Death of an Amazon

Abstract

The picture I show for the lead illustration of this essay is a close-up of the face of a dying Amazon. She is Penthesileia, daughter of the war-god Ares. The close-up comes from an ancient Athenian vase painting that pictures this Amazon at the moment of her death, killed by the hero Achilles, with whom she is engaged in mortal combat, one-on-one. And, at this precise moment of death, the Amazon looks up at her killer, Achilles, while he, in turn, is looking down at her. As their eyes meet, Achilles falls in love with Penthesileia, but now it is too late: a fatal wound is about to penetrate the beautiful body of the Amazon. In my book about ancient Greek heroes, I comment on this fatal erotic moment in some detail, arguing that Achilles and Penthesileia are heroic body-doubles of each other—one male and one female. In my essay here, however, I extend my understanding of the description I just gave,“heroic,” since I will argue that Achilles and Penthesileia are not only epic heroes. The parallelism between them is deeper, since they are also, both of them, cult heroes.