HIPPOLYTA
Real Name: Hippolyta (also spelled Hippolyte)
Occupation: Monarch
Legal Status: Citizen of New Themiscyra ("Paradise Island")
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Hippolyta except as a mythological character.
Other Aliases: Wonder Woman
Place of Birth: Unrevealed, possibly Samothrace in the Aegean Sea
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Ares (father), Otrera (mother, possibly deceased), Zeus (grandfather), Antiope, Penthesiliea, Melanippe, Hiera (sisters, deceased), Hippolytus (nephew, deceased), Harmonia (maternal grandmother), Aphrodite (ancestor), Diana (daughter, alias Wonder Woman), Drusilla (possible adopted daughter)
Group Affiliation: ally of the Gods of Olympus
Base of Operations: Paradise Island, formerly Themiscyra (now part of modern Turkey)
First Appearance: (historical) All-Star Comics #8, (modern) Thor I #127
History: Hippolyta is the daughter of the war-god Ares and Otrera, a daughter of Zeus. Raised in the arts of warfare, she and her sisters became ruthless in ancient times for attacking and destroying the villages of Ancient Greece, killing men and abducting female children to indoctrinate into their order. Called Amazons (Latin for "breastless" as it was rumored they cut off their right breasts to be more proficient in the bow and arrow), they once protected the ancient cow-goddess Io in order to receive the honors of Zeus.
As Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta decided twelve generations later to graciously receive Hercules and the Argonauts as the son of Zeus came to collect Hippolyta's girdle on his Ninth Labor. Hera, however, hoped to make trouble for her hated step-son in what was turning out to be too easy a labor for him. Posing as a Amazon, she incited the Amazons into bloodshed by claiming that Hercules had come to kill Hippolyta. Fighting for their lives, the Argonauts ended up killing or abducting many of the Amazons as wives or mistresses. To protect Hippolyta, her sister Antiope masqueraded as her and was carried off by Theseus as his bride as a result. In Athens, she eventually giving birth to his son, Hippolytus.
Hippolyta rallied the remaining Amazons and stormed Athens a year later on a rescue mission to free Antiope but learned that she had been murdered ruthlessly by Theseus’s treacherous wife, Phaedra. Theseus surrendered her body to them if they would not ransack his city and Hippolyta gave him his word. Another generation later, Hippolyta and the Amazons made peace with King Priam of Troy after attacking it several times in the past. Priam asked them to help defend it during the Trojan War, but Hippolyta’s sister Hiera lost her life in the war and her other sister Penthesilia was seized by Achilles who had fallen in love with her and considered her his ideal mate. Retreating back to Themiscyra, Hippolyta lamented the loss of her sisters and according to one rumor attempted to use the Amulet of Pazuzu to restore them to life. Aphrodite warned her that to do so would force her to sell her soul to the ancient Mesopotamian demon. She also reminded her that all her misfortunes and tragedies were due to the Amazons following the teachings of Ares. Aphrodite challenged them to follow them for a change and she lead them to a Western island in the Caribbean supposedly left intact after the sinking of Atlantis millennia before. Restoring the ruins on the island, Hippolyta called the island New Themiscyra, but in later years, it was nicknamed Paradise Island.
Hippolyta, however, eventually began desiring a daughter to call her own and possibly upon recalling the legend of the sculptor Pygmalion, she began molding a baby girl out of enchanted clay from the island. She then asked Aphrodite to bring it to life. All the goddesses of Olympus placed enchantments on it and Gaea herself placed the spirit of a child killed in infancy within it to bring it to life. Hippolyta named the living infant Diana after the Olympian goddess and raised her as her own daughter.
The god Ares, however, was released from his ancient imprisonment in recent years and reportedly stirred the events that led to World War Two. Aphrodite appeared to Hippolyta to choose a worthy adversary to oppose him. Hippolyta decreed all the Amazons that lived on the island compete in Olympic games to decide the most worthy champion. Hippolyta however refused Diana, who was now a grown woman from competing because she preferred to keep her home as her heir. Diana, however, competed in a disguise and easily won the tournaments. Shocked, Hippolyta had no choice but to honor the pact she had made with the gods and christened her daughter, "Wonder Woman." In the outside world, Wonder Woman became a costumed heroine in what she called Man’s World and returned home after the war, but she has since returned to it as a founding member of the Justice League of America. Ares, meanwhile, strived to return the Amazons to their war-like ways and clashed with Wonder Woman several times to force them back into bloodshed even going as far as taking Wonder Woman back in time to meet Xena. Hades, the god of the dead, however, was often using Hippolyta as his unwitting ally to gain control over Olympus. He placed Hippolyta in his control for her to be reunited in a scheme against Hercules. Hippolyta, however, wished not Hercules' death, but rather his love out of her unconscious bond with Aphrodite. Hades and Hippolyta duped him into signing a contract to remain in Hades by posing as a movie producer and an actress, but Hercules was freed with Thor's help.
Hippolyta and Ares were soon recruited by Hades to marry Hercules and Aphrodite into marriages that would bind them from interfering in anymore of his plans to conquer Olympus. Zeus withdrew his edicts for the marriage once he realized what Hades long-term plans were, but this plan also failed. The confrontation also served to unite the short-lived West Coast team of the Champions.
Thor and Wonder Woman later broke the influence Ares and Hades on Hippolyta, but then Hades then possibly recalled her deceased sister languishing in the underworld and had restored her to life by convincing her that she was Hippolyta with memories taken from the Amazon Queen. Still retaining her warlike ways plus incensed by her treatment by Phaedra, Antiope posed as an innocent woman who Hercules saved from being hit by a car. He accompanied her back to her apartment, which was actually one of Mt. Olympus' touchstones on Earth where she claimed herself as Hippolyta. Furious over his spurning of her love, she attacked and tried to kill him, her own strength greatly amplified by the Gauntlets of Ares, which the war-god had given her. However, in the course of the battle, they collapsed some immense pillars. Hercules caught the pillar to save Hippolyta, but because of its mystical ties to the firmament of Olympus, he alone could not hurl it away. As Hippolyta, Antiope had merely to stand back and watch Hercules be crushed, but her conscience tied into memories taken from her sister wouldn’t allow her to do it. She added her strength to his in tossing the pillar aside. Saying they made better friends than enemies, Hercules offered her his hand in peace. Disgusted, she slapped it away, asking why she would want his hand when she couldn't have his heart. She told him she had repaid her debt to him for saving her life, but that some day she would have her revenge. Years later, this new Hippolyta formed a street gang out of female runaways and named the Bacchae after the blood-crazed followers of Dionysus. After the group ran across the Fantastic Four, she joined them in infiltrating FF Headquarters where she clashed with the female warrior Caledonia and abducted her to Hades to humiliate her. Caledonia's friends and young wards came to her rescue and retrieved her from Hades.
Antiope later lead an attack on the Olympian gods, who were now living on Earth in the aftermath of the attack on Olympus by Mikaboshi, the Japanese god of evil. Trying to remake the world into her own creation, she lead an attack on the gods but was slain by Artume, her daughter and beheaded. Her shade was later observed in the underworld trying to barter her way into restoring her life on Earth.
After several adventures with Wonder Woman that took her away from Paradise Island, Hippolyta was often accused of neglecting her responsibilities among the Amazons. Part of the dissension came from members of a rival tribe of Amazons from Bagh-Midhall in Africa who had come to live on Paradise Island. Hippolyta lost her throne as a result which resulted in the Amazons losing their divine immortal gifts imparted on them by the gods. Hippolyta continued mentoring Wonder Woman in adventures afterward, but in battle against Imperiax, a foe of the Justice League, she lost her life in an explosion while replacing her daughter in combat.
Hippolyta was mystically restored to life some time later by Circe, who imprinted her own personality into Hippolyta's mind. Hippolyta ended up facing her daughter in combat in several times, but Wonder Woman managed to defeat her each time. In retaliation, Circe scattered the Amazons across the Earth and mystically exiled Hippolyta to Paradise Island, accompanied by just a few surviving Amazons.
In recent years, the Flash,
one of Wonder Woman's teammates in the Justice League, altered the timeline in
order to undo alterations in history created by the Reverse-Flash. In doing so,
he altered history into diverging an alternate reality now known as Prime Earth
incorporating heroes from two rival time-lines. In this reality, Wonder Woman is
the daughter of Zeus
and Hippolyta. Not much is known about this alternate reality version of
Hippolyta or how it compares to the Hippolyta of the mainstream universe.
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 390 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde (Black in her youth)
Strength Level: Hippolyta possesses superhuman strength enabling her to
lift (press) 50 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Hippolyta possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Olympian Gods. Like all Olympian Gods, she is extremely long-lived, but without ambrosia, she is not entirely immortal. She has only superficially aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any known conventional means. She is immune to all known terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If wounded, her godly life force would enable her to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of her bodily molecules to cause her a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for Zeus or a number of gods of equal power working together to revive her. Hippolyta does have some superhuman strength and her own Olympian metabolism gives her far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Olympian’s superhuman strength and weight).
Hippolyta has greater strength, stamina and resistance to injury than any other Amazon or Olympian goddess, except for her daughter Diana. She has above average prowess in armed and unarmed combat taught by Ares himself.
Hippolyta also has low level mystical abilities which largely remain unrevealed. She can call the gods of Olympus to Earth and her temperament can have an affect on the weather. When she is upset or aggravated, the wind can pick up or become obvious. She has limited clairvoyant skills and can communicate with her daughter telepathically over vast distances.
Paraphernalia: Hippolyta and Antiope can further enhance their strength by donning the Gauntlets of Ares. They can grant her close to Class 100 strength, but they are only effective in combat. They do not grant strength unless used in a fight against another. In ancient times, she wore a girdle of adamantine that lacked enchantments which became the object of Hercules's tenth labor.
Comments: This bio describes Hippolyta as she has appeared in Marvel and DC Comics with some emphasis on the DC Comics version.
Hippolyta was played by actresses Chloris Leachman and Carolyn Jones in the "Wonder Woman" TV-Series (!976-1979).
Themiscyra, the mythological home of the Amazons, was originally an city near the mouth of the Thermodon River on the Black Sea near modern-day Termeh in Asia Minor (now modern Turkey).
In Greek myth, it is usually claimed that Hippolyta that was killed in the skirmish with Hercules, but most accounts do confirm she was confused with Antiope, who was Queen of the Amazons when Theseus arrived.
In the DC Universe, the Amazons were created from clay by the female Gods of Olympus. This plot device in light of the mythology of the characters could be conceived as apocryphal especially since this incident predates the worship of the Olympian gods in Greece; however, recent accounts have forced this belief to be be accurate.
Clarifications: Hippolyta and the Amazons should not be confused with:
The Bacchae should not be confused with:
Last updated: 06/03/14