After Hector's death the war did not end — the Amazon Penthesilea came to Priam's aid and fell to Achilles; then Memnon king of the Ethiopians avenged her, slew Antilochus, and was himself killed; Paris and Apollo brought down Achilles at the Scaean gate; and at the funeral games the arms of the hero were judged to Odysseus, driving Ajax to madness and death.1
Penthesilea and the Amazons⚖
When Hector was dead, Penthesilea daughter of Ares and Otrera led her Amazons to Troy. Achilles met her in battle and killed her — an episode outside the Iliad, preserved in the Epic Cycle. Apollodorus adds that Thersites mocked Achilles' grief for the Amazon and was slain for it.2
Memnon and Antilochus
When Penthesilea fell, Memnon son of Eos and Tithonus came next with a great force of Ethiopians — the nested episode on Memnon the Ethiopian tells how he killed Antilochus, how Achilles avenged the Pylian runner, and how Odysseus would later remember the king of the Ethiopians among the comeliest champions at Troy.3
The death of Achilles
Paris shot Achilles at the Scaean gate, Apollo guiding the arrow to the hero's vulnerable heel. Ajax and Odysseus fought off the Trojans and carried the body from the field while the son of Peleus' armour was stripped from the corpse.4
Funeral games and the arms of Achilles
At the funeral games for Achilles, Ajax won the contest of the quoit — and then the arms of the dead hero were set up as a prize for the bravest. The nested episode on Ajax and the Arms tells the contest with Odysseus, Athena's madness, and the Telamonian's suicide; his shade, met later in Hades, still kept its wrath. Troy still stood; the nested Little Iliad tells what followed.5
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Episodes
How the centuries saw it
Achilles Killing Penthesilea (Penthesilea Painter kylix)
Penthesilea Painter, c. 470–460 BC
Munich kylix tondo: Achilles drives his spear into the falling Amazon — the Aethiopis duel that later tradition said left him stricken with love.
Achilles and Penthesilea
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, c. 1823
Tischbein stages the aftermath: Achilles supports the dying Amazon — recognition arriving a breath too late.
Eos Lifting the Body of Memnon (Douris kylix)
Douris, c. 490–480 BC
Louvre G 115: winged Eos gathers Memnon's corpse after Achilles' kill — the Aethiopis as a mother's recovery of Ethiopia's champion.
Hydria with the Fight of Achilles and Memnon
Unknown (Corinthian), c. 575–550 BC
Walters hydria: Achilles and Memnon duel while Thetis and Eos look on — Troy's two greatest living heroes before either falls.
Penthesilea
Arturo Michelena, 1891
Michelena's Amazon queen armed for Troy — the sovereign warrior who will die under Achilles' spear in the lost epic after Hector.