CHAPTER THREE

PENTHESILEIA

The words of Thersites As we have seen, the singers of Greek epic and their audience knew the Amazons as a name: the formula combining the ethnic designation [Amazones] with the fascinating and ambiguous epi­ thet [antianeirai]. While it has been possible to determine that this formula is probably very old, we have not yet offered an account of the stories in which this formula could be utilized. What stories are they, are they as old as the formula, and what is the relation between story and formula? Although the formula can be found in two passages of the Iliad, the stories in which it occurs-the speech of Priamos and the heroic life of Bellerophontes-hardly contribute to a better understanding of the Amazon motif itself. In these passages the Amazons are mentioned as opponents without any further con­ text, and the role they play is at first sight a minor one. It is therefore necessary to leave the Iliad aside for the time being and to concentrate on a story in which an Amazon is the leading character. The story of the Amazon queen Penthesileia has been re­ corded as a part of the Trojan cycle and is known from the epic Aithiopis. Mter the death of Hektor, the Amazon and her army entered the war on the Trojan side. She was killed in a duel with the best of the Achaians, Achilles. The summary of the epic in Proclus' Chrestomathia offers an intriguing version of the Amazon motif. The Amazon Penthesileia, a daughter of Ares, a Thrakian by [genos], comes to the help of the Trojans. Achilles kills her as she is acting like a hero [aristeousan], and the Trojans bury her. And Achilles kills Thersites because he has been abused and mocked by him for his alleged [eroos] for Penthesileia. A dispute arises among the Achaians over the killing of Thersites. After this 196 CHAPTER THREE

Achilles sails for Lesbos, and after sacrificing to Apollon, Artemis and Leto he is purified of the killing by Odysseus. (Chrestomathia II, ed. Davies) The fragment from the Aithiopis containing the essentials of the Penthesileia motif displays a fascinating ambiguity. Was it ru­ moured that Achilles had fallen in love with Penthesileia Uegomenon eroota], and did he intend to end it once and for all by silencing the person who dared to voice it in public? Why does Achilles react so strongly to Thersites' words? Present-day readers might explain this overreaction by sup­ posing that Thersites had hit upon a sensitive chink in Achilles' emotional armour. His passion for an enemy caused feelings of guilt and shame, so that he attempted to disguise the [eroos] which lay at the root of this discomfort. The double secrecy intensified his guilt feelings. Thersites brought this inner conflict out into the open, and Achilles' anger was an unintentional proof that Thersites' allegations were correct. In that case, the main motif would be a conflict between truth and denial. Another possibility is that Achilles could not bear the thought that he had killed this fascinating woman with his own hand. In this case, the feelings which torment him would be feelings of regret. This hypothesis has been advanced by Tyrrell: "Achilles kills Penthesileia-to discover someone he would marry." The term "marry" is out of place here, 1 but even if we interpret the passage to mean that Achilles regarded the Amazon as someone he would make love to, it still remains to be shown that this

1 Tyrrell, Amazons, p. 93. In the world of epic, however, his terminology creates a forced impression; indeed, the only possible reference to Penthesileia's nubile status in the Aithopis is the presence of her father Ares, who could give her away in marriage. Tyrrell's usage is more appropriate to the late Hellenistic world of Quintus Smyrnaeus, in which Achilles expresses his de­ sire to take Penthesileia with him to Phthia as his [akoitis], Posthomerica, I, 671- 674. Briseis uses the same language in the Iliad in her lament for the death of Patroklos: "And yet you would not let me, when swift Achilles had cut down my husband [aner], and sacked the city of godlike Mynes, you would not let me sorrow, but said you would make me godlike Achilles' wedded lawful wife [kouridie alochos], that you would take me back in the ships to Phthia, and formalize my marriage among the Myrmidons", fl. XIX, 295-299; [alochos] and [akoitis] arc equivalents. The distinction between "abduction" and "love" is made by Boardman in a comparison of the Antiope motif with that of Penthesileia: "Penthesileia had set the fashion for loveable Amazons in action", "Herakles, Theseus and Amazons", p. 8.