| Amazons | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Other Names |
Amazonas, Icamiabas, Iacamiabas, Iamaricumãs, Coniupuiaras |
|
First Appearance |
Brazilian Myth |
|
Created by |
Brazilian Myth |
Origin[]
In 1542, Spanish conquistador Francisco de Orellana claimed to have found a tribe of indigenous Amazons in th South America, they are also known as camiabas or iacamiabas (from the Tupi i + kama + îaba, meaning "broken chest"). The river where Orellana would have found these Amazon warriors was called the Amazon River in Brazil, giving rise to the name of the state of Amazonia and the Amazon region, in the Peruvian part it is called Marañón, the name by which Europeans called the entire river.
The Icamiaba were warrior women, without husbands, who inhabited the Lower Amazon. Once a year, at the sources of the Nhamundá river, in the Yacy-taperê mountain range (mountain of the moon), where there was a lake, Yacy-uaruá (mirror of the moon), they held a party in the name of Iacinará or Iaci, the moon. After sleeping with the Guacaris, men from another tribe specially invited to the festival, the Indian women dived into the lake and brought back greenish clay with which they modeled muiraquitãs, which were offered as amulets to the Guacaris.
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Jungle Comics #135, a short text mentions the meeting of Orellana and the Amazons.
- Apache #1, text reprint from Jungle Comics #135.
- Real Life Comics #42, in the story, Orellana does not encounter the Amazons, but mentions them in his report to the king.
- Fantastic Comics #9, Flip Falcon reads a book that tells Orellana's story and uses his Dimension Machine to go back to the 16th century, he meets the legendary Amazons, but they are Caucasian.
- Fight Comics #10, Oran of the Jungle encounters a group of Amazons with high technology, they have a Caucasian appearance.
Notes[]
- Some historians believe that Orellana mixed the Greek myth of the Amazons to talk about indigenous women, there are those who doubt their existence and those who say that they actually exist.
- The same would have happened with the myth of Iara, the Tupi-Guaraní equivalent of the mermaids in European myths.