Penthesilea

A woman can be a brave, strong and fierce warrior.

But it's way more important that she's beautiful, of course. Who cares about that other stuff?

Another day, another Amazonian battle story.

I'm sure you remember the Amazons from the story about the Amazonian queen Hippolyta whom Heracles killed in cold blood. They were a race of fierce warrior women who were constantly fighting the Greeks.

After their queen Hippolyta's heinous murder, the Amazons waged war on the Greeks. At the last moment, when the Amazons cornered Athens (a very prominent Greek city) and it seemed that all Greek hopes of winning the war were lost, a band of Greek heroes single-handedly defeated the entire Amazonian army.

Before you ask, I have no idea how that happened. The story itself doesn't make much sense to me. Long story short-- the Amazons lost the war, so they went back to Themyscira and waited until they could strike the Greeks again.

The opportunity arrived with the Trojan War.

The Trojan War started when Paris, a prince of Troy, and Helen, the queen of Sparta (a prominent Greek city-state) fell in love and fled to Troy together. Admittedly, the official story is that Paris kidnapped Helen and took her to Troy; but, because no one asked Helen her perspective, I'm skeptical.

This alleged kidnapping led to a Greek army amassing and parking itself on the beaches of Troy to begin a war that lasted for years. There was virtually no end in sight, until the famed warrior Achilles's friend Patroclus was killed in battle. Achilles went on a rampage, brutally killing the leader of the Trojan army, Hector. It finally looked like the Trojans would lose.

Enter the Amazons.

The Amazons had chips on their shoulders from the last time they lost to the Greeks, so they were more than happy to lend a hand to the Trojans.

This time, they were led by a queen who was just as formidable and powerful as the queens before her: Penthesilea.

Penthesilea has often been described as the fiercest warrior of all the Amazons. She was destined for glory in battle. As a daughter of Ares (and the sister of former queen Hippolyta), it was no surprise to anyone that she was the most fearsome woman around. When she rode into Troy with her fellow warriors, the Trojans thought they were saved.

In the Greek account of Penthesilea's story, she was comparatively described as the female equivalent of Achilles. They were the same in ferocity, power, and skill. The only difference between them is obvious: one of them was a woman, and didn't really belong in a battle.

Penthesilea and the Amazons rode into battle beside the Trojans shortly after Hector was killed. The Trojans, newly invigorated by this addition, fought the Greeks so fiercely that they drove them back towards their ships. Penthesilea killed men left and right, her weapons flying, her armor and helmet flashing. As they fought, Amazonian warriors fell. Penthesilea fought harder, until she realized she needed to face Achilles-- the only Greek who would ever be a challenge for her.

When Achilles heard the chaos, he raced to the battlefield. There, he met Penthesilea, battle-worn and vicious. Her weapons, helmet and armor were dripping with the blood of Greeks.

She shouted his name when she saw him. She turned her horse towards him, preparing to charge. There was no more evenly-matched duel than that between Penthesilea and Achilles-- some of the Greeks and Trojans nearby paused in their own battles to watch.

Well... it was supposed to be evenly matched. But, see, Penthesilea is a woman. And we all know that, in Greece, women are no match for men, no matter what would make sense in reality.

Penthesilea hurled her spear at him, but it shattered into a million pieces the second it hit his shield. Masculinity is the strongest weapon of all, clearly. She charged, ready to kill him (or at least put up a good fight). Before she could even get close enough to touch him, he hurled his spear back at her. The spear hit her in the chest, went through her, and even pinned her to her horse as it fell. A fatal blow.

Not much of a fight, was it, Greece? You couldn't let a woman win one thing, could you?

The kicker, though, came next. As Penthesilea lay with her horse, dying, Achilles came closer. He meant to finish her off, like he would have with anyone who challenged him in battle. It was customary for a warrior, after killing an opponent, to take that opponent's armor. If that opponent was prominent, the body was often disfigured as a show of power. He was going to make an example of her-- show the Trojans and the remaining Amazons what happened when women fought in men's wars. But, when Achilles removed Penthesilea's helmet from her body, he realized something.

She was pretty.

Who cares about the fact that there are SO MANY THINGS more important about Penthesilea and her story than her looks? Who cares that she was courageous, a famed hero, or a formidable opponent in battle? As long as she was conventionally attractive, right, Greece?

So the story goes, Achilles removed Penthesilea's helmet and immediately fell in love with her. He was so overcome by feelings and lust that he made everyone back away from her body as he grieved for her. It is said that Achilles wondered what would have become of their relationship, if she had just stuck to doing women's things instead of playing the games of men. If she had conformed to Greek gender roles, she could have ended up the trophy wife of the great Achilles.

YOU NEVER DESERVED HER, ACHILLES.

Penthesilea died how she would have wanted to. Her whole life had been about becoming the most formidable Amazon alive-- never surrendering to Greeks. She and her kind were hated by the Greeks and seen as untamable beasts.

She didn't want Greek pity. She didn't want Achilles to look upon her dead body and feel lust. She wanted him dead. She wanted his severed head on the end of her spear. If she died at the hands of another warrior, she would want to be treated like a warrior. I think she would've wanted him to take her armor and disfigure her body. That's what warriors do.

But of course, because she's a woman who defied womanly expectations, she didn't get anything she wanted. Like our favorite lioness Atalanta, she was a beast who needed to be tamed. In her ending, she was reduced to what the Greeks always wanted her to be-- beautiful but silent.

Let me leave you with this: silence might be deafening, but nothing is louder than a womanly roar.

You might say we have Atalanta to thank for that.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey there! I hope you enjoyed this last rendition of "Medusa's Feminist Commentary". For this story, I took the story of Penthesilea's duel with Achilles and added some of Medusa's commentary. I used the sources below to rewrite the story. I didn't change any details of the battle, the duel, or Achilles reaction to the duel-- I just added Medusa's thoughts where I saw fit. The original story included details about why Penthesilea came to Troy, the twelve warriors she brought with her, and the gruesome battle that the Amazons participated in. It also included more detail about Achilles's reaction to seeing Penthesilea's beautiful face after killing her, Achilles killing a fellow Greek for mocking his feelings, and then him treating her body respectfully and mourning her. I didn't include these extra details for the sake of length- I shortened the story and retold it in a way that gave Medusa more feminist ammo to use. I hope you guys liked it!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World" by Adrienne Mayor.
• Wikipedia: Penthesilea
• Wikipedia: Trojan War

Banner image provided by: Wikimedia Commons.