And when Amazons fight, they fight to the death. Pseudo-Apollodorus tells us that Penthesilea kills many Greeks, including Machaon. And Quintus tells us about her battle in a lot more detail. For him, Penthesilea is as much a hero as any man, and he treats her accordingly in his narrative. When she and her twelve Amazon companions arrive, the people of Troy are overjoyed; Quintus compares them to drought-ravaged lands finally receiving rain. Priam – king of Troy – is compared to a blind man seeing light again. This is the salvation he and his people have been waiting for. Thirteen highly skilled warriors are potentially enough, it seems, to swing the odds of the war in Troy’s favour. And Penthesilea sees herself as the equal of her male Greek counterparts: she promises Priam that she will take on Achilles and kill him. Quintus calls her nēpiē – ‘crazy’， ‘a fool’。30 Interestingly, it is the same word Homer uses to describe Patroclus, when he begs Achilles to let him wear his friend’s armour and fight in his stead, in Book Sixteen of the Iliad. He too is a madman, begging for his own death, though he doesn’t know it. Is Quintus deliberately echoing Homer here? It seems more than likely. Patroclus is mad because his request to borrow Achilles’ armour will result in his death: he will die at the hands of Hector, once the latter realizes that it is Patroclus he is fighting, and not his more skilful comrade, Achilles. Penthesilea is having her own death foreshadowed by this choice of word, and by the parallels between her and Patroclus. They have confidence in their abilities, which are considerable. But the confidence is misplaced even so, and they will both be cut down by a superior fighter. It is another way in which we are told that Penthesilea is the equal of male warriors: the same language reflects the same situation.
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.