A New Reading of an Old Myth: the Amazons of Joseph Hall and Richard Brom

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Amazons myth, proposed in the satirical writings of two English authors of the first half of the 17th century. The author of the article notes that both Joseph Hall’s “Mundus alter et idem” and Richard Brom’s “Antipodes” lacked almost all the components of this myth known to Europeans since Antiquity. Their Amazons were not warlike and bloodthirsty, they did not kill or send newborn sons to be raised elsewhere, they did not expel men from their lands. On the contrary, in the Amazon kingdom, as described by the English authors, representatives of both sexes lived together, although men occupied a subordinate position in everything related to power relations, from household management to public administration. At the same time their society was described as ideal which, according to the author of the article, referred to the “golden age” of Elizabeth I Tudor, a woman who ruled alone, but constantly emphasized her reliance on advisers and parliament. Both Joseph Hall and Richard Brom were thus involved in the long-standing political debate about the so-called monarchical republic which continued in England throughout the second half of the 16th century. Their writings, being formally a travelogue and a comedy, in fact turned out to be a political satire that criticized the modern system of government.