Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons
Amazons: the legendary tribe of women warriors, led by their Queen Hippolyte, now front and centre in the public eye following the smash hit ‘Wonder Woman’ with the awesome butt-kicking Gal Gadot.
These Scythian warriors are the stuff of legend. Mythical, marvellous, badass. and the equals of men in every way.
Members of this ultimate matriarchal society allegedly cut off one breast in order to make them better archers with their bow. Or of course that could have simply been propaganda of their enemies the Greeks. You were only a true Greek hero if you conquered, fought or defeated an Amazonian warrior.
An archaeolgical discovery on the Russian border with Kazakhstan revealed over 150 graves or kurgans, burial mounds of a nomadic people the Greeks referred to as Scythians. They prove that there were indeed warrior women that fit the description of the Amazons. Whatever their men did, they did. They rode horses, they were very tall for their time, they had tattoos, fought, hunted for food. They were also buried with hemp making kits and tattoo kits. If they gave birth to sons, the boys would be left with other tribes for fostering and as a way of cementing good relationships with the tribes.
Legend and myth has it that Penthesilea, the daughter of Ares, the Greek God of War, and Otrera, the first Amazon Queen, was the mythological Queen of the Amazons of Asia Minor during the Trojan War.
Beautiful and wise, highly skilled in weaponry and a fierce warrior, Roman historian Pliny claims that Penthesilea invented the battle axe. Her story is told in the lost Greek literary epic ‘Aethiopis’, of which only five lines survive.
Her tale is tempered by tragedy. Whilst out hunting she accidentally killed her sister Hippolyte with (depending on the story you read) either an arrow or a spear. Consumed by grief and regret, she wanted only to die, but as a warrior could only do so honourably in battle. She pledged her support to King Priam of Troy and prepared for battle in the Trojan War alongside her personal guard of twelve fellow Amazons (Antibrote, Ainia, Clete, Alcibie, Antandre, Bremusa, Derimacheia, Derinoe, Harmothoe, Hippothoe, Polemusa and Thermodosa).
Rising early on her first (and last) day of battle, she prepared herself. Determined to redeem her soul, she channelled her rage against Achilles, who had killed the Trojan Prince Hector, and vowed to dispatch him. It must have been one hell of a hand-to-hand fight between two epic warriors, especially considering one was the daughter of the God of War and the other was, apart from his ‘heel’, immortal.
Ultimately however Penthesilea died at Achilles’ hand as he thrust his sword through her breast and impaled her. Removing her helmet, Achilles fell completely in love with her. (Or, as other stories have it, he committed necrophilia and had sex with her corpse.)
Fellow Greek solider Thersites mocked Achilles for his romantic weakness who, in a ‘Hulk punches Thor’ moment, killed him. In revenge for that (you can see where the phrase ‘Greek tragedy’ comes in handy) Thersites’ cousin Diomedes fixed Penthesilea’s body to the back of his chariot, dragged it to the Scamander River and unceremoniously dumped it. Achilles retrieved it and returned it to the Trojans for its rightful burial.
Poignantly her name means ‘mourned by the people’, from the Greek words ‘penthos’ and ‘laos’ and her story became a firm favourite amongst Greek vase painters. For Harry Potter fans out there, Virgil referred to her as ‘Bellatrix’, perhaps the inspiration for the character Bellatrix Lestrange.
