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“Then Zeus entered her (Alcmene) bed in the form of
Amphitryon…In one night that was as long as three, Zeus brought comfort and
ecstasy to Alcmene. When the real Amphitryon returned from the war nature
resumed its expected course. He was ready for the wedding bed…but Alcmene was
amazed and afraid. This moment had already been consummated. After sleeping with
her husband she found out that she was carrying twins. From her loins he (Zeus)
intended to bring forth a son, one who was no less than an intermediary between
heaven and earth. Hera knew of the plans Zeus had for his son by Alcmene and
took his birthright away from him, being lord of all lands of Perseus, to
Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelus of Tiryns. Alcmene gave birth to twins, first
was Alceides, name meaning glory to Hera, (Heracles) and an hour later the
mortal son Iphicles. Hera sent two snakes to kill Heracles when he was only
eight month old. He took a snake in each hand and strangled them. Years later he
was taking music lessons and he accidentally knocked his teacher over the head
and killed him, he took a sabbatical and met his wife Megara. He settled down
with her and had some children, in a fit of rage and despair Hera made Heracles
go mad in a fit of homicidal rage. He killed his wife and his children. His
punishment was to go and work for the man that stole his birthright, Eurystheus,
and to work off twelve labors in which the ninth was to take the girdle from the
queen of the Amazons Hippolyte” (Foss, Gods and Heroes. Pages 157
– 167).Off Site Resource: Hercules: Greece's Greatest Hero |
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This woman of many names was one of the queens of the Amazons. She first appears in the myth when Theseus, who was accompanying Heracles on his quest against the Amazons, kidnaps her. Hippolyte bore Theseus a son named Hippolytus. Hippolyte was the Queen of the Amazons during the twelve labors of Heracles.
What are the different names for the Amazon who fought Herakles? The Queen of the Amazons during the Labors of Herakles holds many different names. According to the scholiast on Homer, Melanippe and Hippolyte were among the Amazon women, “men’s equals,” who came to Phyrgia for war between Phyrgians and Achaians (Blok, p.146). According to Apollodorus, Penthesileia, daughter of Otrere and the god Ares, accidentally killed Hippolyte and was purified. Hippolyte was mother of Hippolytus, she also goes by the names Glauke and Melanippe (Blok, p.198). “The names Andromache and Andromeda for the opponent of Herakles should be regarded as anomalous…” In textual traditions Herakles’ opponent is only called Hippolyte or Antiope. “They are both known as mythical women who originally underwent a sacrificial death, but in the more familiar versions they became the wives of heroes.” (Blok, p.219) According to Apollonios, Herakles captured Melanippe, the daughter of the queen, by trickery and returned her unharmed to the Amazon queen. “There is thus no (early) archaic story of Herakles’ Amazonachy…there are no extant texts which furnish Apollonios’ Amazonachy [in art] with a narrative context.” (Blok, p.350) |
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Herakles and/or Achilles were painted on vases defeating the Amazons, and only the inscription of the name marked them as different. Before the period when Herakles became famous, depictions of a duel between a Greek and an Amazon were naturally depicted as Achilles and Penthesileia. “Herakles threatened to take Achilles’ place [and] inscriptions were required to indicate which protagonist was involved. Unlike the combat with the lion or monsters, the duel between Herakles and an Amazon was not an obvious motif.” (Blok 236-237). Synopsis: The hero of the typical duel with an Amazon was first thought to be Achilles, but once Herakles became famous and more popular in art he was thought to be the hero. |
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Herakles and/or Achilles were painted on vases defeating the Amazons, and only the inscription of the name marked them as different. Before the period when Herakles became famous, depictions of a duel between a Greek and an Amazon were naturally depicted as Achilles and Penthesileia. “Herakles threatened to take Achilles’ place [and] inscriptions were required to indicate which protagonist was involved. Unlike the combat with the lion or monsters, the duel between Herakles and an Amazon was not an obvious motif.” (Blok 236-237).
Synopsis: The hero of the typical duel with an Amazon was first thought to be Achilles, but once Herakles became famous and more popular in art he was thought to be the hero.
Matters are different when we turn to the tale of Theseus’ Amazon queen, Antiope as she is named in our earlier accounts, Hippolyte in some later ones. As for the Amazon’s name, we have seen that on sixth century vase painting she is uniformly “Antiope,” and probably so too in Pindar, who uses “Antiope” to name Hippolytus’s mother. “Antiope” is likewise the name Diodorus Siculus uses, although he reports both. Yet we also found “Hippolyte” as the preferred form in Simonides. Isokrates and Kleidemos also use the name “Hippolyte.” Pausanias shrewdly suggests a way of resolving the conflict that the two might have been sisters, but Apollodorus adds yet another possibility, the name “Melanippe.” One possible artistic representation is as early as 600 B.C.: On a tripod leg from Olympia a man wrestles with a woman while another female (possibly Aphrodite) looks on (M77). By about 520 B.C. the scene of the abduction is found on some vase paintings, and they seem to have formed the subject matter of the west pediment of the Temple of Apollo in Ertia, which are dated to perhaps 515 B.C.
The vase paintings include both late black and early red figure and generally show Theseus running with an Amazon toward a chariot, or else already with her in the chariot. Plutarch tells us that here, as in Hellanikos, Theseus made an independent expedition, and used a spear to take the Amazons captive. The vase paintings generally support what Plutarch tells us. By contrast, Plutarch also tells a story where Philochoros has Theseus sail with Herakles and win Antiope on their journey to acquire the girdle from the Queen of the Amazons. The idea of a joint expedition also occurs in Pausanias, who credits it to the uncertain Hegias of Troizen, in this account however; Antiope falls in love with Theseus and surrenders.(Weinbaum 282-283)
Red figure depictions, beginning about 460 BC, probably derive in some measure from the mural paintings of the Theseion and the Stoa Poikile in Athens. They show various aspects of the combat with Theseus specifically named thirteen times, Peirithoos two, Antiope four, and Hippolyta five. There are over sixty different Amazons named on these pots, yet in none of these illustrations is there any sign of either Amazon fighting side by side with Theseus. In support of the Hegias and Isokrates version of Antiope enamored of Theseus, there are several vases on which an unnamed Amazon might be helping Greeks against the Amazons. Hippolyte is shown four times and Antiope twice fighting against Theseus. Such a confrontation would seem to reflect the version of Theseus and Apollodorus in which the queen leads the attack against Theseus and the Athenians. It was not impossible that the paintings depicting Hippolyte were supposed to be Antiope, who was being abducted, or that the paintings of Antiope were supposed to be Hippolyte. In each case Theseus does battle with the Amazon Queen he carried off; in five other cases, different names altogether are used. All versions of the story must of course find some way to eliminate the abductee so that Theseus may marry Phaidra. We have seen numerous methods of accomplishing this: she is slain fighting with Theseus, slain fighting against him, slain on Apollo’s advice, and perhaps even returned to her own people (Weinbaum 285).
Hippolyte's Belt: Hercules Fights the Amazons (This website has seven different pieces of art with Amazons represented.)
“For our country was invaded by the Thracians, led by Eumolpus, son of Poseidon, who disputed the possession of Athens with Erechtheus, alleging, that Poseidon had appropriated the city before Athena; also by the Scythians, led by the Amazons, the offspring of Ares, who made the expedition to recover Hippolyte, since she had not only broken the laws which were established among them, but had become enamored of Theseus and followed him from her home to Athens and there lived with him as his consort; again, by the Peloponnesians, led by Eurystheus, who not only refused to make amends to Heracles for his ill-treatment of him but brought an army against our ancestors with the object of seizing by force the sons of Heracles, who had taken refuge with us.” (16.57) Isocrates, Speeches and Letters (ed. George Norlin) Speech 12, Section 193.
“The ninth labor he enjoined on Hercules was to bring the belt of Hippolyte.1 She was queen of the Amazons, who dwelt about the river Thermadon, a people great in war; for they cultivated the manly virtues, and if ever they gave birth to children through intercourse with the other sex, they reared the females; and they pinched off the right breasts that they might not be trammeled by them in throwing the javelin, but they kept the left breasts, that they might suckle. Now Hippolyte had the belt of Ares in token of her superiority to all the rest. Hercules was sent to fetch this belt because Admete, daughter of Eurystheus, desired to get it. So taking with him a band of volunteer comrades in a single ship he set sail and put in to the island of Pardos, which was inhabited by the sons of Minos,2 to wit, Eurymedon, Chryses, Nephalion, and Philolaus. But it chanced that two of those in the ship landed and were killed by the sons of Minos Indignant at this, Hercules killed the sons of Minos on the spot and besieged the rest closely, till they sent envoys to request that in the room of the murdered men he would take two, whom he pleased. So he raised the siege, and taking on board the sons of Androgeus, son of Minos, to wit, Alcaeus and Sthenelus, he came to Mysia, to the court of Lycus, son of Dascylus, and was entertained by him; and in a battle between him and the king of the Bebryces Hercules sided with Lycus and slew many, amongst others King Mygon, brother of Amycus. And he took much land from the Bebryces and gave it to Lycus, who called it all Heraclea.
Having put in at the harbor of Themiscyra, he received a visit from Hippolyte, who inquired why he was come, and promised to give him the belt. But Hera in the likeness of an Amazon went up and down the multitude saying that the strangers who had arrived were carrying off the queen. So the Amazons in arms charged on horseback down on the ship. But when Hercules saw them in arms, he suspected treachery, and killing Hippolyte stripped her of her belt. And after fighting the rest he sailed away and touched at Troy.”
Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer) book 2, Chapter 5, Section 9.
Weinbaum suggests that the belt, as the goal of Herakles mission, is older than the Attic art would like to believe. For Homer the zoster is a war belt, something worn outside other clothing as part of one’s defense armor, (Iliad 4.132-39). Certainly it is never apart of the women’s intimate apparel, and the common English translation “girdle” is grossly misleading. Dion of Prusa (8.32), who has the Amazon queen seduce Herakles, is in fact the first to suggest that the quest lay in that direction; Apollodorus may imply the same with the remark that Eurystheus’ daughter wanted the item (still a zoster), but just previously he has called it a gift from Ares to Hippolyte in token of her primary (ApB 2.5.9). In earlier times the purpose of Herakles’ mission was to defeat the Amazons in battle, and the belt was demanded by Eurystheus as the proof of his success. ( Weinbaum, p.398)
In the book Gods and Heroes: The Story of Greek Mythology, many of Herakles’ adventures are told, but the only mention of Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons, is during his ninth labour. Eurystheus assigned the duty of fetching Hippolyte’s golden girdle as Herakle’s ninth labour in order for Herakles to achieve immortality. Herakles gathered a band of hardy soldiers and sailed to Themiscyra, where Hippolyte was surprisingly waiting for Herakles. She was both friendly and positively amorous. Hipployte offered her girdle to Heracles in exchange for his love. Hera, the constant antagonist of Herakles, was not content with this peaceful intent and she disguised herself as an Amazon and spread the rumour that Herakles was there to abduct their queen. The Amazons rushed to arms and attacked, but Herakles and his men beat them back. Suspecting that Hippolyte herself had planned this attack, Herakles killed her and ripped the girdle from her body, then hurriedly sailed beyond the range of the Amazons missiles.
The book Hippolyta and the Curse of The Amazons tells a story about young Hippolyta and her adventures as a young girl. Hippolyta is portrayed as a true Amazon princess. Her heart’s beat was for the thrill of the hunt, the rush of her daily battle training, and abiding community of her fellow female warriors. She would do anything to protect the secure, empowering life the Amazons had built. Her entire world is threatened, and she must save it and her fellow Amazons. Battling against time, fighting against incredible odds and even gods themselves, Hippolyta finally learns what it really means to be an Amazon. She finds the courage to face her fears and overcome them in order to change the world.
In this book Hippolyta was identified as the daughter of Otrere, Peace Queen of the Amazons. Ares is identified as her father. She has three sisters whom all have different fathers. Orithya is the eldest daughter of Otrere, then Hippolyta, next is Melanippe, and lastly is Antiope. It is very interesting how the authors of this book chose to deal with the interchanging of Hippolyta's name with Melanippe and Antiope (sometimes they were used to tell the story of the same person). They made them all sisters to make the story more clear and relevant. Hippolyta was told by her father, Ares, that she would some day become one of the greatest Amazon Queens and that she would accomplish many great things for herself and her people.
Blok, Josine H. The Early Amazons: Modern and Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth.
Foss, Michael. Gods and Heroes. NTC Publishing Group. Linclonwood, Illnois, USA: 1994. p.157-67.
Galinsky, Karl. The Herakles Theme: The Adaptations of the Hero in Literature from Homer to the Twentith Century. Basil Blackweel, Oxford: 1972. p. 86-87:110-11.
Isocrates, Speeches and Letter (ed. George Norlin) Speech 12, Section 193. Perseus. November 6, 2002.
Source TBA
Yolen, Jane and R.J. Harris.Hippolyta and the Curse of the Amazons. Harper Collins, New York: 2002.