Wonder Woman and the Amazons: Fact vs. Folklore
Wonder Woman, the 2017 box office hit, depicted the Amazons are female warriors created by the Olympian gods to protect mortals. Per the movie, the god of war, Ares, grew jealous of humans, and set in motion a plan to destroy mankind. When the other gods tried to thwart him, Ares killed them all, except for Zeus, whom he mortally wounded. With the last ounce of his power, Zeus wounded the god of war, who was forced to retreat. Ares did not abandon his plans to destroy humanity, however.
Thousands of years later, Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons tells her daughter Diana that Zeus gave mankind a final gift before he died. He handed the Amazons the god-killer, a weapon to use against Ares when he returned. Diana eventually leaves the Amazons’ secluded island paradise, and gets involved in WWI, convinced that the global conflict is part of Ares’ plot to destroy mankind. It is a great movie. Far as fidelity to the original folklore, however, its depiction of the Amazons and their relationship with Ares significantly contradicts the ancient Greek version of the story.
