Queen Hippolyta is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She is the mother of Wonder Woman, and based on the Amazon queen Hippolyta from Greek mythology. Introduced in 1941 during the Golden Age of Comic Books, she is the queen of the Amazons of Themyscira, and in some continuities, the adopted mother of Donna Troy.
Cloris Leachman, Carolyn Jones and Beatrice Straight portrayed the character in the 1970s Wonder Woman series. Hippolyta made her cinematic debut in the DC Extended Universe 2017 film Wonder Woman, played by Connie Nielsen; she reappeared in the 2017 film Justice League (as well as Zack Snyder's 2021 cut) and the 2020 film Wonder Woman 1984.
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.Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #204–206 (February 1973 - July 1973) 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
Origin 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.
Heracles 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.
Godly penance Hippolyta and the remaining faithful Amazons then went to the sea shore where Athena told them their punishment for betraying their ideals. They were to be given immortality so that they could forever safeguard a doorway to a place of unspeakable evil. The doorway was on a far-off isolated island and it took months to get there. To guide their way, the god Poseidon cleared a pathway for them across the seas. Once they arrived, the Amazons created a new city and named their new home Themyscira, after their previous fallen city. The Amazons continued to live on the island guarding this "Doom's Doorway" (later shown to also lead to other places such as parts of Hades) and paying homage to their gods for three-thousand years.
Diana's birth Hippolyta began to ache for something unknown. She was told by the oracle Menalippe that the yearning she felt was for her unborn daughter. She was instructed to go to the beach and form a figure of an infant out of the island's clay. The original five goddesses, plus Hermes, united to incarnate and bless this final soul. They imbued it with many gifts and merged it with the clay form and, just as with the previous Amazons, the clay was changed into flesh and blood. Hippolyta named the child Diana, after a "great and holy warrior," a stranger who had washed ashore on the island and died helping the Amazons defeat Cottus, a creature escaping Doom's Doorway. This Diana was later revealed to be the mother of Steve Trevor, who as a pilot had crashed near the island in the 1940s.
Return of Heracles During Diana's Challenge of the Gods storyline,Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #10-11 (November–December 1987)Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #12 (January 1988)Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #13 (February 1988) she discovered that Heracles was transformed into a colossal stone pillar within Doom's Doorway, and was supporting Themyscira's weight for several millennia. In this state, he was tormented and scarred by various mythological creatures, feeling the pain inflicted by them but not being able to do anything about it (much like Prometheus). This was the punishment given to him for his past transgressions. Thanks to Diana, Hippolyta, and the Lasso of Truth, he was restored to his original form and begged the Amazons for forgiveness. Though some of the Amazons still harbored anger for their past humiliation, most of them were moved by Heracles' newfound humility, and Queen Hippolyta asked her people to search their hearts for the strength to forgive, which they almost immediately did. Doing so herself, Hippolyta not only forgave Heracles, but shared a brief kiss with him before he left the mortal realm to return to his father in Olympus.Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #14 (March 1988)
Return to the outside world After Diana's completion of her challenge, the Amazons were released from their punishment by the Olympian gods. They were free to live out their lives any way they saw fit while retaining their immortality. To celebrate, Hippolyta declared that Themyscira would finally create cultural exchange with the outside world. Diana became Themyscira's ambassador to the United Nations.Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #37-40 (December 1989 - March 1990))Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #50 (January 1991)
In spreading the Amazon ideals of love and peace, Diana made a powerful enemy, the sorceress Circe.Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #17-19 (June–August 1988) One of Circe's attacks on Diana involved the brainwashing of Hippolyta, transforming her into the second Shim'Tar, or chief warrior, of the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall.Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #60 (November 1991)War of the Gods #3 (November 1991) In this persona, Hippolyta attacked Diana, and was defeated by a ricochet from Diana's bracelets.