In Classical Greek mythology, Hippolyta, or Hippolyte, was a daughter of Ares and Otrera, queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore her father Ares’ zoster, the Greek word found in the Iliad and elsewhere meaning “war belt.” Some traditional English translations have preferred the more feminine-sounding “girdle.” Hippolyta figures prominently in the myths of both Heracles and Theseus. The myths about her are varied enough that they may therefore be about several different women. The name Hippolyta comes from Greek roots meaning “horse” and “let loose.” In the myth of Heracles, Hippolyta’s belt was the object of his ninth labour. In the myth of Theseus, the hero joined Heracles in his expedition, or went on a separate expedition later, and was actually the one who had the encounter with Hippolyta. She was taken to Athens where she was wed to Theseus. In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hippolyta is engaged to Theseus, the duke of Athens.
Appearance List Literary: Herodotus’ Histories (c. 440 BCE) in which the Amazons are treated as a quasi-historical tribe, Euripides’ Hippolytus (428 BCE), Euripides’ Heracleidae (The Children of Heracles) (c. 430s BCE), Euripides’ Theseus or Antiope (lost, fragmentary play, mid-5th century BCE), Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca (Library of Greek Mythology) (1st or 2nd century CE), “The Knight’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1390s), Palamon and Arcite by Richard Edwardes (1566), A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (1595–96), The Two Noble Kinsmen by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare (1613–14), “Palamon and Arcite” in Fables, Ancient and Modern, by John Dryden (1700). Film: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1909). Comics: Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Boy Comics #9.
Description In Classical Greek mythology, Hippolyta, or Hippolyte, was a daughter of Ares and Otrera, queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore her father Ares’ zoster, the Greek word found in the Iliad and elsewhere meaning “war belt.” Some traditional English translations have preferred the more feminine-sounding “girdle.” Hippolyta figures prominently in the myths of both Heracles and Theseus. The myths about her are varied enough that they may therefore be about several different women. The name Hippolyta comes from Greek roots meaning “horse” and “let loose.” In the myth of Heracles, Hippolyta’s belt was the object of his ninth labour. In the myth of Theseus, the hero joined Heracles in his expedition, or went on a separate expedition later, and was actually the one who had the encounter with Hippolyta. She was taken to Athens where she was wed to Theseus. In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hippolyta is engaged to Theseus, the duke of Athens.
