Quotes from bookLast of the Amazons
Last of the Amazons is a novel by Steven Pressfield that recounts the legend of Theseus and the Amazons, set before the threshold of recorded history, a generation before the Trojan War. The novel's theme is the conflict between the nascent Greek civilization and the savage but free Amazons of the Eastern steppes, between men and women, and between love and hate.The novel covers Theseus's travels to the lands of the Amazons, his elopement with their war queen Antiope, and the war pursued by the Amazons to recover their queen and honor, which leads them to the walls of Athens and to eventual oblivion as a people. Most of the story is told through a series of interlocked flashbacks and recollections by an Athenian girl, Bones; her governess, the captive Amazon Selene; and Bones's uncle Damon, Selene's lover.
“Both men were aware of the imperative held by all warrior races to serve honor before survival.”
Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons
Mother Bones (Narrator) p. 10
Last of the Amazons (2002)
Steven Pressfield book Last of the Amazons
Damon p. 308
Last of the Amazons (2002)
Context: The foe fell back. Our companies pushed through. For the time it takes to count to five hundred, I thought we might even conquer. For now the mulishness of the Athenian Soldier-farmer, the pigheaded refusal to yield which had at first been scorned by his betters-now this shone to the fore. By the gods, these clodkickers had learned how to fight! [... ] They no longer fell apart at the apparition of cowardice among their comrades or themselves, but had come to understand that the same man may play the craven in the morning and the hero in the afternoon. Give them this: they were tough. Tougher than the Scyths and Getai, for all their savage valor, and tougher than the Amazons, despite their dash and dazzle.
