H. Allenger’s “Polyxena” also highlights Amazonian Queen Penthesileia who helps Troy in their fight against the Greeks

Polyxena by H. Allenger is as much a book of fiction as it is of mythology, which makes the book both enticing and popular to readers.

That is why most of the characters in the book look familiar to us, not the least of them the Amazonian Queen Penthesileia. She was approached by our eponymous heroine in the aftermath of the fall of Troy to help in her father’s, King Priam, fight against the Greeks.

It is shown in the book that Penthesileia has a personal hatred against the Greeks. From Polyxena:

“You all know I do not like the Greeks. My dealings with them have never been to my satisfaction. They flaunt their alleged superiority over us, declaring us to be barbarians and thinking it beneath their dignity to conduct proper relations with us. I say to you, it is time to put them in their place. Let them feel the stings of the arrows we barbarians will inflict upon them.”

There are speculations that she was a mercenary seeking gold or that she was only seeking redemption after accidentally killing her sister. In the battles which ensued Penthesileia slew the Greek Makhaon (Machaon) but was in turn killed by Achilles. When he lifted her helm he fell in love with the queen and agreed to return her body unharmed to Troy for proper burial.