Amazonomachia
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A battle with Amazons (“mythical female warriors thought to inhabit the Black Sea region”); also (art), an artistic representation of such a scene.
"In style these vases have the general Apulian type, and their art is of the same late period. […] Among the subjects are the usual Eros and Aphrodite of this style, Phrixos crossing the Hellespont on the ram, Orestes at Delphi, the sacrifice of the ram of Tantalos, Aktaion seized by his dogs, the burial of Chrysippos, Bellerophon, Meleager and the Kalydonian bear, Herakles and Geryon, the judgment of Paris, the arming of Penthesilea, Europa, the Kentaurs and Amazonomachiai, Omphale, and others of a similar kind."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"In style these vases have the general Apulian type, and their art is of the same late period. […] Among the subjects are the usual Eros and Aphrodite of this style, Phrixos crossing the Hellespont on the ram, Orestes at Delphi, the sacrifice of the ram of Tantalos, Aktaion seized by his dogs, the burial of Chrysippos, Bellerophon, Meleager and the Kalydonian bear, Herakles and Geryon, the judgment of Paris, the arming of Penthesilea, Europa, the Kentaurs and Amazonomachiai, Omphale, and others of a similar kind."
Etymology
Borrowed from French Amazonomachie or German Amazonomachie, or a direct learned borrowing from their etymon Ancient Greek Ἀμαζονομᾰχῐ́ᾱ (Amazonomăkhĭ́ā), from Ἀμαζών (Amazṓn, “mythical female warrior from the Black Sea region”) (for further etymology see that entry) + μᾰ́χη (mắkhē, “battle, combat”) (either ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂gʰ- (“to fight”) or Pre-Greek) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). The plural form Amazonomachiae is derived from Amazonomachia + Latin -iae (plural form of -ia), while Amazonomachiai is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Ἀμαζονομᾰχῐ́αι (Amazonomăkhĭ́ai).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.