The tradition of retelling the epic fall of Troy is indebted to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which were grounded in oral storytelling and were only written down when the Greek alphabet was adopted in ancient Greece.

[4] According to Homer, the Trojan king Priam had fought the Amazons in his youth on the Sangarius River in Phrygia, some 350 miles east of Troy.

Achilles drags the greatest Trojan warrior, Hector, around the city walls and sells his dead body to king Priam for gold.

[11] According to Virgil, Penthesilea led an army of Amazons and is a bellatrix (Latin for "female warrior") who dared to fight men (audetque viris concurrere virgo).

[14] In his universal history Bibliotheca historica, Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC celebrated Penthesilea as the last Amazon to win renown for valour in war.

Diodorus wrote that after the Trojan War the Amazons diminished and tales of their former glory began to be considered mere legends.

[15] In the 4th century AD, the imperial Greek poet Quintus Smyrnaeus made Penthesilea the subject of the first book in Posthomerica.

[17] Antimachus' daughter Tisiphone gives an inspirational speech: "not in strength are we inferior to men; the same our eyes, our limbs the same; one common light we see, one air we breathe; nor different is the food we eat.

"[18][19] At the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, built in the mid- to late-5th century BC, scenes from the Trojan War are preserved in the Bassae Frieze, a high relief marble sculpture in 23 panels.

Here the Greek army is charged by the Amazons, who gain the upper hand, and at the height of the battle Achilles slays Penthesilea on a slab known as BM 537.

[22] The motif of Achilles supporting a dying or dead Penthesilea has been preserved at the Temple of Aphrodisias and was reinterpreted in sculptures and mosaics in ancient Rome.

A considerable corpus for this innovative and prolific painter, whose work bridged the Severe style and Classicism and must have had a workshop of his own, was rapidly assembled[24] in part by J.D.

Along the Terme River, various temple burial sites attest to the heroic status Penthesilea had as Amazon queen in the Middle Ages.

The 1405 Chronicle (known as Haagse handschrift) by the herald Baviere included Penthesilea and the two Amazons Semiramis and Tomyris among the strong women.

[29] After recounting Penthesilea's accomplishments in De Mulieribus Claris Boccaccio wrote that "if we remember that practical experience can change natural dispositions" the legends of the Amazons become plausible.

He wrote that "through practice, Penthesilea and women like her became much more manly in arms than those born male" who had been weakened through idleness and love of pleasure.

The notion that upbringing and training were central to gender differences was discussed by Agostino Strozzi and Mario Equicola in 16th century Italy.

The Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck wrote a 90' one-act opera, Penthesilea (Dresden, 1927) based on Kleist's drama.

The French composer Pascal Dusapin's opera based on Kleist's work premiered in 2015 at La Monnaie in Brussels under the baton of Ludovic Morlot.

[33] In Edward Bellamy's 1888 book Looking Backward, the main character (Julian West) is transported in time from 1887 (discovery date of the asteroid Penthesilea) to 2000.

The title of this book is "Penthesilia" [sic] and it is a romance that supposedly exposes the true power and fullest extent of love.