Amena (Annabel Scholey) is an antagonist in the Epix television series “Britannia” that began in 2018. The series is set to begin its third season in 2021.
Amena is a queen-in-waiting for the throne of the Cantii tribe. She is married to the heir, Phelan (Julian Rhind-Tutt) as well as to Lindon (Stanley Weber), who is the son of a Gaulish prince at the Druids order. Amena cares about nothing but the throne and will do anything to achieve her goal. Along the way to achieving this goal, she manipulates member of the royal court for her own ambitions, while appearing to be supportive. Amena is driven, manipulative, is a touch delusional, but she always seems to know all the secrets.
Amena is unhappy with her husband Phelan, for not pressuring the Druid king Veran (Mackenzie Crook) into favoring himself to take over his father’s throne following his sacrifice. When Phelan is bypassed for the throne by his younger sister, Kerra (Kelly Reilly), she is irate. She drinks herself into a fit, and when Phelan comes in to see her, she declares that Kerra could barely hide her grin. When Phelan rejects this synopsis, she attacks his manhood, declaring him weak and lilly-livered. The god’s would never have chosen him and if she was a man, she would already be attending to the new queen’s every desire. Her mockery inflames Phelan into striking her and she attacks him in a fury. He pulls his blade and she urges him on, until they attempt to couplet, something he seems unable to rise to the occasion for. She laughs and tells him to try his sister. After Phelan storms out, Lindon comes in the tent to see to her and tells her she is drunk. She accuses Phelan and Kerra of sleeping together despite being siblings, declaring that they have been doing it for years. Amena asks if Lindon enjoyed his night with her and asks if Kerra was as good as her, and if she is still beautiful to him. Phelan responds that she is, but only on the outside. Amena orders him out of the tent and is later seen stumbling into the Druid’s camp declaring that she is ready and asks to see Veran. Willa (Jodie McNee) asks if she is sure and then guides her into the main tent where a dust is blown into Amena’s face, intoxicating her. After demanding one more time to see Veran, Willa tells her that they are going to see how ready she truly is. Amena is led over and descends into the druid orgy. Lindon then enters to see Amena partaking in the orgy.
At the coronation ceremony, Amena approaches Kerra to pronounce her fealty to her. During the embrace, she uses a knife to cut a locket of Kerra’s hair. Later in her room, Amena performs a satanic ceremony with a pentagram on the floor uses the locket of hair to summon a demon to help her kill Kerra. While leaving the castle in a rage, she runs into The Outcast (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), who claims he is her demon sent to take Kerra to the underworld. Amena is able to sneak The Outcast into the castle stronghold.
Amena is finally able to achieve her main ambition of being Queen of the Cantii tribe, when she becomes the lover of Aulus. Here she lives a life of luxury as well as being the go between with the Roman Empire. Aulus requests her help in bringing the other Celt tribes on the side of the Romans. Amena started by going to tribes who had problems with the Druids. In particular the seemingly arbitrary decisions made when directing the Cantii and the Regni tribes. She highlighted how the Druid decision-making damaged the Cantii in particular. She also put into question the Druids’ apparent disappearance from society, but she would soon realize questioning the power of the Druids would have a price.
Aulus directed Amena to confront her past and visit her sister, Andra, Queen of the Devni (Samantha Colley), where there is a landmark important to the Druids, a sacred lake. Her past horrors are revealed where she was raped by her father on the night of the Solstace. As a result, she was hidden away until the baby was born and then sent off to the Canti to be married. The child grew up to believe she was Amena’s younger sister.
Amena was eventually shunned by her own people for brokering a pact with Rome, and her tribe’s elders regard her as a whore for those services. Amena was sentenced to be put to death by her own people in Devni. However, once the secret is revealed by Harka, the Queen slit her own throat in front of her mother. The rest of Devni burned themselves to death in mourning, leaving Amena shell shocked and alone.
At the end of the second season, she bumped into her former husband Phelan, who was down and out just like her.
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