Queens of Themiscyra (Retold: The Grecian Women)

by Hannah M. Lynn

She caught Aegeus’ eye once more before she left, the light twinkling so brightly it was as if he were lit from within. Love for family did that, she realised.

Whatever memories had been attached to them were now little more than ashes in the embers of their relationship.

Only when Hippolyte pressed the heels of her hands to her forehead and asked two simple questions, did she feel so enraged that she knew she had to speak again. “What did I do wrong?” she asked. “Why was I not enough?” Penthesilea’s fury was as hot and dangerous as smelted iron on skin, and she made no attempt to cool it. “You? It was not you who was not enough. You were too much for him, Sister. Always too much. Too strong. Too powerful. Too smart. Too compassionate. Too brave. Too loving. He tried to knock these wonderful qualities out of you and bring you down to his level, but he could not succeed. He did not replace you because you were inadequate, my darling Sister, believe me. He replaced you because he knew you were more than he could ever live up to.”

Hippolyte was the Queen of the Amazons. Invincible in human terms. Fearless. How was it possible that any man could break her like this?

“Sister. He has wronged you. In so many ways.”

He was my husband, she wanted to shout at them. He promised me a lifetime of love, and this is how he treated me. He does not care about Athens or his people. He cares only for himself.

He knew that she had seen him for what he was. A liar, a manipulator, a narcissist.

But then, if she had learnt anything of people, it was that you rarely knew what they were capable of, until it was too late.

The same stories were repeated nightly and often by Penthesilea herself. Her dream was that each girl should be able to recount the lives of their ancestors. It would be a way to honour her sisters, which she hoped would be passed down from generation to generation,