fs, but rode horses, which must have
been the manner of their country.

Penthesilea was the tallest and most beautiful of the Amazons, and shone
among her twelve maidens like the moon among the stars, or the bright
Dawn among the Hours which follow her chariot wheels. The Trojans
rejoiced when they beheld her, for she looked both terrible and
beautiful, with a frown on her brow, and fair shining eyes, and a blush
on her cheeks. To the Trojans she came like Iris, the Rainbow, after a
storm, and they gathered round her cheering, and throwing flowers and
kissing her stirrup, as the people of Orleans welcomed Joan of Arc when
she came to deliver them. Even Priam was glad, as is a man long blind,
when he has been healed, and again looks upon the light of the sun. Priam
held a great feast, and gave to Penthesilea many beautiful gifts: cups of
gold, and embroideries, and a sword with a hilt of silver, and she vowed
that she would slay Achilles. But when Andromache, the wife of Hector,
heard her she said within herself, "Ah, unhappy girl, what is this boast
of thine! Thou hast not the strength to fight the unconquerable son of
Peleus, for if Hector could not slay him, what chance hast thou? But the
piled-up earth covers Hector!"

In the morning Penthesilea sprang up from sleep and put on her glorious
armour, with spear in hand, and sword at side, and bow and quiver hung
behind her back, and her great shield covering her side from neck to
stirrup, and mounted her horse, and galloped to the plain. Beside her
charged the twelve maidens of her bodyguard, and all the company of
Hector's brothers and kinsfolk. These headed the Trojan lines, and they
rushed towards the ships of the Greeks.

Then the Greeks asked each other, "Who is this that leads the Trojans as
Hector led them, surely some God rides in the van of the charioteers!"
Ulysses could have told them who the new leader of the Trojans was, but
it seems that he had not the heart to fight against women, for his name
is not mentioned in this day's battle. So the two lines clashed, and the
plain of Troy ran red with blood, for Penthesilea slew Molios, and
Persinoos, and Eilissos, and Antiphates, and Lernos high of heart, and
Hippalmos of the loud warcry, and Haemonides, and strong Elasippus, while
her maidens Derinoe and Clonie slew each a chief of the Greeks. But
Clonie fell beneath the spear of Podarkes, whose hand Penthesilea cut off
with the sword, while Idomeneu