Story #2: [Courage] Penthesilea, the legendary Amazonian Warrior Queen

There is a female character that is often overlooked when people think about the Trojan war from Homer’s famous poem in Iliad: Penthesilea, the fascinating and beautiful warrior queen of the Amazons.

There are a proliferation of books and movies about the Helen of Troy, the woman with the face that “launched a thousand ships”; or about the magic of Circe, the enchantress who turned men into herds of cows and sheep. Even my favourite character in the Greek tales, Cassandra, the doomed prophetess of Apollo, has captured the attention of many generations of storytellers. But today the story I want to tell is about Penthesilea and her story from Aethiopis.

Penthesilea was a beautiful Amazon queen who fought against the Greeks in the battle of Troy. The story goes that she had led her warriors into battle in hope of dying honorably in the battle after accidently killing her sister in a previous hunting incident. But she was such a brilliant warrior, she almost won the war against the Greeks until Achilles appeared on the field. Achilles finally engaged her in a one-on-one battle until the very last, he fell in love with her and recognised her as his equal as he delivered a final blow to her chest, which killed her instantly.

In the era that the Iliad and Odyssey was written, it was very rare for a woman to be considered as an equal to men, particularly on the topic of warfare. I will always think of this tale as the first story of female empowerment.