The lipiad

Chapter 5 - the amazones fall to temptation

The next day, they awoke to find that their bellies were flat
once more. But though their limbs were thin, they were no
longer hard. The lines of their muscles had been filled in.
The Amazones despaired this, for they feared they would
no longer look mannish. As they departed their tents, they
saw that the same feast had reappeared and wailed with
sorrow, for they felt the food's temptation.

They resumed their training, hoping to lure their thoughts
elsewhere, but the roaring of their stomachs was too loud
to ignore. They tried to sate their bellies with the salted
meat, but after their feast, their own food tasted like sand
and ash on their tongues. So after many hours of trying,
their will eroded and they sat down to feast.

The devouring Amazones tried to limit the speed with which
they ate, but the rich tastes drove them to greater greed
and they ate as Danaän women did, holding food in both
hands the way the priestesses of Krete hold serpents. Their
bellies swelled as if with child, and they became drunk on
the sweetened wine, drinking it like it was water.

Becoming greedy in her drunken state, Penthesilea spoke:
"If this is what it means to live like an Achaian, then let us
all make wives of their kings and become fat queens!"

Though she and her sisters laughed at her words, the
thought of abandoning their lives and living in the Argive
way no longer disgusted them as it once may have.

When the sun set on the second day, they had finished
their feast in the way they had the first, and retired to
their tents for the night. Throughout the night, one could
hear bursts of Borean air from their mouths, though quiet
and covered with their hands out of shame.

The next morning, they emerged again and saw another
feast awaiting them. They debated whether to continue
their training, but they made up their minds in moments
and sat down to feast again. Thus, this day proceeded
much like the first two.

On the fourth morning, they looked down to realize that
their bellies were no longer flat, even when they had no
food within. Similarly, their breasts were no longer flat
against their chests, but now rose and swayed slightly
when they walked. These features were but foothills when
compared to the mountains of Achaian women, but still
larger than the features of any woman of the Amazones.

Derinoë, one of their number, cried out when she saw
herself and her sisters: "Behold our forms, fat and wretched!
We are a mockery of soldiers, an insult to our warlike father
Ares! We must reduce ourselves if we are to ever return
to our homeland without shame!"

But when she emerged and saw the feast awaiting her, she
sat at the bench and ate without hesitation. Her sisters
joined her, and the day proceeded much like the first three.

They continued to feast like this for an entire month, and
they grew with each passing day. Now that their bellies
and breasts were round, they did not notice how large
they had become from day to day, only noticing when their
growing bodies gave them some new and strange
experience.

On the seventh day, after finishing their feast, Penthesilea
trumpeted from her buttocks as she stood up from the
table. It was a single note, short and low, but loud enough
for all her sisters to hear. The Amazones had gotten used to
bursts of Borean wind during and after eating, but
Penthesilea was the first to release a southern wind in the
presence of others.

Red-faced Penthesilea despaired and spoke: "O terrible
shame, how far I have fallen! For not only have I made to
eat like an Achaian woman, but now I smell like one, too!"
Evandre made an attempt to comfort the spirit of her
queen by dipping her hands in a bowl of stew, wiping them
on her face and breasts and stomach, and releasing wind
herself, as she cried: "Snort, snort, I am an Achaian! You
shall never be as fine a woman as I, thin-limbed Penthesilea,
for I have claimed the finest mud for myself! Snort, snort!"
Penthesilea laughed at the sight, her shame forgotten, and
retired to her tent with her sisters.

On the fourteenth day, they sat down to feast, and indignant
Antandre turned to Bremousa and spoke: "Move yourself
over, hippopuge, your hips are touching mine!"

Bremousa made answer: "I cannot, for my neighbor's are
touching mine!"

Going around the table, each woman revealed that their
hips, once with bountiful space between each other, were
now bountiful themselves and touched their neighbor's. They
wailed in despair, upset at how much they had grown fat.
But Penthesilea silenced them and said: "We may all be
hippopugai now, but I am hungry, so let us eat like horses!"
And so they feasted as normal.

The next day, when Notean Penthesilea trumpeted again at
the table, her sisters did not comment on it. Nor did they
when more of their own began to do so. Soon, it became
commonplace for all of their number to release northern
and southern winds during and after their feasts, for it was
soothing to their stomachs and sweet to their ears.