Ethnography between Herodotus and Hippocrates: the Case of Warrior Women

Abstract

According to Herodotus, which tells the myth of their origin, Sauromati-des are the daughters of Amazons and of Scitian men; they live as war-rior women adapting theirselves on a male model from the childhood un-til the old age. Hippocrates, corretting the herodotean heritage, says that Sauromatides change their roles with male ones, but only until the age of their marriage. Ephoros says that Sauromatides are a people dominated by women; Pla-to assignes them a special role in his social project of Laws.