'Penthesilea' is the autobiographic play of Kleist par excellence. The plot takes place during the Trojan War. It is about a completely imaginary story concerning the war between the Amazons and the Greeks, who have camped in the plains in front of the country of Troy. Between the two lovers, the warlike queen of Amazons Penthesilea and Achilles, leader of the Greeks, the Trojan War is flaring up. The dangerous love game connecting them evolves in a frightful blood orgy. Love is identified with the function of death and disaster to the moment when Penthesilea devours her desirable love partner and afterwards she commits suicide using her poetic speech as a weapon.
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