Penthesilea. Penthesilea was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope and Melanippe. She assisted Troy in the Trojan War, during which she was killed by Achilles. In the five book epic Aethiopis, which was part of the Epic Cycle on the Trojan War, the coming to Troy of Penthesilea and Memnon was described in detail. The Aethiopis was published in the 8th century BC and is attributed to Arctinus of Miletus. The main character of the epic is Achilles, who fights Penthesilea and Memnon before he is himself killed. Although Aethiopis has been lost, the Epic Cycle has been adapted and recycled in different periods of the classical age. The tradition of retelling the epic fall of Troy is indebted to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which were grounded in oral storytelling and were only written down when the Greek alphabet was adopted in ancient Greece. In the Aethiopis Penthesilea is a Thracian woman warrior. She was an Amazon and daughter of Ares, who comes to help the Trojans. She arrived with 12 other Amazon warriors. After a day of distinguishing herself on the battlefield, Penthesilea confronts Achilles. Achilles kills her, but after taking off her helmet, he falls in love with her. Thersites rebukes Achilles for having fallen in love. Thersites is killed by Achilles, who travels to the island of Lesbos to be purified before returning to Troy and fighting Memnon. According to Homer, the Trojan king Priam had fought the Amazons in his youth on the Sangarius River in Phrygia, some 350 miles east of Troy. Later writers of the antiquity located Amazons geographically in Anatolia and started an epic tradition where Greek heroes, such as Heracles and Theseus, fought an Amazon warrior of distinction. The Aethiopis version of the Penthesilea legend has become known as the Homeric tradition. Different traditions of the Penthesilea legend appear to have existed in the time the Epic Cycle was published. In a lost poem of Stesichorus, believed to have been published in the 7th or 6th century, Penthesilea rather than Achilles had killed Hector. At the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, built in the mid-to late-5th century BC, scenes from the Trojan War are preserved in the Bassae Frieze, a high relief marble sculpture in 23 panels. Here the Greek army is charged by the Amazons, who gain the upper hand, and at the height of the battle Achilles slays Penthesilea on a slab known as BM 537. Achilles and Penthesilea are flanked by a Greek soldier and an Amazon. Penthesilea is identified as a queen by a crown. Penthesilea, shown on the ground just before being struck, and Achilles are exchanging a gaze. The final slab of the series on the Amazons depicts a truce between the Greek army and the Amazons at the end of the battle. According to Pausanias, the throne of Zeus at Olympia bore a painting by Panaenus of the dying Penthesilea being supported by Achilles. Pausanias wrote And, at the extremity of the painting, is Penthesilea breathing her last, and Achilles supporting her. The motive of Achilles supporting a dying or dead Penthesilea has been preserved at the Temple of Aphrodisias and was reinterpreted in sculptures and mosaics in ancient Rome. A black figure vase from about 510-500 BC shows Achilles carrying Penthesilea from the battlefield. The subject of Penthesilea was treated so regularly by the so called Penthesilea Painter, who was active between 470 and 450 BC, that Adolf Furtwangler dubbed him The Penthesilea Painter. A considerable corpus for this innovative and prolific painter, whose work bridged the Severe style and Classicism and must have had a workshop of his own, was rapidly assembled in part by J.D. Beazley. In the Pseudo-Apollodorus Epitome of the Bibliotheke she is said to have been killed by Achilles, who fell in love with the Amazon after her death and slew Thersites for jeering at him. In the 3rd century BC Lycophron went against the grain of the Homeric tradition. The poet had been born in Euboea, the site of a shrine to wounded Amazons who had fought in a mythic Battle for Athens. Lycophron tells the story of the young Amazon Clete, Penthesilea's attendant, who had been left behind in Pontus. Clete sets out with a company of Amazons to search for Penthesilea when she does not return from the Trojan War. The ship with Amazons is swept of course and after a shipwreck on the toe of Italy in Bruttium, Clete becomes the queen of the Amazons that settle there. In Virgil's Aeneid, written between 29 and 19 BC, the Trojan army falls back when Achilles advances.