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.
And nor do they need to, because Penthesilea is doing just fine without reinforcements. She continues to cut her way through the Greeks: their cries and screams eventually rouse Ajax and Achilles to join the battle. As the two great warriors put on their armour, they too are compared to lions, but this time like lions slaughtering a herd of sheep in the absence of a shepherd. Achilles kills five Amazons in rapid succession. But Penthesilea is not scared by this terrifying vision. Rather, she hurls her spears at Ajax, but they shatter on his divinely wrought shield and greaves. The Fates have not allowed Ajax to be injured during the war so far, and nor do they today. He pursues the Trojan fighters and leaves Achilles to fight Penthesilea alone.
Achilles rebukes Penthesilea for her confidence, tells her she must be mad, reminds her that everyone falls before him, even Hector. Did she not hear of the time he choked the rivers with corpses? This is a reference, again, to the Iliad, where Achilles’ killing spree is so terrible and so rapid that the suffocating river gods beg their Olympian counterparts to stop him. It is a shattering image. Achilles hurls his spear at Penthesilea and she is less lucky than Ajax: her blood begins to flow. Even then, she wonders out loud if she could draw her sword and rush at him or if she should go on her knees and beg for her life （again, something male heroes do routinely in the Iliad and elsewhere）。 She has lost her death wish, it seems, now death is imminent.
Achilles drives his remaining spear first into her horse and then into her. She is cut down, Quintus says, like a tall pine tree brought down by the wind. She collapses, her strength broken.40 When the Trojans see she has fallen, they panic. She was both a warrior and a talisman, as Hector was before her. Achilles taunts her as she lies dying, for having ever thought she could embrace a war which makes even men cower. But as she dies something happens. Aphrodite makes her resemble the sleeping Artemis.41 She is beautiful even in death and Achilles is suddenly filled with remorse for what he has done. Meanwhile, Ares hears his daughter dying and races to the battlefield to wreak havoc on the Myrmidons （Achilles’ comrades）。 But Zeus issues a warning thunderbolt and Ares retreats.