Hippolyta’s Family Tree

About Hippolyta →

Family

• Ares(parent),Otrera(parent),Penthesilea(sibling)— Consort

  Ares and Otrera produced the Amazon queens Penthesilea and Hippolyta, both inheriting their father's martial prowess and their mother's Amazon heritage.

• Theseus(spouse),Hippolytus(child)— Consort

  Theseus took the Amazon queen Hippolyta as his consort, and she bore him Hippolytus, the chaste hunter devoted to Artemis whose rejection of Aphrodite brought his tragic death at his own father's curse.

  ⚠ The Amazon mother's identity is disputed: Apollodorus (Epitome 1.16) names her Antiope, while Plutarch (Theseus 26-28) discusses both Hippolyta and Antiope as traditions for the same figure.

Slain by

• Heracles

  Heracles killed Hippolyta during his ninth labor after Hera incited the Amazons to attack, turning the quest for her golden girdle into battle.

• Penthesilea

  Penthesilea accidentally killed her sister Hippolyta with a spear during a hunt, an act of fratricide that drove her to seek purification at Troy.

Member of

• Amazons

  The Amazons, the warrior women descended from Ares, were led by their founding queen Otrera, her daughter Hippolyta who wielded the war girdle, and Penthesilea who brought them to fight at Troy.

Associated with

• Ares

  Ares gave Hippolyta a golden war girdle as a mark of her sovereignty over the Amazons. This girdle became the object of Heracles's Ninth Labor.

• Eurystheus

  Eurystheus commanded Heracles to retrieve Hippolyta's golden girdle as the Ninth Labor, desiring the girdle for his daughter Admete.