After my mastectomy, my friend Anne Lydiat referred to me as an Amazon.
The myth surrounding Amazons originates from Greek Mythology, referring to an ancient legendary nation of female warriors.
The etymology of the Greek variant “Amazon” means “a” without and “mazos” breast ; “without a breast.” The Greek historian Strabo (63BC) states that the right breasts of all Amazons were cut off or seared, so that they could more easily use their right arm for throwing the javelin and using the bow & arrow.
Anne gave me a beautiful book; “When women were birds” by American author, conservationist, and activist Terry Tempest Williams, in which Tempest notes that she belongs to “a Clan of One-breasted Women”. Her mother, grandmothers and six aunts all had mastectomies… ”this image allowed me to see the women in my family as warriors, not victims of breast cancer…”.
Perfection lost
Amazon
Conquering life
With a lopsided
Newness
From the poem “Two” by Anna Versteeg 2010
Image above ; Ancient Roman mosaic ; Amazon warrior armed with labrys, engaged in combat with a hippeus, is seized by her Phrygian cap; 4th century AD. From Daphne, a suburb of Antioch on the Orontes ( modern Antakyain southern Turkey), now installed in the Denon Wing of the Louvre, Paris.