This story is typical for many myths about Amazons: a foreign, female warrior challenges a Greek, male hero like Bellerophon, Heracles, Theseus and the Athenians, even Alexander the Great. Fifth-century lekythos with an Amazon, carrying an axe
The ancient artists knew a good story when they heard one: representations of Achilles and Penthesileia usually show them looking into each other's eyes. While the Trojans are burying her, one of the Greek soldiers, Thersites, blabs out that Achilles had been in love with the dead Amazon. note The sequel to the Iliad, the (lost) Aethiopisby Arctinus of Miletus, begins with the arrival of the Amazon queen Penthesileia, “a daughter of Ares and of Thracian race” according to Proclus’ summary, who is a valiant fighter but is killed by Achilles. The first record of the Amazons in Greek literature can be found in Homer’s Iliad, in which the female warriors are called ἀντιάνειραι, “equal to men”. Foreign Female Fighters Achilles kills Penthesileia, shown on the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
Amazons (Greek Ἀμαζόνες): in Greek myth, a foreign nation of female warriors.
