by Nene Adams ©1999 - All rights reserved

Although Homer chose to disregard the contributions of Penthesileia and her Amazons in his epics of the Trojan war called the Iliad and the Odyssey - in fact, he makes no mention of them at all - another author, Quintus Smyrnaeus (The Fall of Troy), goes into considerable detail. In fact, Book One of this epic poem is titled, How Died for Troy the Queen of the Amazons, Penthesileia.

Before we get into Penthesileia's life and times, however, there is something that must be mentioned. Due to some confusion on the part of the ancient writers, Penthesileia's sister Hippolyta has been confused with Hippolyta of the golden girdle as well as with Antiope, the Amazon who was abducted by Theseus. Plutarch in his Life of Theseus cites Cleidemus as the writer who has stated that Theseus married Hippolyta, not Antiope. For the purposes of this article, we will deal with this sister of Penthesileia as Hippolyta II and assume she had no connection with the other women except in the fact that she was a Amazon, too.

Penthesileia was the daughter of Otrere and Ares, the Greek god of war. She ruled over the Thermodon River Amazons as their Queen and was, in Quintus' words, "clothed upon with beauty of Goddesses." Penthesileia also had considerable battle prowess and no little personal charisma - even dying, she was so able to charm Achilles that the love-struck warrior slew one of his fellow Greeks for mockery. But that's getting a little ahead of our tale.

In order to understand what Penthesileia was doing at Troy in the first place, we need to understand that the ancient Greeks were a highly superstitious lot. Their world was filled with gods and goddesses who for the main part behaved like they were in the midst of a perpetual toga party, not to mention monsters, creatures and things that went bump in the agora. There were certain rules which had to be obeyed, otherwise one could confidently expect disaster to strike. Life really was a Greek tragedy in those days, especially if you allowed some ritual to go unobserved.

Probably the most feared goddesses of Greek myth were the Erinyes (known to the Romans as the Furies) who were thought to punish wrongdoers (murderers, especially) by pursuing them until they were driven mad and died. The most special attentions of the Erinyes were reserved for those who spilled a kinsman's blood. Even after death, the criminal's soul knew no peace until he had exhibited remorse and atoned for his sin. In order to escape the Erinyes' wrath, someone who had through accident or mishap slain a kinsman could be cleansed of this sin in only one way. Kings of Greece often doubled as priests who could, when required, perform a ritual which would remove the stain of blood from the unfortunate's soul and thus, appease the Erinyes.

While on a hunt, Penthesileia accidentally killed her sister, Hippolyta II, when she cast a spear at her, mistaking the poor girl for a deer. Fleeing the reproach of her people and filled with sorrow, Penthesileia - who had no doubt heard of King Priam's troubles with those pesky Greeks - gathered together a group of women and left Thermodon for Troy.

Did Penthesileia have a death wish? Was she hoping for a clean end on the field of battle at the hands of some Greek hero? Perhaps. But Quintus clearly states that Penthesileia wanted "of murder's dread pollution thus to cleanse her soul, and with such sacrifices to appease the Awful Ones, the Erinyes, who in wrath for her slain sister straightaway haunted her unseen." Her reasons do not really matter.

King Priam was desperate; the walls of Troy had been besieged by Agamemnon and Co. for a decade and there was no end in sight. Due to the marauding of Greek raiders up and down the countryside, most of his allies were far too occupied with putting out the home fires burning than in giving him aid. His daughter, Cassandra, was insane and kept babbling about Greeks bearing gifts; his favorite son Hector was dead, having been tied to the back of a chariot and dragged around the walls of Troy in a macabre merry-go-round sequence that could not have done much to boost morale.

In short, things looked grim. Priam needed a miracle... and lo! Upon his doorstep appeared a group of Amazons - all of whom were well skilled in battle, had their own weapons and knew how to use them, were spoiling for a fight and - wonder of wonders - led by Penthesileia, a woman who had nothing to lose. Even better, they were mounted on horses; since the Greeks used horses only for pulling chariots, these women's bizarre appearance, not to mention their increased maneuverability, could only serve to throw Priam's enemies into confusion the minute they popped up on the battlefield.

King Priam must have nearly wet himself in excitement.

Perhaps a bargain of some kind was struck -  the cleansing of Penthesileia's sin at the hands of King Priam in exchange for the Amazons engaging the Greeks in battle, for example. Admittedly, an unconfirmed, unverifiable speculation but it's conspiracy theories like this one that make history so much fun. Quintus himself suggests that there may have been some bribery going on. Priam is said to have thrown a feast for Penthesileia and given her many costly gifts with more to come if she could rid him of the troublesome Greeks; the Amazon vowed to do many heroic deeds, even to the slaying of great Achilles himself - a spot of hubris that would later come back to haunt her.

How many Amazons did Penthesileia have with her? Well, the number of these women is specifically cited by Quintus and according to him, it was twelve. He names them Clonie, Polymusa, Derinoe, Evandre, Antandre, Bremusa, Hippothoe, "dark-eyed" Harmothoe, Alcibie, Derimacheia, Antibrote and Thermodosa "glorying with the spear."

Quintus also endows Penthesileia with some really kick-ass armor and armaments that were given to her by her father, Ares. Greaves fashioned of gold; a rainbow-radiant corslet; scabbard of ivory and silver; a shield of unearthly splendor; a bright helmet with a wild mane of golden-glistening hairs; flaming mail that resembled lightning; a pair of javelins in her shield hand and a huge sharp halberd in her right hand. Thus accoutered, Penthesileia made a war-like fashion statement that was positively stunning and probably sent the Greeks into paroxysms of envy.

Quintus speaks of Penthesileia gathering the Trojan thousands and rallying them to the battlefield, accompanied by her twelve companions. The Greeks supposed the Trojans to be entirely disheartened at this point - after all, the specter of Hector was still looming over them - and figured they'd still be pouting behind their walls for a few more moons. They were amazed when it was observed that the Trojans were coming back for more, and the troops were being led by a woman, to boot!

At the first engagement, Penthesileia killed Molion, Eilissus, Antitheus, Hippalmus and Elasippus. Derinoe killed Laogonus and Clonie slew Menippus. Podarcus, enraged at the death of Menippus, cast a lance at Clonie and "her bowels gushed out." Penthesileia in her turn struck down Podarcus with a long spear. But the Amazons were dropping like flies. Derinoe was slain by "Oileus' fiery son;" Evandre and Thermodosa were killed by Meriones; Alcibie and Derimacheia lost their heads to "Tydeus' son;" and Bremusa was slain by Idomeneus. As Quintus says, "All through the tangle of that desperate day stalked slaughter and doom."

Penthesileia eventually engaged in some doom-saying of her own, standing up to give a brave speech in the midst of the battle and rushing the Greeks, who were thrown into confusion and gave ground. Then our fearless Amazon romped up and down the battlefield, lopping off heads, disemboweling with girlish glee and generally causing the sort of havoc that made her Ares' darling.

Penthesileia's speech and subsequent warlike actions prompted the women of Troy to try and join the fray. Egged on by Tisiphone, Meneptolemus' wife, who made a rousing jingoistic rant that fired their blood, the Trojan women traded their distaffs for weapons and made as if to leave the safety of the walls. Fortunately, they were stopped by wise old Theano, who pointed out that Amazons weren't common women and it was best to leave war to those who know how to fight it.

In the meantime, Penthesileia and the Trojans had broken through the Greek lines and were on the point of firing the enemy's ships. Seeing a serious disaster was about to take place, Achilles was persuaded to grab his weapons and get his heroic butt into gear. As soon as he took the field, the Greeks rallied.

In swift order, Achilles slew the remaining Amazons and was at last confronted by Penthesileia herself. There ensued a mighty battle with flashing spears, shields, fancy footwork and yards of poetic hyperbole. The Amazon Queen was slain by Achilles and the Trojans panicked, fleeing the battlefield. Now we can get into the sordid tragedy of Achilles and the dead Penthesileia which was mentioned at the beginning of this article. When Achilles removed her helmet, he was stricken by the Amazon's beauty and felt deep remorse for having killed her. As the Greeks busied themselves with stripping the corpses of the Trojan dead, Achilles gazed at Penthesileia with big calf's eyes and mourned her passing with enormous sighs.

One of the Greeks, Thercites, began mocking Achilles for his fine feelings, calling him "woman mad" and insinuating that the hero might like to indulge in some necrophilic naughtiness with the cooling corpse. The writer Apollodorus says that Thercites was the ugliest Greek in the army, which goes a long way in explaining why he was so jealous of Achilles' relationship with the corpus delecti in the first place.

According to Quintus, absolutely infuriated by Thercites' insults, Achilles smote the man a mighty blow with his naked hand, causing all of Thercites' teeth to fall out and killing him deader than a stone. His soul immediately took up residence in Tartarus, which is no doubt precisely where he belonged for having such a dirty mind, and his wretched corpse was tossed into a pit without ceremony. King Odysseus of Ithica, who hated Thercites with a passion, cleansed Achilles of the death with a big fat smile on his face.

After the battle, King Priam sent a herald to the Greeks, asking for Penthesileia's body so he could give it a magnificent funeral. The Amazon was placed on a pyre with costly treasures and burned; the fires were quenched with costly wine; her bones anointed with perfumed ointment and placed in a casket.

She was buried in an outstanding tower beside the bones of King Leodemon. In the plain beyond were buried all her Amazons as well as the Trojans who had followed her and died on the battlefield.

However, another version of the story by Tzetzes is that the Greeks were outraged by Achilles' contact, especially Thercites' nephew Diomedes. He took Penthesileia's body by the heels and dragged her to the Skamander River, tossing her in the water. But the corpse was saved before it could drift away and either returned to the Trojans or buried by Achilles himself with full honors.

As an interesting footnote by Tzetzes is that Penthesileia's wet nurse, Klete, heard that her Queen went to Troy and set out to find her, traveling by ship. Alas, unfavorable winds blew her to Italy but her journey was not in vain. She founded the city of Klete and earned her own place in the historical record.

And thus ends the life and times of Penthesileia, Queen of the Thermodon Amazons; a brave woman who, through a cruel twist of fate, ended her life almost before it began on the bloodied battlefield of Troy. Her connection with Achilles guaranteed Penthesileia a niche in history - but her hubris, that overweening pride which was the downfall of so many Greeks, brought her only posthumous glory and a premature appointment with Hades.

Was it worth it?

For Penthesileia - Queen, warrior, grieving sister - it probably was.

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