Hippolyta

Publication history

Golden Age

The character Hippolyta (initially spelled "Hippolyte") first appeared in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941) in the same story that introduced her daughter, Princess Diana, known as Wonder Woman. Created by writer William Moulton Marston and artist Harry G. Peter, this original version of the character is a brunette like Diana.

In the story, Hippolyte and the Amazons once resided in "Amazonia" in the days of ancient Greece, until they were beguiled and bested by the demi-god Hercules, who had been inspired by the God of War Mars, to go after her. She was able to beat him thanks to the magic girdle, but he seduced her, and tricked her into removing the girdle, allowing him to steal it. This caused the Amazons to lose their super strength and the favor of their patron goddess, Aphrodite. Eventually she and the other Amazons were forgiven, but had to wear bracelets to remind them of the folly of submitting to men. To regain their status, the Amazons were decreed to leave the mortal world and relocate to Paradise Island. There they established their own society, free from the evils of man's world. So long as they remained there and Hippolyte retained possession of her magic girdle, the Amazons would be immortal. Much of this history was adapted, varied, and expanded upon in the modern version of the Wonder Woman comics.

For the most part, Hippolyte remained on Paradise Island during the Golden Age era, rarely interacting with the modern world to which her daughter had journeyed. Her role was that of the Amazon Queen and mentor to Wonder Woman. She was devoted to the Olympian goddesses, particularly the Amazons' patron Aphrodite, and was adamant that man never be allowed to set foot on Paradise Island. Although she remained mainly on the island, in one story from Sensation Comics #26 (reprinted in Wonder Woman: The Complete History), Hippolyte travels to Man's World and briefly assumes the role of Wonder Woman. In the first appearance of Villainy inc she is kidnapped to lure Wonder Woman into a trap.

In the late 1950s, DC Comics introduced the concept of the Multiverse, and the Golden Age Hippolyte was established as existing on the world known as Earth-Two. The last appearance of this incarnation of Hippolyte was in Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #97 in April 1958, after which the focus shifted from Earth-Two to the more modern versions of the characters on Earth-One.

Silver and Bronze Ages

As of Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #98 (May 1958), the Amazon Queen's name was spelled "Hippolyta", and she was depicted with blonde hair and a triple-pointed tiara. The backstory of this Silver Age Hippolyta was largely identical to the Golden Age version, with some exceptions. For example, it was established in a 1973 storyline that Hippolyta had crafted a second daughter from clay, a dark-skinned Amazon named Nubia who was to be Wonder Woman's sister before she was spirited away by the god Mars. Hippolyta was also the adoptive mother of Donna Troy, who had been rescued from a fire and brought to Paradise Island. As before, Hippolyta's role in the Silver Age era was primarily that of Paradise Island's queen and mentor to Wonder Woman. She was frequently shown interacting with her daughter as well as supporting characters of the era such as Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot. According to the DC Comics 1976 calendar, Hippolyta was born on January 8.

Hippolyta was also instrumental in several of the continuity shake-ups for the Earth-One Wonder Woman. Enraged that her daughter, recovering from amnesia, had submitted to trials by the Justice League to prove her worth to rejoin, she created her own test which involved resurrecting Steve Trevor to lead an assault on Paradise Island. The goddess Aphrodite granted Diana's wish to allow the resurrected Trevor to continue living (although he was later revealed to be Eros animating Trevor's body). After Trevor had again been killed and a grief-stricken Diana returned home, Hippolyta erased Diana's memories of him; when a Trevor from a parallel universe burst through the barriers between worlds and crashed off Paradise Island, Hippolyta asked Aphrodite to alter the memories of the entire world to allow the new Trevor to embark upon a life on Earth-One.

In 1985, the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries revised DC Comics continuity and combined the multiple Earths into one world. The modern version of Hippolyta would combine elements of her earlier incarnations and take on greater importance in the series.

Modern Age

Hippolyta's origins underwent a revision after writer George Pérez's revamp of Wonder Woman in 1987. In that continuity, Hippolyta and the rest of the Themyscirian Amazons were reincarnated women who merged with clay in the Aegean Sea to form new bodies. Hippolyta was the first to emerge, and was thus declared Queen of the Amazons. The second Amazon to break the surface was her sister Antiope and she ruled at Hippolyta's side. Each of the goddesses then blessed the Amazon nation with gifts: hunting skills and superhuman abilities such as superhuman strength, speed, durability, enhanced senses, healing factor and agility(Artemis), wisdom (Athena), warm homes (Hestia), plentiful harvests (Demeter), and beauty inside and out (Aphrodite). As a symbol of their responsibilities, the goddesses gave Hippolyta and Antiope each a Golden Girdle of Gaea. The Amazons eventually founded the city of Themyscira in Anatolia and became known as fierce warriors of peace in Turkey, Greece, and Rome.

The jealous and vengeful god Ares tried to drive a wedge between Amazons and other civilizations by influencing his half-brother, the demi-god Heracles to challenge the Amazons. When Heracles first approached the Amazons seeking battle, Hippolyta met him outside the city gates and tried to employ peaceful negotiations. When this did not work, Heracles attacked the Amazon Queen. Hippolyta easily turned the tables on him by using her wisdom and battle skills to subdue him. Still wishing peace, Hippolyta invited Heracles and his men into their city to celebrate a potential friendship with a feast. Heracles seemingly accepted the invitation.

Once in their city, Heracles and his men drugged the Amazons' wine and took them prisoner. After the theft of Hippolyta's Golden Girdle and abuse and rape of the Amazons, Hippolyta cried out to Athena to help them escape their bonds. Athena said that she would only aid them on the condition that the Amazons not seek retribution against Heracles and his men as that would be beneath the ideals of the Amazons. Hippolyta agreed and her bonds were broken. Hippolyta freed the other Amazons. The Amazons, however, were filled with hate and the desire for revenge. Breaking Hippolyta's oath to Athena, the Amazons began slaughtering their captors (Heracles and his general Theseus had left).

After they had killed all the men keeping them prisoners, Antiope renounced all ties to the Olympian gods and said goodbye to her sister Hippolyta, giving Hippolyta her Golden Girdle of Gaea to replace the one stolen by Heracles. She left to pursue vengeance, intending to kill Heracles and Theseus. Antiope's tribe later became the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall.

The New 52

In the 2011 New 52 reboot of DC's continuity, Hippolyta is depicted as blonde, and instead of fashioning Diana from clay, she bore her daughter from a relationship with Zeus, hidden by a lie to protect Diana from Hera's rage. This origin of Diana as the biological child of Zeus and Hippolyta has been the canon origin of Wonder Woman since then, replacing the clay origin.

After the truth about Diana's birth is revealed, Hera, the queen of the Greek gods, appears on Paradise Island to punish Hippolyta: not for having an affair with her husband, but for having been too weak to resist Zeus' manipulation. Hippolyta had predicted this, and asks Hera to take her life in exchange of letting Diana live. However, Hera changes her mind at the last second, and instead of killing Hippolyta, turns her into stone and the rest of the Amazons, minus Diana, into snakes, thus destroying Wonder Woman's home and her only family.

DC Rebirth

In 2016, DC Comics implemented a relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth", which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Hippolyta once again goes through a major change. In the "Year One" storyline, Hippolyta is presented like the Golden Age version with black hair and has a peaceful demeanor. When Steve Trevor lands on the island and is the only survivor of the soldiers, she seeks to have him sent home safely by hosting a competition to determine which Amazon is worthy. She quickly realizes her daughter will be the one to win, something that saddens her since leaving the island forsakes an Amazon's right to return. However, she is nevertheless proud when Diana wins, and they bid each other goodbye.

In the story arc "The Lies", Wonder Woman and Steve seemingly return to Themyscira to find Hippolyta (the New 52 one) and the Amazons safe and sound, despite Wonder Woman remembering her apparent demise. Hippolyta does not understand what she means and only seems suspicious of Steve, telling Diana not to let him wander around alone. However, Diana and Steve begin to notice the inconsistencies: the Amazons are not familiar, they speak English instead of their ancient language, and their architecture has changed. Diana realizes this is because what she thought to be true was a lie: she never returned to Themyscira when she left years before, so the New 52 Hippolyta was an illusion.

In the present day, Hippolyta and the Amazons notice a strange tree growing on the island that serves as a bad omen of events to come. Any attempts to cut down the tree are futile, and Hippolyta worries Diana is in danger. She and her fellow Amazons go to the tree and combat Deimos and Phobos, Ares' sons in wolf-like forms before they are defeated on the other side by Diana. Hippolyta is briefly reunited with her daughter but unable to reach her, stating how proud she is of who Diana has become.

In Doomsday Clock, Hippolyta is informed that Wonder Woman will be further injured in her fight with Black Adam during his attack on the United Nations. In response, she sends the Amazons to return Wonder Woman to Themyscira.

In a flashback in Endless Winter, Hippolyta works with Swamp Thing, the Viking Prince, and Black Adam to battle the Frost King in the 10th century.

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Wonder Woman, Kelly Sue DeConnick had retconned Hippolyta's origin in Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons. Inspired by George Pérez's reworking of Wonder Woman, the three-issue limited series was illustrated by Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, and Nicola Scott.

In Wonder Woman Historia: the Amazons, Hippolyta starts out as a midwife's widowed assistant rather than a founding Amazon member. After being ordered to abandon an unwanted newborn girl, Hippolyta changes her mind, racing against the elements to save the baby and encounters the Amazons when they rescue her from male traffickers. Created by the goddesses Hestia, Artemis, Demeter, Hecate, Aphrodite, and Athena from murdered women's souls at the Well of the Lost, the Amazons have one goal: bringing to justice men who abuse women. Composed of six tribes, each with its own queen and patron goddess, the thirty Amazons travel the ancient world to rescue women from traffickers whom they kill in acts of vigilantism; however, the Amazons only go on their missions at night when Artemis can watch over them, and hide themselves during the day to keep their existence a secret from the male gods, especially the womanizing Zeus.

Despite the Amazons being her own idea, Hera spies on them with a bird formed from the abandoned girl's soul. Hippolyta swears her life to Artemis, gaining the strength, beauty, and wisdom of an Amazon. She then forms a new tribe, made up of Amazons who are trained from young girls rescued from evil men, and with all six creator goddesses as their patrons. But one day when the sun is up, one of the young Amazons kills a murdered trafficker's son praying to Apollo, exposing the female warriors' existence to the male gods. Enraged by what they view as sacrilege, the gods unite their followers into a great army to destroy the Amazons.

As the Amazons battle against the gods and their soldiers, Hippolyta leads them all as their sole queen. But when the Amazons suffer many losses, Hippolyta travels to Olympus and makes a bargain with Zeus: her sisters' lives in exchange for their freedom. Except for the one who had killed the boy in Apollo's temple, all the Amazons, dead and living, are given long lives yet are forever imprisoned on Themyscira, where are they allowed to do as they please while under the sun god's watch; once a month, Artemis is allowed temporary guardianship of the warriors she had helped create.

Powers and abilities

Hippolyta has 3,000 years of combat experience, providing her expertise in both hand-to-hand combat as well as with hand-held weapons. As a Themyscirian Amazon she is ageless and immortal, allowing her to live indefinitely without physically aging beyond her youthful prime, though she could still die if severely injured. As typical of Amazons she is extremely strong, being able to break apart steel and concrete with her bare hands and jump over 25 feet from a standing position. She is also highly durable, heals quickly, and highly intelligent, being able to absorb and process vast amounts of knowledge in a short period of time.

Similar to other Amazons, Hippolyta can relieve her body of physical injury and toxins by becoming one with the Earth's soil and then reforming her body whole again. The first time Diana does this she prays to her god Gaea saying: "Gaea, I pray to you. Grant me your strength. You are the Earth who suckled me, who nurtured and bred me. Through you all life is renewed. The circle which never ends. I pray you, mother Gaea, take me into your bosom. Please, let me be worthy." During writer John Byrne's time on the comic it was stated that this is a very sacred ritual to the Themyscirians, only to be used in the most dire of circumstances.

As an Amazon, Hippolyta had access to a number of magical artifacts. These artifacts included the Gauntlet of Atlas, which greatly increased her overall strength and durability, as well as the Sandals of Hermes, which increased her speed and allowed her to fly. During her time as Wonder Woman, Hippolyta wielded the Lasso of Truth, though she seemed to prefer a broadsword and shield in combat. Her broadsword was created by Hephaestus and was sharp enough to slice the electrons off of an atom.

In her second tenure as Wonder Woman on the modern-day Justice League, Hippolyta is shown to have greatly enhanced strength and the ability to fly. When she acquired the ability to fly is not explicitly given.

Other versions

An alternate timeline version of Hippolyta appears in the Flashpoint event. This version was killed by Artemis, who sided with Ocean Master.

An alternate universe version of Hippolyta appears in Absolute Wonder Woman. This version, in addition to all other Amazons, were imprisoned on Themyscira by Zeus for an unknown crime while her daughter Diana was taken from her. Initially believing she was dead, she eventually learns from a formerly lost Amazon named Io that Diana is alive.

In other media

Television

Hippolyta appears in the Challenge of the Superfriends episode "Secret Origin of the Super Friends", voiced by Marlene Aragon.

Hippolyta appears in the Superman episode "Superman and Wonder Woman versus the Sorceress of Time", voiced by Pat Carroll.

Hippolyta appears in series set in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), voiced by Susan Sullivan.

Hippolyta first appears in Justice League. This version created Wonder Woman from clay alongside Hades and reluctantly exiled her from Themyscira to avoid incurring the Olympians' wrath after she brought the Justice League to the island to fight Felix Faust, in the process breaking the anti-man law. Additionally, Hephaestus originally created Wonder Woman's armor for Hippolyta, but claims the latter did not have the right build.

Hippolyta returns in the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Balance", in which she allows Wonder Woman to return to Themyscira and informs her of her full power.

Hippolyta appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Triumvirate of Terror!", voiced by Tippi Hedren.

Hippolyta appears in the Justice League Action episode "Luthor in Paradise", voiced by Julianne Grossman. This version's staff, entrusted to her by Hera, also serves as the key to a forbidden realm where the Argo's Oculus, which can grant its owner Zeus' power, is held.

Hippolyta appears in DC Super Hero Girls (2019), voiced by Cree Summer.

Hippolyta appears in Harley Quinn, voiced by Rachel Dratch.

Hippolyta appears in Wonder Woman (1974), portrayed by Charlene Holt.

Hippolyta appears in Wonder Woman (1975), portrayed by Cloris Leachman in the pilot film, Carolyn Jones in the first season, and Beatrice Straight in the second season.

Film

Hippolyta appears in Wonder Woman (2009), voiced by Virginia Madsen. This version was romantically involved with Ares and gave birth to their son Thrax before they betrayed her. After killing Thrax in the ensuing fight, she imprisons Ares.

Hippolyta appears in the DC Super Hero Girls (2015) spin-off films DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year, DC Super Hero Girls: Intergalactic Games, and DC Super Hero Girls: Legends of Atlantis, voiced again by Julianne Grossman.

Hippolyta appears in Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, voiced again by Cree Summer. This version refused to allow Steve Trevor to return home and disowned Diana when she chose to leave with him, though Hippolyta eventually reconciles with the latter.

Hippolyta appears in Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, voiced again by Cree Summer.

Hippolyta appears in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, voiced by Jennifer Hale.

Hippolyta appears in films set in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), portrayed by Connie Nielsen.

First appearing in Wonder Woman (2017), Hippolyta, her sister General Antiope, and Lieutenant Menalippe jointly raised Diana, with Hippolyta striving to protect her daughter from the outside world and hide Diana's father's identity. After Steve Trevor crash-lands on Themyscira and reveals the war he is taking part in, Hippolyta reluctantly allows Diana to leave and help him end it.

Hippolyta returns in Justice League and the director's cut, in which she warns Diana of Steppenwolf after he steals the Mother Box that Hippolyta and the Amazons were protecting.

Hippolyta appears in a flashback in Wonder Woman 1984.

Video games

Hippolya appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.

Miscellaneous

Hippolyta appears in Smallville Season 11.

Hippolyta appears in DC Super Hero Girls (2015), voiced by Julianne Grossman.

Hippolyta appears in the Lego DC Super Hero Girls shorts, voiced again by Julianne Grossman.

Hippolyta appears in the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic. After Wonder Woman ends up in a coma while attempting to save Superman from Captain Atom, Hippolyta takes her back to Themyscira to heal her. However, several failed attempts lead to Hippolyta making a deal with Hera to awaken Wonder Woman in exchange for a favor to be fulfilled at a later date. Eventually, Hera calls in the favor by ordering Hippolyta to lead the Amazons in attacking Superman's Regime. Due to Wonder Woman being part of the Regime, a reluctant Hippolyta refuses and is imprisoned in Tartarus by Hera and Zeus alongside Harley Quinn and Billy Batson until Harley breaks them out and the trio escape using a Mother Box before eventually meeting Wonder Woman and Batman. Hippolyta later joins Wonder Woman in fighting the Olympians until Highfather intervenes and convinces the latter group to leave Earth and sever ties with the Amazons. Following this, Hippolyta encourages Wonder Woman to stay by Superman's side.

Hippolyta appears in the Injustice 2 prequel comic. Following the Regime's fall and Wonder Woman's imprisonment in Themyscira for her role in the Regime, Hippolyta attempts to convince her to change her ways. However, Wonder Woman refuses, calling her a coward for not trying to better man's world herself.