1.1 Echidna

indomitable Echidna lives in the deepest caves of Earth
her home impregnable because fear is a fine guardian
even the storytellers can’t agree on her parentage
like a disowned child she escapes from them and descends
to her own realm …Echidna was keen on dogs … among her
children is Orthus with a reputation as bloodthirsty but
who trusts the tellers …I have heard that Orthus lays
his head on the lap of Echidna when he is hungry or in need
of affection …even those who frighten us might have
streaks of kindness …going one better than Orthus
Echidna gave birth to Cerberus a watchdog they say
with fifty heads a necessary feature when guarding the door
to the underworld …Echidna’s domain …Cerberus has
a huge head …all the better to scare you with …when he
opens his mouth wide his teeth are visible …rows
of them like a shark …continuing the theme of multiple
heads Hydra emerges with as many mouths and necks
as a watery delta leading to the sea …deathless Echidna
has all the time in the world to bear her children and to
oversee the children of her children …Hydra gave birth
to Chimaera three-headed a fire-tongued raging inferno
rampant on the three fronts of her three heads …a lion
a goat and a serpentine dragon … there is no stopping
this family … after Pegasus claimed to kill Hydra she gave
birth to Sphinx capable of turning human minds in circles
and Sphinx’s sibling …the lion of Nemea gold-furred with
claws the size of a human head terrifying and unbeatable
in battle … I have heard Echidna called macabre and
ferocious but for us Echidna is a protectrix …she holds
the old world in her mind and makes the new ones afraid

** 

1.2 Hecuba

I shall tell you more stories of the women …some
have died … they live on in the stories …others live
I will tell their adventures … but where to start today

with the old … Hecuba who saw her entire family
killed enslaved no one was spared even her grandchild
thrown from the ramparts …but Hecuba proved them
all wrong with an escape that not even Cassandra
predicted …Hecuba and her thousand hounds
this story lost through tales told by victors
the losers who escape take their tales to other lands
in this case north and east to Scythia …her favourite
son dead because he disobeyed her … her favourite
daughter longseeing Cassandra enslaved as she had
foreseen but having seen this was satisfied because
she could bring down the house of Atreus

…………………………………………………………………….Hecuba
has nightmares of Troy burning …spots the dogs running
through the ruins …she knows as every dog knows that
the top dog rules from behind …it’s her turn to take back
old ways where dogs guard death’s door …the moon spills
its light and dogs howl welcoming the soul in its passage
Hecuba leads her pack to other lands remaking them
human just as others far-flung across oceans say
dingo makes us human Hecuba runs over sand to
the sea for sheer joy runs out again shakes her body
sunlight shimmering in coruscating arcs Hecuba’s loss
becomes Hecuba’s bliss

** 

1.3 Penthesilea

Greek poets said that Penthesilea had been killed in the war
that should not have happened …they blame the war on
Helen but it is the actions of men that caused it and
continued it …Muses help me sing this tale as we have
seen it through Amazon eyes …that’s how they call us
we come from many and far places some barely known
to the Greeks …we have our own stories history
unknown to them passed down by us from generation
to generation …I am one of those entrusted with song
poems repeated and kept in memory with the help
of Mnemosyne mother of all the Muses

…………………………………………………………………Penthesilea
now famous because they said she was killed by
Achilles the dangerous …a man unable to control
his anger …he created division among his own
she led the Scythian women into battle
fighting alongside the Trojans …a city of high
culture where women mattered … Hecuba
more queen than Priam the king …it was her
line that counted as with all the Amazon tribes

Muse Kalliope sing with me as I sing for days
without end … your epic poems as long as the tail
of a comet passing overhead …filling the
spaces between the stars … let my voice ring out

I am old and have seen too much …I fear
it will be lost if I don’t speak it now … my eyes
are not as farseeing as they used to be but
my ears hear more than anyone suspects
I grew in the same generation as Penthesilea
we learned horse skills and archery … she
could ride in one direction twist …her body and
shoot in the other … her aim was sure her eye
never faltered

…………………along with Penthesilea rode twelve
companions …with names that say so much about their
characters …among them are wild-rushing Klonie
war-woman Polemousa battle-minded Derinoe
Antandre who resists men and Euandre from excellent
men thundering Bremousa and mighty mare Hippothoe
Harmothoe has a sharp spike Alkibie is powerful
Antibrote the equal of men and Derimadreia battle fighter

all these women came on to the battleground at Troy
companions in arms … Trojans excited at their approach
blinded by the dazzling sight of flashing armour

Priam dispirited by the death of so many at the hands
of the Greeks while still bound by grief welcomed
Penthesilea and put on a great banquet for the hope
they brought …she had come to kill Achilles …she and
her twelve companions slept until Dawn’s flaming fingers
lifted them from bed …Penthesilea was soon leading
the way on horseback to the battleground …her horned
shield shining like the silvery moon her horse …a gift
from the Hyperborean mountain-raging Oreitheia

the Greeks in their poems tell that seven of the twelve
were killed in the fighting among them and dearest
to Penthesilea Klonie …then they list Bremousa another
from Thermodon as well as Euandre of the good line
soon they say Derinoe Akibie and Derimacheia were
gone

………..but our story differs …those seven the poets
claimed had died …all returned home …making twelve
battle-scarred but not beaten …the Greeks can’t
stand stories of defeat and what happened next could
not be told in case the tale spread to Greek warrior
homes

………….inside the city walls the women of Troy seeing
the Amazons on the fighting ground were inspired
by them to take up their own arms and join the fight
Hippodameia spoke to them when she said in a loud
voice “We are as strong as Amazons and as strong
as our men ….our sight and hearing is strong…. our limbs
quick and agile ….we can climb mountains and ramparts
the only difference is what they say about us”

……………………………………………………………………at this
the women congregated like a swarm of bees in spring
they flew out through the high gate of Troy and joined
the Amazons ….for as Hippodameia…. said “Here are these
women fighting our war ….the least we can do is to
fight alongside them”

………………………………missing from the battlefield Ajax
and Achilles were unarmed and resting in the shade
Penthesilea and her companions had cleared the ground
of fighting men and heading for the ships when the women
of Troy came in force on to the battleground ….they joined
together and having reached the ships set them alight
Achilles and Ajax were late to the fight and watched
in disbelief as the ships went up in flames ….women
Amazons and the ordinary women of Troy were brandishing
burning torches ululating and whooping for joy ….that’s the story
Penthesilea told when she and her twelve companions
returned home

…………………..to have told the truth would have meant
shame for the Greeks…. their heroes not even dressed
to fight ….so when Achilles was killed by an arrow from
Paris the story was changed ….no one needed to know
that Achilles was not the hero and that Penthesilea
had returned to her homeland almost unscathed
the war was long ….the distance vast…. and who would
know if the epic poets sang their own song

……………………………………………………………indeed
they did with many embellishments saying that
Achilles had impaled her and her horse together and
bragged afterwards saying she should stick to women’s
work stitching garments and raising children
the poets said the Greeks fouled her body while the Trojans
retreated to the city the armies of women forgotten

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‘Echidna’ was first published in Australian Poetry Journal, Vol.14, No. 2, p. 17. 2025.

‘Hecuba’ was first published in Live Encounters: Poetry & Writing, February 2018. https://liveencounters.net/le-poetry-writing-2018/02-february-pw-2018/susan-hawthorne-guest-editorial-and-poems/

‘Penthesilea’ was first published in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies. Vol. 4, No. 1-2, 2025, pp. 9–12.

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Susan Hawthorne is a poet, novelist and publisher who lives and works on Djiru Country in Far North Queensland. Her most recent books are the novel Dark Matters and the poetry collection The Sacking of the Muses. Her book Cow was shortlisted for the Audre Lorde Poetry Prize and the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize.

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