The company Amazon.com® is a reference to the mythological society, called the Amazons. The Amazons were a group of warrior women who were from the city of Themiskyra in the Black Sea. According to Homer, they fought as equally as men and were known to have met ancient heroes like Herakles, Bellerophon, and Theseus. They also were descendants of Ares, the god of war. Though there are many accounts and stories about them, the Amazons were not real.
Amazon.com® was originally a bookstore, but is now a global shipping service, e-book, and streaming online site. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and was originally going to be called “Relentless” since that was the name of the domain he purchased. Instead, he named it “Amazon” because it sounded exotic and, like the river, he wanted his bookstore to be the biggest in the world. So Amazon,com® was not intentionally named after the Amazonians, but named after the Amazon River, which was named after the Amazons. Confusing right? The river was named by Spanish Expeditioners who had fought all women warriors while trying to conquer South America.
Personally, I think that the name for Amazon.com® is a bit misleading. Though the name may be a representation of resilience and fortitude, it is not a website that has anything to do with war or Greek mythology. There are better names that Jeff Bezos could’ve come up with. If he wanted to stick to the classical theme, Amazon could’ve been named Hermes/Mercury, after the god of traveling, mail, and commerce. It could’ve been also named after Athena/Minerva, the goddess of wisdom if Bezos wanted it to relate to books. He could've also named it Sahara after the largest desert in the world.
Sophie Pong
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