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Penthesilea

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Added by: SSJRuss

Read more about Penthesilea at: Wikipedia

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Penthesilea ( ) was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope and Melanippe. She assisted Troy in the Trojan War, during which she was killed by Achilles.

In the five book epic Aethiopis, which was part of the Epic Cycle (or Cycle of Troy) on the Trojan War, the coming to Troy of Penthesilea and Memnon was described in detail. The Aethiopis was published in the 8th century BC and is attributed to Arctinus of Miletus. The main character of the epic is Achilles, who fights Penthesilea and Memnon before he is himself killed. Although Aethiopis has been lost, the Epic Cycle has been adapted and recycled in different periods of the classical age. The tradition of retelling the epic fall of Troy is indebted to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which were grounded in oral storytelling and were only written down when the Greek alphabet was adopted in ancient Greece.

In the Aethiopis Penthesilea is a Thracian woman warrior. She was an Amazon and daughter of Ares, who comes to help the Trojans. She arrived with twelve other Amazon warriors. After a day of distinguishing herself on the battlefield, Penthesilea confronts Achilles. Achilles kills her, and Thersites taunts Achilles by accusing him of having fallen in love with Penthesilea. Thersites is killed by Achilles, who travels to the island of Lesbos to be purified before returning to Troy and fighting Memnon.

According to Homer, the Trojan king Priam had fought the Amazons in his youth on the Sangarius River in Phrygia, some 350 miles east of Troy. Later writers of the antiquity located Amazons geographically in Anatolia and started an epic tradition where Greek heroes, such as Heracles and Theseus, fought an Amazon warrior of distinction. The Aethiopis version of the Penthesilea legend has become known as the Homeric tradition.

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