Hippolyta- Greek FigureMortal"Queen of the Amazons"

The Golden Girdle

Hippolyta ruled the Amazons, the warrior women of Themiscyra on the southern shore of the Black Sea. Daughter of Ares and the Amazon queen Otrera, she governed a nation that lived apart from men and answered to no king. Ares had given her a golden war girdle, both weapon and mark of authority — whoever wore it commanded the Amazon nation. Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, wanted the girdle for his daughter Admete and sent Heracles to retrieve it as his ninth labor.

When Heracles arrived at Themiscyra, Hippolyta received him without hostility and was prepared to hand over the girdle willingly. But Hera, disguised as an Amazon woman, went among the warriors and told them Heracles had come to carry off their queen. The Amazons armed themselves and charged the ships. Heracles killed Hippolyta in the battle and stripped the golden girdle from her body.

Theseus and the Amazonomachy

A separate tradition, independent of the ninth labor, ties Hippolyta to Theseus, who traveled to the Amazons — either with Heracles or on his own — and carried her off to Athens. Some sources name the abducted queen as her sister Antiope instead. The Amazons invaded Attica to recover her, besieging Athens itself. Plutarch says they made camp near the Areopagus, and the fighting raged through the streets of Athens for months before a truce was struck. Hippolyta bore Theseus a son, Hippolytus, before dying during the siege — either in battle or, as Apollodorus says, after Theseus abandoned her for Phaedra.

Variant Deaths

Hippolyta's death shifts with each telling. Heracles killed her at Themiscyra in the common account. In another, her sister Penthesilea struck her accidentally with a spear during a hunt — and the guilt drove Penthesilea to seek purification at Troy, where she fought for Priam against the Greeks until Achilles killed her on the field.