Penthesilea

Half-divine daughter of Ares by the Amazon-queen Otrera; sister of Hippolyta; Amazon-queen warrior who arrived at Troy after Hector's death and was killed by Achilles in single combat. The fall-of-helmet-revealing-face-at-the-moment-of-death — Achilles overwhelmed by love and grief as he sees the dying queen's face — is among the most iconic single images of the post-Homeric Greek-epic-cycle tradition, transmitted through the Aethiopis fragments and preserved in detail by Quintus Smyrnaeus's Posthomerica 1. The Thersites-mockery and his killing-by-Achilles is the structural coda. The story sits in the gap between the Iliad and the Odyssey, in the Trojan-cycle material that Homer either deliberately omits or simply doesn't treat.

Parentage

• paternal: Ares
• maternal: Otrera

Domains

• amazon queenship
• aristeia and death at troy

Powers

• Cut down Greek warriors in battle as Amazon champion

Relations

• sibling: HippolytaApollod. Epit. 5.1 (primary)
• sibling: Antiope the AmazonApollod. Epit. 5.2 (primary)
• sibling: MelanippeApollod. Epit. 5.2 (primary)
• killed by: Achilles (greatest of the Greek warriors at Troy, son of Peleus and the Nereid Thetis; not registered as cascade descendant under strict rule) · GreekAethiopis fr.; Quint. Smyrn. 1.538-674 (primary)
• beloved: Achilles (greatest of the Greek warriors at Troy, son of Peleus and the Nereid Thetis; not registered as cascade descendant under strict rule) · GreekThe post-mortem-recognition love-at-the-moment-of-death — the iconic moment that shapes the post-Homeric reading of Achilles. Not a mutual relation; the love is one-sided, posthumous, and tragic.Aethiopis fr.; Quint. Smyrn. 1.659-674 (primary)

Sources

• existence: Aethiopis fragments (via Proclus Chrestomathia); Apollodorus Epitome 5.1-2; Quintus Smyrnaeus Posthomerica 1 (the major surviving narrative); Pausanias 5.11.6; Tzetzes ad Lycophron 999 (primary)
• parentage: Apollod. Epit. 5.1 (primary)