Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths(38)

Only Andromache, Hector’s widow, is not caught up in the moment. She wants Penthesilea to know that Hector was a superior warrior and he was killed by Achilles, so the Amazon has no chance. It’s an angry, grief-filled lament from a woman whose only consolation after the death of her husband is the certainty that Hector was the greatest warrior who ever fought for Troy. The arrival of a new hero who might take on Achilles and win is clearly threatening to Andromache. While she would surely prefer Troy’s most powerful enemy to be vanquished, the Greeks to be repelled, her city to win the war, that outcome would be bittersweet for her if it came at the cost of acknowledging that her dead husband was not, after all, the greatest warrior who defended Troy. Her status is dependent upon his, even after his death. And his is vulnerable, now he is dead, to new warriors surpassing him.

Not for the only time in Greek myth, the next part of Penthesilea’s story reveals a goddess involving herself in the business of destroying a woman, even though this woman is the daughter of the god of war. While Penthesilea sleeps, the night before going into battle, Pallas intervenes. Pallas is both a name often given to Athene and the name of her foster sister, a daughter of Triton, a sea-god.31 And it is Pallas – either Athene or her sister – who sends a deceitful dream to Penthesilea, urging her to seek out Achilles and fight him, suggesting that she will be the victor. Unfortunately, Penthesilea believes the dream and wakes up determined to fight.

Then Quintus gives us a scene which is familiar to readers of epic: a long sequence describing the hero preparing for battle, with detailed descriptions of her weapons and armour (all provided by Ares). Quintus tells us about her greaves, made of gold; her bright body-armour; her scabbard, decorated with ivory and silver; her shield, her helmet, her spears. Covered in her glittering armour, she is like lightning.32 Just in case we might miss the destructive nature of this simile, Quintus underlines that he means it like the lightning Zeus hurls at the earth. She also has a double-pointed axe, of a size which would fell an ox.33 Interestingly, this was a gift from Eris, the goddess of strife. So just as we have seen with male heroes, like Perseus, Penthesilea has a filial relationship with one god, but receives gifts from other gods too. She is equipped for battle in the same way that Achilles is fitted out for his return to the battlefield in the Iliad. After his first set of armour has been stripped from Patroclus’ body by Hector, Achilles’ mother, Thetis, persuades Hephaestus to make him a new set, with an especially ornate shield. One immortal parent acquires more divine help for their mortal offspring. Another goddess, the nereid Oreithyia, has provided Penthesilea with her horse, whose feet are as quick as a harpy’s wings. Quintus tells us she heads into battle thoē – ‘swiftly’. This time it is Achilles whom she resembles: the hero who is remarkable for his speed. As Penthesilea heads off to fight, Priam prays to Zeus that she will be victorious. He must have done this daily for his son, Hector. But the message he receives from the gods – an eagle, gripping a dove in its talons – fills him with sorrow. At this moment, Priam realizes he will not see Penthesilea return from the battlefield alive.

The Greeks, when they see this new warrior entering the fray, are filled with confusion. With Hector dead, they don’t believe anyone can be found to stand against them and fight for Troy. Who could this be? Perhaps a god, they say.34 They summon up their courage to fight, knowing they too have had the gods’ support. The newly invigorated Trojans come forward and the newly alarmed Greeks come to meet them. The Trojan soil, Quintus says,35 turns red.

And Penthesilea’s prowess on the battlefield is on a par with the greatest heroes we read about in the Iliad. Quintus lists all the men she kills – Molion, Persinous, Eilissus and several more – as well as the men killed by her Amazon sisters. The battle isn’t one-sided though: Podarces, a Greek, kills Clonie, an Amazon. This death angers Penthesilea36 and she drives her spear into him. He dies moments later, in the arms of his comrades. Again, this is surely meant to make us think of Penthesilea in a heroic light. Anger at the loss of a fellow warrior – and revenge killing of the man responsible – motivates heroes throughout epic poetry. It is an intrinsically heroic emotion, and Penthesilea is revealing herself as a hero inside as well as out. The battle rages on, Quintus says, and many hearts – Greek and Trojan – are stopped on this day. He compares Penthesilea to a lioness,37 once more echoing the Iliad and its descriptions of Agamemnon, Menelaus and, most of all, Achilles; lion similes appear almost thirty times in the poem38 describing male heroes. Penthesilea strides across the battlefield, demanding to know why the most celebrated Greek heroes – Diomedes, Ajax – don’t dare to face her. One Trojan who sees her in this exultant moment thinks she must be Athene, Eris or Artemis. A lioness, a goddess: Penthesilea seems to be beyond human when she fights and glories in her strength and skill.

So inspiring is she that a Trojan woman, Tisiphone,39 calls out to the other women of Troy that they too should join the battle, just like their menfolk. These women have essentially been held hostage for ten years: they have watched their brothers, husbands, fathers and sons go out to fight the Greeks and not always seen them come back alive. But there has never been any question of the women fighting alongside them. Women fighting in battle would be profoundly shocking. But that is what the mighty Amazon warrior can do. Penthesilea makes other – ordinary, mortal – women feel strong enough to subvert the vast weight of expectations which circumscribe their behaviour. A large group of Trojan women take up arms, ready to join the fray, but they are dissuaded at the last minute by an old priestess, Theano, who advises caution. She reminds these women that they cannot compare themselves with Penthesilea because she is a daughter of Ares and they are not. They cannot fight like her.