In the Trojan War tradition, Achilles killed the Amazon queen Penthesilea. She came to Troy as an ally after Hector’s death and fought on the Trojan side against the Greeks.
Penthesilea is described as a daughter of Ares and a formidable warrior. Later epic traditions portray her leading a contingent of Amazons, the legendary warrior women associated with regions around the Black Sea and Anatolia.
Achilles defeated Penthesilea in combat. Several later accounts add that he fell in love with her after removing her helmet or seeing her face, creating a tragic contrast between admiration and the violence of war.
Penthesilea’s episode does not appear in the surviving text of the Iliad, which ends with Hector’s funeral. Her story belongs to the later epic tradition, especially material associated with the lost Aethiopis.