The Amazons of
Paradise Island were first created by
William Moulton Marston as allegories of his love leaders and as part of the origin story of his creation, Wonder Woman, who is also an allegory for the ideal love leader. These Amazons were a race of immortal super-women that lived on the magical Paradise Island. Granted life by Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, the Amazons thrived in peace for centuries, but remained aloof from the world of Man. The youngest, strongest, and most human of the Amazons, Princess Diana, left her protective nation of sisterhood, renouncing her immortality to fight the forces of evil in
Man's World as
Wonder Woman. Marston depicted the origin story of the Amazons as women sculpted and brought to life by Aphrodite, who had been tricked and captured by Hercules and his men. Aphrodite, angry that they had been tricked, left them imprisoned but finally relented and helped them escape. They then moved to their own women-only island, where, in the absence of male aggression, they developed a superior, war-free culture. The unbound cuffs ("
Bracelets of Submission") were still worn to remind them that to give up their independence or to allow any man power over them will sapped them of their own power. Marston used bondage as a symbol concept. As a psychologist, Marston was heavily influenced by his polyamorous relationship with two women, one being the niece of
Margaret Sanger, a renowned outspoken feminist.
Pre-Crisis In the days of Ancient Greece, many centuries ago, the Amazons were the foremost nation in the world. In Amazonia, women ruled and all was well. One day,
Hercules, the strongest man in the world, stung by the taunts that he could not conquer the Amazon women, selected his strongest and fiercest warriors and landed on the Amazons' shores. The Amazons' queen,
Hippolyta, met Hercules in personal combat, because she knew that with her magic girdle, given to her by
Aphrodite, the goddess of love, she could not lose. Hippolyte defeated Hercules, but Hercules, with deceit and trickery, managed to secure Hippolyte's magic girdle—and soon the Amazons were taken into slavery. Aphrodite, angry at Hippolyte for having succumbed to the wiles of men, would do nothing to help them. Finally, the Amazons were no longer able to bear their submission to men, and Hippolyte appealed to the Goddess Aphrodite again. This time not in vain, for she relented, and with her help, Hippolyte secured the magic girdle from Hercules. With the magic girdle in Hippolyte's possession, it did not take long for the Amazons to overcome their masters and taking from them their entire fleet, they set sail for another shore, for it was Aphrodite's condition that they leave the world of man and establish a new world of their own. Aphrodite also decreed that they must always wear the heavy bracelets fashioned by their captors, as a reminder that they must always keep aloof from men.
Paradise Island After sailing the seas many days and nights, the Amazons found Paradise Island and settled there to build a new world. With its fertile volcanic soil, its marvelous flora and fauna, and varied natural resources, there was no want, no illness, no hatreds, no wars. The Amazons would remain eternally youthful, as long as they remained on Paradise Island where they have access to their Fountain of Eternal Youth and Hippolyte retained the magic girdle, and as long as they did not permit themselves to again be beguiled by men to avoid submitting to them.
The Magic Sphere Just after the Amazons conquered the Herculeans and set sail for their island, they were given the
Magic Sphere by
Athena, Goddess of War. Through this device, Hippolyte was able to view events in Man's World from the present and past—and sometimes even forecast the future. With the visions of the future seen from the Magic Sphere, the Amazons were able to far surpass the inventions of man-made civilization. Not only were the Amazons stronger and wiser, but their weapons were more advanced, and their flying machines were faster.
Post-Crisis In the mid-1980s a storyline took place called
Crisis on Infinite Earths in which all comics in the
DC Universe ceased to exist and restarted with all new origins. When this happened it was explained that the Amazons were created by the goddess Artemis from the souls of women who had died at the hands of men, and were given new and stronger bodies, made from clay transformed into flesh and blood. These Amazons, like the Pre-Crisis versions, escaped Heracles (the Greek name for Hercules) and his men to an isolated and magically protected island, this one called
Themyscira after the lost capital city of the Amazons' former homeland. In this new land, they were granted superhuman strength, speed, durability, agility, superhuman senses, enhanced intellect, immortality, and beauty. Some Amazons chose to remain behind, however, and, lacking immortality, formed the hidden nation of
Bana-Mighdall. Stories featuring the Amazons appeared in
Bonus Book inserts in
Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #18 (July 1988) and #26 (January 1989).
Infinite Crisis Due to the perceived failure of Wonder Woman's mission in Man's World, Themyscira and the Amazons are removed from the Earth realm by the Athenian Gods.
Amazons Attack The returned Amazons, led by a resurrected Hippolyta, invade Washington D.C. In the end they are stripped of their memories and scattered throughout the Earth in mortal identities.
Flashpoint In the reality-changing
Flashpoint event, the Amazons are at war with the Atlanteans in western Europe, after Hippolyta was killed by an Amazon disguised as an Atlantean during a wedding between Diana and
Aquaman, causing Diana to become the Queen. They have taken over
Britain, killing 12 million in the process. Many female superbeings are shown to be in league with them. It is later revealed that the
Ocean Master and Diana's aunt were behind this incident.
The New 52 In September 2011,
The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this timeline, the history of the Amazons was likewise revised. Here they once again lived on Paradise Island as a race of supernaturally strong women who periodically mated with outsiders. Girls were celebrated while the boys were taken from their mothers. Feeling sympathy for the boys and recognizing their potential,
Hephaestus took them in. In this continuity, Wonder Woman is the daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus, with the former claiming that she was created from clay to protect her from
Hera.
DC Rebirth With DC Rebirth, writers went back to the post-
Crisis origins for the Amazons, largely due to the controversial depiction of their mating cycle. It is once again stated that the Amazons are immortal, and that they were conceived from the souls of women who had died at the hands of men.
Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons Inspired by George Pérez's reworking,
Kelly Sue DeConnick wrote
Wonder Woman Historia: the Amazons. The three issue-limited series was published in celebration of the 80th anniversary of
Wonder Woman and illustrated by
Phil Jimenez,
Gene Ha, and
Nicola Scott.
Wonder Woman Historia: the Amazons begins with seven Greek goddesses-Hestia, Artemis, Demeter, Hecate, Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera-demanding that all mortal men be punished for abusing women, only for their request to be turned down by the womanizing Zeus. Despite the Amazons being her own idea, Hera does not join the other goddesses as they regroup at the Well of Souls (called the Well of the Lost in this retelling), each of them creating a quintet of female warriors from murdered women's souls. Composed of six tribes each with its own queen and patron goddess, the thirty Amazons travel the ancient world to rescue women from male
traffickers whom they kill in acts of
vigilantism; however, the Amazons only go on their missions at night when Artemis can watch over them, and hide themselves during the day to keep their existence a secret from the male gods, especially Zeus. In this version, Hippolyta starts out as a
midwife's widowed assistant rather than a founding Amazon member. After being ordered to
abandon an unwanted newborn girl, Hippolyta changes her mind, racing against the elements to save the baby and encounters the Amazons when they rescue her from traffickers. As Hera turns the abandoned baby's soul into a bird to spy on the Amazons, Hippolyta makes a deal with Artemis to become one of them. Hippolyta then becomes a queen of her own Amazon tribe, which is made up of the women the female warriors rescue and bring back to their secret hideout to train in their way of life and have all six creator goddesses as their patrons. But one day when the sun is up, one young Amazon kills a murdered trafficker's son praying to Apollo, exposing the female warriors' existence to the male gods, who then send an all-male army to annihilate the Amazons. As the Amazons battle against the gods and their soldiers, Hippolyta leads them all as their sole queen. But when the Amazons suffer many losses, Hippolyta travels to Olympus and makes a bargain with Zeus: her sisters' lives in exchange for their freedom. Except for the one who had killed the boy in Apollo's temple, all the Amazons, dead and living, are given long lives yet are forever imprisoned on Themyscira, where are they allowed to do as they please while under the sun god's watch; once a month, Artemis is allowed temporary guardianship of the warriors she had helped create. Grieving over depriving her sisters their freedom, Hippolyta makes a clay baby girl, whom the seven goddesses bless with gifts and reincarnate from the soul of the very child the Queen of the Amazons was ordered to abandon. Named after the moon goddess, Diana will grow up to become Wonder Woman and continue her mother and their sister Amazons' fight for women's justice. ==Society==