Chapter 46 46

After Hector's funeral, the Trojans closed the city gates again.They were still full of mourning for the dead heroes, and were as sad as if Troy had been conquered and burned. When they were in grief and despair, suddenly they expected reinforcements unexpectedly.In Pontus, near the Telmodon River, in Asia Minor lived Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, and her female warriors, who were also the daughter of Ares, the god of war.The reason why she led the army to rescue Troy was partly because the nation liked war and adventure by nature, and partly because she had committed a sin unintentionally and needed atonement.Once when Penthesilea saw a sika deer while hunting, she raised her gun and threw it at the sika deer, but accidentally missed her beloved sister Hippolyta.The guilt weighed like a stone on Penthesilea's heart.Wherever she was, the Furies followed her, and no sacrifice could appease her wrath.Penthesilea hoped to get out of trouble with an expedition that would please the gods, so she chose twelve heroines to come to Troy.Although these twelve heroines are charming, they pale in comparison to their queen, Penthesilea.The queen is like the goddess of dawn who descended from the holy mountain of Olympus to the world accompanied by the goddess of timing.

The Trojans stood on the wall, and saw the beautiful and strong queen, in armor, leading his female warriors to the edge of the city.The Trojans flocked from all directions, and were amazed at the Queen's beauty.The expression on her face was both moving and majestic: There is a charming smile on his mouth, a pair of magical eyes under long eyelashes are shining brightly, his red face is charming and charming, and his whole body is full of youthful vitality.When the Trojans saw the queen, they immediately forgot their sorrow and cheered loudly.Even King Priam frowned, as if seeing the sunshine of hope in the darkness.But he thought of the sons who were killed. They were also majestic and energetic, and his joy was inevitably diluted.He welcomed the queen to the palace, treated her like his own daughter, ordered the most exquisite food to be served to her, and gave her many treasures, and promised to send her more gifts when Troy was rescued.

Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, arose from her seat of honor, and uttered a bold and terrible oath that no mortal would dare to make.She swore to the king that she would slay the godlike Achilles, conquer the Argives, and burn the enemy's warships. Andromache heard her words, and thought to himself: Poor man, do you know what you said?Are you mad that you cannot see that death is already beckoning before you?The Trojans worshiped my husband Hector as a god, but the son of Peleus slew him with a spear, and made him hate the battlefield! At this time, it was nearly dusk, and the heroines of the Amazons had dinner, and because of the exhaustion of the journey, they were led into the inner room by the maids to sleep.Penthesilea lay on the comfortable soft couch and soon fell asleep.Athena took the opportunity to make her have a dream that would destroy her.

She dreamed of her father Ares, who urged her to fight the fierce Achilles as soon as possible.She was so happy that her heart beat violently.When she woke up the next day, she thought that the vow she had made would be fulfilled that day.She jumped up, put on the gleaming armor which her father Ares had given her, fastened the greaves and breastplate, and put on a sword with a scabbard of silver and ivory.When she was clothed, she took up her shield, and put on her helm with its shining golden plume.In her left hand she holds two spears and in her right a double-headed ax given to her by the Goddess of Discord.The queen rushed out of the king's palace with the momentum of Zeus' thunderbolt shot down from the holy mountain of Olympus to the earth.

Penthesilea ran excitedly to the wall and encouraged the Trojans to fight bravely.The queen jumped on a beautiful fast horse, which was a gift from the wife of the wind god Boreas.Her female warriors also came on horseback.King Priam remained in the palace. He raised his hands and prayed to Zeus: "Zeus, father of all gods, please listen to my prayer. Let the Achaeans be defeated today by the daughter of Ares." lord, and bring her back safely to my palace. Do it for the honor of your mighty son Ares! Do it for the daughter of Ares, and for me! Please Please grant my wish, because I have suffered so much and lost so many sons. I am a person who needs God's blessing!" After he finished praying, he suddenly saw a goshawk flying from the upper left , holding a torn dove under its talons.Seeing this ominous omen, the king trembled all over, and fell into despair.

The Greeks in the camp of galleys were also taken aback by the sudden attack of the Trojans.They hurriedly put on their clothes and rushed forward fiercely.The battle began, the clash of spears and shields clanged, and before long, blood flowed all over the ground.Penthesilea led her female warriors in a frenzy among the Greeks, killing Morion and seven other Greek heroes.When the Amazonian heroine Cronia cut down Padarcus's friend Menipus, Padarcus was so enraged that he raised his spear and stabbed Cronia in the buttocks.Penthesilea slashed at his hand with her sword, but it was too late to save her friend.Colonia fell dead in the dust.The Greeks also hastened to rescue their companions.

Penthesilea attacked the Greeks fiercely again, forcing them to retreat steadily.The victorious queen shouted to them triumphantly: "Today I will avenge Priam. I want you not to go back to your hometown. Where is Diomedes? Where is Ajax? Achilles is here. Where did they go? Why didn’t they dare to challenge me?” After she finished speaking, she entered the Argosian team full of underestimation of the enemy, cutting with an axe, stabbing with a spear, or shooting the enemy with a bent bow and arrow. people.The sons of Priam and a troop of Trojan soldiers followed her.The Greeks were almost unable to resist the ferocious attack. Groups of soldiers fell down, or were crushed to death by Trojan chariots or trampled to death by horses.The Trojans felt that a god from heaven was coming to their aid, so they thought they were on the verge of defeating the Greeks.

But the noise of battle had not yet reached mighty Ajax and Achilles son of the gods.They still sit by the grave of Patroclus, deeply remembering their dead friend. The Trojans were already approaching the Greek camp of galleys.When they were about to burn the warship, Telamon's son Ajax suddenly heard the sound of fierce fighting, and he said to Achilles: "I heard the sound of fighting, let us fight back the Trojans, Don't let them burn our warships!" Achilles also heard the sound of fighting.They hurriedly put on their armor and ran towards the place where the sound of fighting sounded.

Seeing the two heroes rushing towards them in a panic, the Argives suddenly became more courageous.Achilles and Ajax immediately threw themselves into battle with valor.Ajax dealt with the Trojans. He swung his spear and killed four enemies in a row.Achilles fends off the Amazons, and four young female warriors die at his hands.Then, they joined forces and rushed towards the enemy's main force.After a while, a large part of the Trojans fell, and the rest fled with their heads in their arms. Seeing this, Penthesilea rushed towards the two heroes angrily.She threw her spear first at Achilles.Achilles raised his shield to block it, and the spear fell to the ground as if it had hit a rock.She raised a second spear, aimed at Ajax, and shouted at them: "You two braggarts, how dare you boast that you are the strongest hero. My first spear spares you, the second I want one of you to die! You will soon see that one woman is stronger than the two of you put together!" The two heroes laughed at her words.The queen's spear struck Ajax's greaves, but spared his flesh.Ajax turned away from the Amazon woman, turned and rushed to the Trojans, leaving Penthesilea to Achilles to clean up, because he believed that Achilles alone could defeat her.

Penthesilea sighed when he saw that the second spear had failed again.Achilles looked at her and said to her: "Woman, how dare you face the most powerful hero in the world? Didn't you see Hector trembling in front of me? You must be crazy, dare to threaten me with death, you know, your end is already Here we come." And he threw at the Queen of the Amazons his spear, a gift from his master, Chiron of Centaurus, which always hits the mark.The spear pierced the queen's right chest, and the wound immediately bled profusely.Penthesilea felt powerless, and the battle ax fell from his hand to the ground, and his eyes went black for a while.

The queen struggled to stand up on the horse, staring at the enemy rushing towards her and trying to drag her off the horse.She was thinking fiercely whether to draw her sword to resist, or to beg for mercy from the winner and let herself live.But Achilles made it too late for her to choose.Enraged by the queen's arrogance, he raised his spear and threw her down with his horse and man.She was pierced and fell to the ground dead. Seeing that the heroine died under the horse, the Trojans retreated to the city of Troy without any intention of fighting.The son of Peleus cried out excitedly: "Let you lie here, woman, feed the birds, feed the dogs! Who sent you to fight me? Maybe it was Priam, but what have you got?" What's the end?" He took off the dead man's helmet and looked at the dead man's face.Although the queen's face was covered with blood and dust, she still looked charming after death.The Greeks stood around the body, all marveling at her beauty.Even Achilles was deeply distressed. He looked at the queen for a long time and thought: He should not kill this stunning beauty, but should capture her and bring her back to Fuzia to be his wife.Achilles just stood there, motionless. The Danae gathered more and more, and they surrounded Penthesilea's body and began to strip her of her armor.But Achilles stood there dumbfounded, looking intently at the queen he had killed, and fell into deep sorrow, just as he had mourned his close friend Patroclus before. But Ares, the god of war in the sky, mourned his daughter's death more than anyone else.He made a rumbling thunder, and rushed down to the ground like lightning.Had Zeus not stopped him in time with a thunderstorm, he would have destroyed the Greeks. He heard the voice of Zeus in the thunderstorm, he didn't dare to violate the will of the father of all gods, he stood helplessly halfway and did not move forward. At this time, the ugly Thersites also came to look at the dead body of the queen, and he looked at Achilles standing there with a mocking look and said: "You are so stupid, why do you regret the death of a young woman? You know, she is the one who attacks us and wreaks havoc on us! What a womanizer you look! If you think all women should be your trophies, don't you worry that her spears will Did you kill? You are such a dissatisfied man!" Achilles was furious when he heard him say this, and he swung his fist at him, knocking out his teeth because of the force. and made him vomit blood at the mouth, and fell dead on the ground.No one on the sidelines sympathized with him, for his only skill was to taunt, and in battle he was a coward. However, there was one person who could not remain indifferent to Thersites' death, namely Diomedes, the son of Tydeus, because he was related to Thersites.Diomedes was very angry.He would have drawn his sword and fought Achilles had it not been for a few heroes of the Daneans to stop him.Peleus' son also apologized to Diomedes for killing Thersites by mistake.Therefore, the two sides did not fight. Priam laments the death of Queen Penthesilea.He sent to the barracks of the Greeks and demanded that the body be returned to him.The sons of Atreus also agreed to return the queen's body because they felt sorry for the queen.King Priam ordered people to build a tall pyre in front of the city, put the queen's body on it, and placed many precious funeral objects around it.He lit the firewood, and suddenly the flames rose into the air and burned blazingly.When the body was cremated, the Trojans standing around doused the embers with sweet wine.They picked up her bones and put them in a locket.Finally, the solemn funeral procession sent it to the tomb of King Laomedon near the tower in the city.The twelve female Amazon warriors who died in battle were also buried with her. The Greeks also buried their fallen in battle and mourned them.