“But, I’d love to, darling. Just what would you like to know?”
“Just about everything, damn it. The longer I’m here, the less I seem to understand. I tried to study up on your world before I left Earth but just about everything I could find now seems worthless.”
“Dear boy, I’d gladly tell you everything, but I simply wouldn’t know where to start.”
“Start with history,” Guy said around a bite of eggs. He wondered if they were hen eggs, decided they probably were. Man had taken the hen with him, as he had the pig and cow, to just about every world that would support his life form. A luxury, but one invariably indulged in.
Podner shifted in his easy chair, delicately. “Well, dear, I suppose a history of Amazonia begins on Earth as does the ultimate history of any settled planet.”
Guy said, trying the sausage, “Lets hurry along, the major might be here any time.”
“Of course, darling,” Podner fluttered a hand. “I’m such an old ditherer. Well, as you undoubtedly know, the Amazon story is part history, part legend, party myth.”
“I thought it was all myth.”
“Then you were mistaken,” the other said primly. “The Greek legends and myths are based on the existence of arms-bearing priestesses of the Moon Goddess, the White Goddess, along the southern coast of the Black Sea. They continued far into the period when the Doric Greeks had swept the Goddess worshiping Pelasgians from Greece proper and had instituted patrilineal descent and rule by men. These tribes were at their most powerful along the Thermodon river where Queen Lysippe built the city Themiscyra.”
“Lysippe?” Guy interrupted, “that’s the name of one of my guards.”
“Of course, dear boy. All the warriors and most men take their names from antiquity. Myth tells us that the Amazons established a considerable empire in Asia Minor and up into the Caucasians and beyond, north of the Black Sea.” Podner made a moue. “However, the truth probably is that this is myth alone. By the time Homer and the other bards came on the scene, the tradition of the arms-bearing preistesses was confused with heroic tales of warrior women who seared off one breast so they could shoot their bows better, and who supposedly invented the use of cavalry in battle. Actually, you know, the name Amazon is derived from a and mazon meaning without breasts. Silly, of course.”
“Ummm,” Guy said, pouring more coffee.
“The stories that come down to us are largely nonsense. Heracles being sent by Eurystheus to fetch the golden girdle of Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons. Among other things, of course, the institution of queens and kings was unknown at that time. Society hadn’t developed to that point. War chiefs, head priests and other tribal officials were evolving, but the conception of a king or queen had yet to show itself.”
Guy took in the other. Podner Bates didn’t sound quite as flighty as first impression might have indicated. He wondered again how deep the other’s waters ran. And what purpose he might possibly have had in searching Guy’s rooms for his communicator—a device the Amazonians supposedly didn’t even know existed—and destroying it.
“The stories are confusing,” Podner sighed. “Some say that Hippolyte gave the brute Heracles her girdle and war ax, after falling in love with him. Some say that Heracles killed her and took the girdle and then had to fight off her followers. Still others claim that Theseus captured Hippolyte and gave the belt to Heracles.”
Guy said impatiently, “All this isn’t very important. Lets get down to modern times.”
“Just one other thing. In antiquity,” Podner said, fluttering a hand, “there were two groups of Amazons, you know. One based on the Black Sea, the other in Lybia. The Lybians were also based on history, the actuality of arms-bearing priestesses of the Moon Goddess, Artimis. Their most famous queen was Myrine who fought the Atlantis soldiery near Lake Tritonis in northern Africa, which was, of course, considerably more fertile in those days. She beat them and built up a considerable empire in Africa, Asia Minor and even some of the Aegean Sea islands. All nonsense, of course.
“However, there is one interesting bit that has come down to us. The Phrygian blessing, which was originally given in Myrine’s name, involved finger magic, and calling upon the three Idaean Dactyls, or fingers, who supposedly dispensed doom. One Dactyl represented the middle finger, Heracles was the thumb and the third Dactyl was the index finger. These three raised, while the fourth and little finger are turned down, made the Phrygian blessing. One of the Christian sects still use it in the name of the Christian Trinity.”
“What’s all this got to do with here and now?” Guy said.
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry. I do dither, so. I was just trying to give you the background for present day Amazonia. We have the two continents, Paphlagonia, with this, or capital city, on the river Thermodon, which carries on the traditions of the old Hippolyte’s realm, and the continent Lybia, with its capital Chersonesus, which carries on those of Myrine.”
“Why all the jetsam?” Guy was wiping his mouth with his napkin.
Podner Bates made a gesture with his limp hand. “Oh, you know how it is with social movements. When the founders of this colony were recruiting the woman necessary to populate the new world, they needed all sorts of slogans and symbols. Since they were so staunchly feminists, what better symbols could they have used than the ancient Amazons? Frankly, darling, I think they’ve done remarkably well at this sort of thing. It’s really quite inspiring, all the pomp and parade and all. The youngsters just eat it up. Traditions are very necessary, I’ve always said, the very backbone of a culture.”
Guy looked at him wryly, “How about the boys? Do they eat it up too? All these traditions of women warriors and a women-dominated society?”
The other’s eyes were wide. “But of course. I’ll never forget sitting at my father’s knee, thrilling to his account of the warriors of the past and the desperate battles the heroines fought against the treacherous Greeks who came to destroy society as the Moon Goddess had so long directed it, and change women into slaves.”
Guy Thomas began to open his mouth, but shook his, head and held his peace. The hell with it.
He said suddenly, instead, “Look, don’t the men ever react against this situation? Hasn’t there ever been revolt? You know, the men trying to establish the same sort of setup that exists on Earth and most, if not all, the other planets the human race inhabits.”
“Good heavens,” Podner gasped. “You mustn’t say such things.”
“Why not? I’m just asking for information. Isn’t there any sort of masculine underground? Some sort of revolutionary organization that would like to turn society upside down and make men, if not superior, at least equal to women?”
Podner made a motion as though to hold his hands over his ears. “Oh, dear boy, you don’t know what you’re saying. The Goddess would never permit such a sacrilege. Women are the natural superiors of man. It says so in the holy books.”
“I’ll bet it does,” Guy said grimly. “I never heard of a holy book that didn’t support the powers that be. But you didn’t answer my question.”
“Well,” Podner said primly, “you can just be sure there is no such organization. We men, here on Amazonia, know our place.” He added, archly, “Whether or not they do on other worlds, where the natural nature of things has been subverted…”
Of a sudden, Guy Thomas had a surfeit of the other. “Aw curd,” he growled. “Get out, will you? I’ve got to get ready for the major.”
Podner was on his feet, his lips a thin white line. “My dear boy…”
“And stop calling me a boy! You make me sound like a molly.”