Thalestris

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Amazon queen. For the genus of plants, see Thalestris (genus).

According to the mythical Greek Alexander Romance, Queen Thalestris of the Amazons brought 300 women to Alexander the Great, hoping to breed a race of children as strong and intelligent as he.

According to the legend, she stayed with the Macedonian king for 13 days and nights in the hope that the great warrior would father a daughter by her. However, several of Alexander's biographers dispute the claim, including the highly regarded secondary source, Plutarch.

In his writing he makes mention of when Alexander's secondary naval commander, Onesicritus, was reading the Amazon passage of his Alexander history to King Lysimachus of Thrace who was on the original expedition, the king smiled at him and said "And where was I, then?"

[edit] Modern references

Thalestris is also the name of a character in Mary Renault's historical novel The King Must Die, set in the time of the mythological Theseus, who lived - if he existed at all - a thousand years or more before Alexander. The Thalestris character is depicted by Renault as a skilled Amazonian bull-dancer and valiant warrior - which is presumably why the writer gave her the name of an Amazon queen.