The Amazon and the Warrior
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Dia—Damon’s hunting falcon.
Valor—Pentha’s battle stallion.
Wolf (Little Wolf)—Damon’s wolf.
MYTHOLOGY AND TRADITION TELL US THE FOLLOWING:
ACHILLES––WAS KILLED BY PARIS, WHO SHOT AN arrow into Achilles’ right heel. That the great hero should be killed by a man generally agreed to be less than heroic and by such a seemingly trivial wound amazed many. It was explained that Achilles’ mother had dipped the baby Achilles into the river Styx to ensure that he would be immortal. But she held him by the right heel, which the water didn’t touch. Thus he had a vulnerable spot after all, hence the term “Achilles’ heel.” Achilles’ body was burned and his ashes, combined with those of Patroklos, were buried on a headland overlooking the Hellespont.
It is historical fact that the Persian ruler Xerxes, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Constantine, the Emperor Julian, and the poet Lord Byron are perhaps the most famous among the many who have made pilgrimages to the site in Turkey where this war was believed to have been fought, where the mighty Hektor fought the warrior Achilles, and where the great Achilles was said to be buried.
TROY—WAS NOT TAKEN by force but by cunning. Odysseus eventually devised a plan whereby the Acheans (Greeks) built an enormous wooden horse, the belly of which could hold hidden warriors. At night the horse was brought to the Trojan plain with Odysseus and others inside. The Acheans burned their camp and pretended to leave Troy, taking all their ships to sea and hiding behind Tenedos. In the morning, the Trojans found the astonishing horse. They also found a man who claimed that he had escaped from the Greeks. His story was that the Acheans had intended to sacrifice him to Athena to win her blessing for a safe voyage home. He also claimed the horse was left to honor Athena, and the Acheans (Greeks) hoped the Trojans would desecrate it, thus engendering Athena’s hatred. The Trojans bought the lies. And further, they brought the horse inside the citadel in order to honor Athena. That night the Achean warriors, led by Odysseus, crept out of the horse, opened the gates, and the Acheans flooded in, massacring the inhabitants and looting and burning the city—hence the saying, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”
THE MEN OF TROY––all save Aeneas, his father, and his son were slaughtered. Paris died from an arrow in battle. Hektor’s young son was thrown from the citadel wall. Aeneas fled with his father and son and according to one tradition ended up in Italy. According to that tradition, he was the grandfather of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, and so in a way, also Rome’s founder. It is historical fact that many Roman Caesars proudly traced their lineage to Aeneas of Troy.
THE WOMEN OF TROY—Cassandra was given as a slave and spoils of war to Agamemnon; Hekuba to Odysseus; Andromache to a son of Achilles who joined the Acheans not long after his father’s death. Helen was returned to Menelaus, who took her back to Sparta where one version of the myth says they lived together again happily, Helen greatly regretting the folly of her youth.
THE ACHEAN MEN—AJAX committed suicide. After Achilles’ death, a dispute occurred over who should receive his splendid armor, and when it was given to Odysseus, Ajax was so angry he threatened to kill some of the Greek leaders. When he realized the lack of honor in his threats, he took his life. He was also buried at Troy. Odysseus got lost for over ten years on his journey home and suffered greatly on his voyage (The Odyssey) before he finally made it back. Agamemnon returned home where his wife, Clytaemnesta, and her lover murdered him, and Cassandra as well. Nestor alone, of the most notable royals, returned home without tragedy or irony.
THE CITY OF EPHESUS was founded by Amazons. It is historical fact that the great temple to Artemis, built there hundreds of years later, was dedicated to Artemis and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. When the Apostle Paul preached to the Ephesians in the city’s great amphitheater in approximately 53 AD—roughly 1,300 years after the estimated time of the great war at Troy—the populace was enraged and are said to have shouted him down with the words, “Long live Artemis of Ephesus!”
THEMISKYRA ON THE RIVER Thermodon does not appear again in a particular story after Troy, but it retained its place as the ancestral home of the Black Sea Amazons. No place in modern Turkey has yet been identified as Themiskyra’s location. Amazons were believed to have fought in the Peloponnesia War (431–404 BC). Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons reigning during the time of Alexander the Great (323 BC), was said to hail from the region of Themiskyra. It is claimed she came to Alexander and proposed that the two of them conceive a child together who would be the greatest warrior and ruler the world had ever seen. Alexander agreed to the plan and he and Thalestris spent time together, but Thalestris returned home to Themiskyra and died childless. The story is disputed. After Alexander’s death, one of his generals, Lysimachus, is quoted as saying, “And where was I at the time.”
ABOUT AMAZONS
CLASSICAL GREEKS AND ROMANS BELIEVED FIRMLY in the reality of these beautiful and fierce warrior women from their past. But at some point, Amazons passed into Greek mythology. The veracity of tales involving them became suspect.
We have no proof they ever existed. We have hints that it is possible. Burials of women with the weapons of a warrior—sword, arrowheads, or body armor—have been found in areas where mythology generally placed the Amazons. But while such finds suggest a tradition of fighting women in the region, so far the burials come from a much later period.
In the old stories, the Amazons were always at war with the Greeks, and the Trojan War—whether this, too, was real or simply myth—was no exception. The Amazons fought with the Trojan defenders against the invading Greeks.
Many people think of Amazons as men-hating women. It is sad but true, however, that we often justify brutality against an enemy by demonizing them. So it’s not surprising that their enemies might have said that the Amazons were a race of man-haters and man-killers. That they not only lived separate from men, they ruthlessly killed their male children. Or that in order to better use their bows, they cut off their right breasts. One thing we do know: no paintings or statues from ancient times ever depict an Amazon without a breast. Quite the contrary. And while the sexes in a number of extant non-Western cultures may live fairly separate lives, we know of no culture where one sex lives totally separate from the other. This suggests that idea is also not likely true. When cultures clash, the winners live to tell the tales and write the history, and so our views about Amazons have been derived from the writings of patriarchal Greek and Western tales told hundreds of years after these extraordinary women, if they existed, passed from the world’s stage.
In Penthesilea you will live with Amazons. But be prepared to let go of millennia of Western myth. Be prepared to see their world with a fresh view. This is a story about Amazons—but told with a twenty-first century sensibility.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS BOOK STRUCK ME when viewing a sarcophagus from some ancient period in a museum in Turkey. Depicted there was the battle between the mighty Achilles and the great Amazon, Penthesilea. From that moment, I wanted the name of this woman of courage and beauty to live again.
I am especially indebted to my trusted friend and brilliant story editor, Peggy Lang. Her instincts about what works and what doesn’t are invaluable. Others who have critiqued all or parts of the manuscript are Mark Clements, Chet Cunningham, Donna Erickson, Barry Friedman, Robert Holt, Pete Johnson, Bev Miller, Ellen Perkins, Ken Schafer, and Tom Utts.
In the book I recite the story of Actaeon and Artemis, which is a classic, and my version is modified from Geocities’ website (www.geocities.com/Athen/Acropolis/4063/artemis.html).
Most important, my most profound gratitude goes to my editor at TOR, Greg Cox, a man who knew his history and mythology and has made my dream reality—to have Penthesilea’s name live once more in the people’s imagination.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Other fiction by Judith Hand:
Voice of the Goddess
Code Name Dove (writ
ing as Judith Leon)
Judith Hand has made the transition from left-brained scientist to right-brained novelist. Before she began writing fiction some twelve years ago, she was teaching Animal Behavior and Ornithology in the UCLA biology department.
She is the author of several novels and two screenplays. Her epic of the Minoan civilization, Voice of the Goddess, has won numerous awards. Her contemporary romantic thriller, Code Name Dove, features a female spy whose day job is to lead adventure tours and whose great personal love is photography. In all of her stories, she writes of strong, bold women, women who are doers and leaders.
An avid camper, classical music fan, and birdwatcher, she currently lives and Rancho Bernardo, CA. For more information about the author and her books, see her website at www.jhand.com.
Notes
1 See Michael Wood. 1998. In Search of the Trojan War. University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
THE AMAZON AND THE WARRIOR
Copyright © 2004 by Judith Hand
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
A Tor Book
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eISBN 9781466823358
First eBook Edition : June 2012
EAN 978-0765-34936-1
First edition: May 2004