Secondary evidence that interest in female variance continued through the period is found in the myths as recounted by Greek and Latin writers at the beginning of the Christian era, though details of these stories are probably more characteristic of the writers’ own times than of earlier centuries. One finds as much variety in different authors’ treatment as is found between Malory’s and Tennyson’s versions of the Arthurian legends. From any great compilation such as the _Mythology of All Nations_ or Fraser’s _Golden Bough_ one learns that in all the interrelated Mediterranean mythologies there was at least one goddess among whose attributes were one or more of the following: virginity, aversion to male sexual approach, some masculinity in dress or interests (such as warfare or the hunt), intense fondness for maiden devotees, and a strict requirement of maidenhood in the latter. One finds also persistent legends of Amazons, exclusively female groups who suffered men only for procreative ends and made active war against the other sex[28] (cf. a random news note, April 1951, of a precisely similar legend from an island off the coast of Japan).[29] It is impossible to date the origin of these myths or to secure historical substantiation of the mores they reflect. But anthropologists assure us that female homosexuality is known in most primitive societies (e.g., there is a North American Indian legend of physical intimacy between two women which resulted in an amorphous birth),[30] and it seems likely that variant detail was current in early oral tradition but was omitted by writers to whom such phenomena was antipathetic, or eliminated by later censorship. A comparison of the later classical writers supports this view. In Book XI of Vergil’s _Aeneid_ one of the vivid personalities is Camilla, leader of a cavalry troop which figures brilliantly in the military action and of whose members many, if not at all, were women. Of her favorite comrade-in-arms, Camilla says only that she was like a sister to her. The goddess Diana is described as loving Camilla long and intensely, and, when the latter is slain by a sly and unheroic man, Diana lends her own bow and arrows to another protégé, Opis, so that this demigoddess may avenge the favorite’s death. But there is no mention of intimacy between the goddess and either Opis or Camilla.