Machlyes
Ancient tribe described by Herodotus
The Machlyes or Machlyans (Ancient Greek: Μάχλυες) were a legendary ancient Libyan tribe.
01Ancient Sources
According to Herodotus, their young women held a ritual battle with sticks and stones annually with neighboring Auseans (Ancient Greek: Αὐσέες). Those who died of their wounds were said to have lied about their virginity.
Pliny the Elder claimed they were hermaphrodites that had a male half and a female half, possibly inspired by the martial practices of the females.
02Later Sources
French anthropologist Lucien Bertholon hypothesized that the Maghrawa tribal confederation in North Africa were descendants of the Machlyes.
03In fiction
In the book Sweet Shadows by Tera Lynn Childs, the machlyes Achilla saves Gretchen from the merdaemon in the abysses.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Machlyes”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Nuremberg chronicles - Strange People - Androgyn II (XIIv).jpg by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514), Public domain
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