ABSTRACT
Queen of the Amazons; a daughter of Ares and the Amazonian Queen Otrere. Having accidentally killed an ally-or her sister Hippolyta-she was purified of the homicide by King Priam of Troy. In consequence, she came to his aid in the Trojan War. The Amazons killed many Greeks in battle, but in the end she herself was killed by Achilles. After he had stripped her of her armour, he gazed on her corpse and fell in love with it. Thersites, however, jeered at Achilles for his sentimentality, whereupon the hero laid him out with a single blow. In later myth a son, Caistus, was attributed to Achilles and Penthesilea.
