stripped Hippolyte of her precious possession before departing with his Greek companions. Disgraced, Hippolyte soon killed herself, and the animosities between the Amazons and the Greeks only grew from there. Thetheus, king of Athens, abducted the unyielding Antiope whom he had beaten in wrestling. Her defiance only stoked the Greek hero's fervor to completely tame the wild Amazon by turning her into his domesticated wife. This single act ignited the first Attic War when the new queen of the Amazons Orithyia gathered all the Amazonian forces across the plains of Scythia and invaded Attica."
"Did the Amazons avenge Hippolyte and rescue Antiope?"
"It was a brutal war that lasted more than four months. The Amazons held the upper hand in the intense fighting that raged on the hillsides and the fields around the Pnyx and Areopagus. But Theseus and his men held desperately onto the Acropolis. The tide began to turn in favor of the Athenians when news traveled to the Amazonian camp that the native Anatolians they had conquered saw a chance to exploit the Amazons’ absence. They made war against the few Amazons guarding their homeland. In hasty retreat, Orithyia's forces were routed, and the queen killed in battle. The great race of the Amazons of Pontus was nearly wiped out after this calamity. They were so diminished that only a few small tribes remained scattered across Scythia."
"So that was it? That was the end of the Amazons, Papa Aoidos?" I couldn't help but sympathize with the misfortunes of these female warriors.
"Far from it, my boy." Perhaps sensing my dispirited tone, the old man was quick to assure me otherwise, "A generation later, another great leader emerged and united all the Amazons and waged war against Athens for a second time. This great war was fought for six years, until finally the impregnable walls of the Acropolis were breached. In poured the vengeful Amazons, and the massacre that followed was well-known to the ancients as the Rape of Athens. Just imagine, for seven days, houses burned, temples looted, women and children were taken as slaves while helpless babies hurled to the earth in the red barbarity of war. The streets were ladened with withered up corpses of men drained empty of their male essence. Oh, the carnage we suffered. It was the worst destruction brought upon our city in its entire history..." The old man looked to be shaken up a bit, as if he had lived through the experience.
Mesmerized by the tale, I was anxious to learn more. "Papa Aoidos, please tell me more about the war, and how it was fought."
“Slow down, my boy. Six long years of war, six long years of sweat, tears, and blood, of love, lechery, and destruction, of honor, betrayal and grief, oh where do I even begin. Perhaps some day in the future if fate allows, I shall narrate the story to you in full. But for now, how about if I recite to you the Cybelea instead?"
"What is the Cybelea?”
“It is a minor epic poem that took place before the second Attic War. Women of the fallen Amazonian tribes gathered together to crown a new queen to restore the Amazons to their former glory. Twelve of the best female warriors fought in the sacred Cybelean Game, a single combat tournament to decide who was the most fit to lead the new Amazon nation." Pausing here for a moment, the old man hesitated as if regretting a bit his hastiness in offering me the tale. He looked me straight in the eye, and asked, “My dear Stefanos, this arcane epic unveils the darkest side of women, with their unbridled fury, jealousy, and lust on full display. You will never look at the fair sex the same way again. Are you sure you are ready for this?"
His words only stoked my fire. I nodded eagerly, innocent of what was to come. But there was a long break of silence. We just stared blankly off into the distance, where the deep blue Aegean glimmered under the morning sun. Cool ocean breeze brushed gently against our faces. Amidst the ancient ruins of that bygone world we sat, lulled by the soothing sound of waves crashing repeatedly into those ageless shorelines. Time itself seemed to have stopped.
Sudden squawks of two squabbling seagulls above our head broke the tranquility. As if yielding to a divine omen, the old man finally let out a long sigh, and with his husky voice, embarked us on our journey to the captivating land of the fighting Amazons.
