Queen Hippolyta (comics)
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- For the Marvel Comics character, see: Hippolyta (Marvel Comics).
Queen Hippolyta is a DC Comics superheroine, based on Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons in Greek mythology, and is the mother of Wonder Woman. Before DC's 1985-1986 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, Hippolyta's name was spelled "Hippolyte."
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[edit] Character history
[edit] Golden and Silver Age versions
Hippolyta (then spelled "Hippolyte") first appeared in All Star Comics #8 (1941) in the same backup feature that introduced her daughter, Wonder Woman. This original version of the character possessed black hair. According to this 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. This caused them to lose the favor of their patron goddess, Aphrodite. To regain their status, the Amazons were forced 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 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.
In the 1960s when DC Comics introduced the concept of the Multiverse, this Hippolyte was established as existing on the world known as Earth-2. This incarnation of Hippolyte was fazed out around issue #97 of the original Wonder Woman comic when the focus shifted from Earth-2 to the more modern versions of the characters on Earth-1.
The Silver Age Hippolyte continued thereafter and had blonde hair. Her history was largely identical to the Golden Age version, though a few significant Silver Age stories diverge from the original. For example, it was established that Hippolyte had crafted a second daughter from clay, a dark-skinned Amazon named Nubia who was to be Wonder Woman's twin sister before she was spirited away by the god Mars. As before, Hippolyte'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, Hippolyte was born on January 8th.
In 1985, the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries revised DC Comics history 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.
[edit] Modern Age version
[edit] Origin
Hippolyta's origins underwent a revision after George Pérez's revamp of Wonder Woman in 1987. In current continuity, Hippolyta and the rest of the Themyscirian Amazons were first created by a select few of the Olympian gods, which included Artemis, Athena, Hestia, Demeter and Aphrodite. They took the souls of women slain throughout time by the hands of men and sent them to the bottom of the Aegean Sea. The souls then began to form bodies with the clay on the sea bed. Once they reached the surface the clay bodies became living flesh and blood Amazons. The first one to break surface was Hippolyta and thus she was titled as Queen of the new race; in this version Hippolyta stood 5'9", weighed approximately 130 lbs, had curly black hair and more or less looked like the spitting image of her future daughter. The second Amazon to break surface was her sister Antiope and she ruled as a second to Hippolyta in all affairs. Each of the goddesses that created the Amazons blessed them with personalized gifts: hunting skills (Artemis'), wisdom (Athena's), warm homes (Hestia's), plentiful harvests (Demeter's), and beauty inside and out (Aphrodite's). As a symbol of their leadership titles, the gods gave Hippolyta and Antiope each a Golden Girdle of Gaea which enhanced their strength and abilities significantly. The Amazons eventually founded the city of Themyscira in Anatolia and became known as fierce warriors of peace in Turkey, Greece and Rome.
[edit] Fall from grace
The jealous and vengeful god Ares soon after tried to discredit their name by having his half-brother demi-god Herakles invade the Amazons and demean their standing by stealing their Golden Girdles of Gaea. When Herakles first approached the Amazons seeking battle, Hippolyta met him outside the city gates and tried to reason with him for peaceful negotiations. When this did not work Herakles attacked the Amazon Queen using his strength to his advantage. Hippolyta easily turned the tables on him by using her wisdom and battle skills to subdue him. Still wishing peace, Hippolyta invited Herakles and his men into their city to celebrate a potential friendship with a feast. Hiding his anger, Herakles accepted the invitation. Once in their stronghold, Herakles and his men drugged the wine the Amazons were drinking and took them prisoner. After stealing Hippolyta's Golden Girdle and abusing and raping 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 Herakles and his men as that would be beneath the ideals the Amazons were created to stand for. Hippolyta hastily agreed and the Amazon's bonds were broken and the drugs given wore off. Once out of their drugged state the Amazons were filled with hate and revenge. Breaking Hippolyta's oath to Athena, the Amazons began slaughtering their captors but were upset to find that Herakles and his general Theseus had returned to their homelands. After the slaughter Athena reprimanded the Amazons for disobeying her orders. She demanded the Amazons serve penance for their actions. Though Hippolyta agreed to the goddess' wishes, her sister Antiope scoffed at Athena for being angered at them for killing their rapist captors. Antiope then denounced 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 for Greece, along with half of the Amazon Nation who supported Antiope in her new quest to battle Herakles and Theseus out of vengeance and to replace Antiope's girdle with Hippolyta's. Antiope's tribe later became the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall.
[edit] Godly penance
Hippolyta and her remaining faithful Amazons then went to the sea shore where the Olympian Gods told them their punishment for going against their ideals. They were to be given immortality so that they would forever safeguard a doorway to the underworld called Doom's Doorway. Not only must they protect anyone from entering, but they must also vanquish any evils that try to escape. The doorway was on a far-off isolated island and it would take some time to get there. To guide their way, the god Poseidon cleared a pathway for them across the seas. Once they arrived at the island the Amazons created a new city and named their new home Themyscira, after their previous fallen city. Hippolyta then held a contest of trials to determine which Amazon was the most skilled among her people. The victor, Nu'Bia, was then sent into Doom's Doorway to better safeguard the entryway from within the Underworld while the remaining Amazons protected the entrance in the mortal world. The Amazons continued to live on the island guarding Doom's Doorway, and paying homage to their gods, for three-thousand years.
[edit] Diana's birth
It was into this period of living on the island for millennia that Hippolyta began to ache for a child of her own. She prayed to her gods her secret wish and they responded. She was told to go to the sea shore and form the figure of a baby with the island's clay, which she did. The original goddesses again united to create a new Amazon for Queen Hippolyta. It was revealed that in her previous life Hippolyta was a pregnant cavewoman who was killed by her mate, thus her longing was for the child she had been denied. The goddesses used the soul of this unborn child to fall into the clay body of the infant and, just as with the previous Amazons, the clay was changed into flesh and blood. Hippolyta named the child Diana, after a stranger who was washed ashore on the island and helped the Amazons defeat a creature escaping Doom's Doorway with her life. This Diana was later revealed to be the mother to Steve Trevor. When she reached adulthood, Princess Diana became the hero Wonder Woman. To aid her in her mission, the Olympian gods transformed the Golden Girdle of Gaea that Antiope gave to Hippolyta into the Lasso of Truth.
The Amazon Queen raised Diana on the island as the princess of the Amazon Nation. Her love of Diana at times though proved to take precident over the welfare of her people. For example, when the god Zeus intended to rape Diana (after she had become Wonder Woman) as a "reward" for thwarting Ares plot, an enraged Hippolyta was willing to put the entire island in peril by confronting the god outright in order to protect Diana. Later still when Diana was told that she was to enter Doom's Doorway alone in order to answer a challenge by her gods, Hippolyta again placed the island in peril by disobeying the gods and entering Doom's Doorway to save her daughter. Though her motherly love was proven in these instances and more, it also showed that she was beginning to lose interest in the rule of her people.
[edit] Return of Herakles
During Diana's Challenge of the Gods storyline, she discovered that Herakles was transformed into a colossal stone pilar within Doom's Doorway, and was supporting Themyscira's weight for several millennia. In this stone 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. This was the punishment given to him by his Olympian family for his past transgressions. Gaining his original form back, he begged the Amazons for forgiveness. Though some of the Amazons still harbored hatred for their past rapes and humiliation, most of them were moved by Herakles' newfound humility, and Queen Hippolyta asked her people to search their hearts for the strength to forgive, which they eventually did. Doing so herself, Hippolyta not only forgave Herakles, but shared a brief romance with him before he left the mortal realm to return to his father in Olympus.
[edit] 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 and where they saw fit while retaining their immortality as a blessing from the gods for their faithful devotion. To celebrate, Hippolyta declared that Themyscira would finally create exchange with outside countries. Unfortunately their interaction with the United Nations was met with mixed impressions. Some saw the Amazons as lowly savages, unworthy of U.N. entry. Others still saw Hippolyta and her people as beacons of hope. Diana became Themyscira's ambassador, relaying all of Hippolyta's wishes to the U.N. Alas, as Wonder Woman Diana made a powerful enemy in the witch Circe. One attack made by Circe to Diana was the brainwashing of Queen Hippolyta in becoming the Shim'Tar, or chief warrior, of the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall. In this persona Hippolyta mindlessly attacked her own daughter at the whim of Circe. This tarnished the outside world's view of the newly discovered nation somewhat. The magic used on Hippolyta eventually wore off but Hippolyta never forgave Circe for the mental rape given, nor the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall for aiding Circe in her plot to kill her daughter. Due to this event Circe considered all Amazons to be her enemy and made a new plan for revenge. In time she teleported the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall to Themyscira on the pretense that they were to take the island as their own. While the two tribes fought, Circe teleported the island to a dimension of demons. There the two tribes of Amazons were forced to put aside their rivalry temporarily in order to stave off the demons who sought to destroy the entire Amazon race. The Amazons were eventually successful but they remained in the demon dimension until Diana discovered what had happened and forced Circe to return the island back to its rightful dimension. After this was done they found out that although their time in the demon dimension lasted several years, the time passed in their normal dimension was only a few months. In this time the Themyscirian and Bana-Mighdallian Amazons made an uneasy truce. The Themyscirians would live in the city while the Bana-Mighdallians would form their own settlement on the opposite side of the island. In Hippolyta's mind she still served as Queen over all Amazons on the island, but the Bana-Mighdallian Amazons did not see it as such and tensions between the two tribes remained.
[edit] Motherly deception
Because the demon dimension they were in was magic based, Hippolyta began to receive dreams and visions of the future. In one such dream she foresaw Wonder Woman's death. Fearful for her daughter's welfare, she put into motion a plan to remove Diana from her role as Wonder Woman and replace the title of Themyscira's Champion to another Amazon. Thus a new Contest for the title was made though she kept her true reasons for calling the new Contest to herself alone. Initially Hippolyta thought the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall were not worthy to enter the Contest but once Diana, angered at her mother's treatment of the new Amazons, called a vote on the whole to see if her people also agreed that they should be allowed to participate. The answer was yes. Suddenly inspired, Hippolyta noticed that the Bana-Mighdallian's most likely warrior to win was the Amazon Artemis. Hippolyta then in secret went to the Themyscirian Amazon mystic Magala. She had Magala transfer half of Diana's gods given powers over to Artemis in order for Artemis' victory to be better equipped. Hippolyta also provided many additional obsticals for Diana to encounter during her Contest trials in order for her to become sidetracked from the goal of winning. Due to her actions, Artemis became the Contest's winner and the new champion Wonder Woman. Later when Diana began to receive visions of the past she confronted her mother on why she really called for a new Contest. When Hippolyta told her she and Diana's relationship became scarred as Diana never truly forgave her mother for knowingly sending another Amazon to her death.
[edit] Wonder Woman
After Artemis was killed in battle the title of Wonder Woman was returned to Diana. This made Hippolyta go into a deep depression as she realized she was the cause of an innocent's death. She gave notice to the Amazon General Phillipus that she was to rule in her place as Hippolyta had decided to send herself into self-imposed banishment.
Hippolyta boarded a small boat and let it cast adrift. She eventually landed in Louisiana where she met a psychic named Angela. Forming a friendship with her and her family, Angela informed her newfound friend that her daughter was in serious danger. Rushing to her aid, Hippolyta arrived too late as Diana was killed in a battle with the demon Neron, for she was still suffering from the spell that had reduced her strength. Thus, her vision of her daughter dying as Wonder Woman came true.
Diana, after her death, was granted divinity as the Goddess of Truth by her gods for such faithful devotion. During her brief time as a god of Olympus, Diana was replaced in the role of Wonder Woman by her mother. As opposed to Diana receiving the title in honor, Hippolyta's role as Wonder Woman was meant to be a punishment for her betrayal in Artemis' death as well as for unintentionally killing her own daughter. However, Hippolyta eventually grew to enjoy the freedom and adventure the title came with. Whereas Diana used the Lasso of Truth as her primary weapon, Hippolyta favored a broad sword.
As Wonder Woman, Queen Hippolyta immediately got involved in a time travel mission back to the 1940s with Jay Garrick. After this mission, she elected to join the Justice Society of America and remained in that era for eight years, where her teammates nicknamed her "Polly". During that time she had a sexual relationship with Ted Grant. Hippolyta also made visits into the past to see her godchild Lyta, daughter of Hippolyta's protege Helena, the Golden Age Fury. These visits happened yearly from young Lyta's perspective and also accounted for Hippolyta's participation in the JSA/JLA team ups. When she returned from the past, Hippolyta took Diana's place in the JLA as well.
Eventually Diana gave up her godhood and returned to her role as Wonder Woman. Still clinging to her newfound sense of freedom, Hippolyta did not wish to relinquish her title as Wonder Woman (even though she admitted her daughter looked "better in a bathing suit" than she did), leaving two different Wonder Women acting in the same role at the same time. Diana was often unhappy with Hippolyta's continued role as Wonder Woman as she felt Hippolyta was ignoring her true duties as ruler of Themyscira (and undoubtedly because she did not want her mother risking her life), thus futher inciting the antagonism between mother and daughter.
On one visit to the island Diana discovered that the two tribes of Amazons were on the verge of a civil war due to unresolved issues and mysterious sabotage actions made on the Bana-Mighdallian's construction of their city. When she confronted Hippolyta about her inaction of rule at such a dangerous time, Hippolyta became very upset with her daughter and told Diana that she intended to continue her role as Wonder Woman in the outside world and that Diana and her sister Donna Troy were to rule the island in her absence. Unfortunately the civil war took place after all and many Amazons on both sides were killed. Returning to the island, Hippolyta and Diana agreed to denouce their royal titles in order for both Amazon tribes to have an opportunity for peace, having both tribes gain equal footing in united rule.
[edit] Death
Hippolyta continued to establish a distinguished career as Wonder Woman. The Queen enjoyed her role in the Justice Society and became accustomed to life in the United States. Mother and daughter fought on several occasions over Hippolyta's past expected roles — heroine or queen — and their differences were unresolved when the queen sacrificed herself to save the Earth from Imperiex during the Imperiex War featured in Our Worlds at War. Ironically Hippolyta died at the birthplace of the Amazons, near the Aegean Sea in Greece. However she was allowed to see her daughter one last time and say goodbye. She and the spirit of her sister Antiope are now ghostly guardians of the island, watching over both tribes as their distant and former queens.
[edit] Infinite Crisis
In 2006 the storyline Infinite Crisis took place which reset the DC Universe, somewhat similar to 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths events but to a lesser extent. Although Wonder Woman's history was changed to include her as one of the founding members of the Justice League of America, Hippolyta's history as the 1940s Wonder Woman has not been fully established.
The variant cover to Wonder Woman #1, which was released after the events of Infinite Crisis, shows Diana (as Wonder Woman), Donna Troy and Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark) in their post-Infinite Crisis outfits, and Hippolyta in her Wonder Woman costume designed by John Byrne. [1] In Wonder Woman #2, Diana visits Cassie at the museum of natural history, and stops to look at a picture displayed in the museum's wing devoted to Amazon history. The picture is of Diana as Wonder Woman, Hippolyta in a variation of her John Byrne-designed Wonder Woman costume, Donna Troy in her pre-Infinite Crisis Troia costume and Cassie Sandsmark in an older version of her Wonder Girl costume (complete with black wig).
In the History of the Universe back-up stories in 52, Hippolyta is shown dying in the battle against Imperiex during Our Worlds at War. [2]
When Dan DiDio was asked "Is Hippolyta's time as Wonder Woman still be part of the revised continuity?", his reply was "Diana is the first Wonder Woman, who appeared prior to the formation of the Justice League." [3] While asked again about the status of the Golden Age Wonder Woman, Dan Didio replied "Gone." [4]
However Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg attended a comic book writer's panel for the West Hollywood Book Fair on September 17, 2006. While there he was asked by fans the status of Hippolyta as the Golden Age Wonder Woman. He responded that he has never received a mandate that Hippolyta's career as Wonder Woman was removed, and pointed to a panel in Wonder Woman Vol. 3, issue 2 in which a portrait of Hippolyta as Wonder Woman is shown. He reaffirmed that in his writing Hippolyta's past as the Golden Age Wonder Woman is still in place.
[edit] Appearances in other media
- Actress Charlene Holt portrayed Queen Hippolyte in the 1974 TV-movie Wonder Woman starring Cathy Lee Crosby.
- On the 1975 Wonder Woman television series starring Lynda Carter, three different actresses portrayed Queen Hippolyte. Cloris Leachman in the pilot episode; Carolyn Jones in the episodes The Feminum Mystique parts 1 & 2 and Wonder Woman in Hollywood; and actress Beatrice Straight in the episodes The Return of Wonder Woman and The Bermuda Triangle Crisis. All were Academy Award nominees. However, none of these live-action roles were ever referred to as Queen Hippolyte by name on film.
- In 1978 an animated Queen Hippolyta was shown in the Super Friends episode Secret Orgins of the Superfriends.
- An unknown voice actress portrayed a brunette Queen Hippolyta in the 1988 Superman cartoon episode Superman and Wonder Woman versus the Sorceress of Time. This Hippolyta was clearly the Post-Crisis version.
- In 2001 Hippolyta was depicted again, this time in the animated series Justice League. She was voiced by actress Susan Sullivan. Hippolyta appeared in the following episodes: Secret Origins, Paradise Lost, Fury, and Hereafter; and when the series continued in Justice League Unlimited, in The Balance. Unlike the Superman cartoon Hippolyta, this Hippolyta seems to be a hybrid character of the Pre-and Post-Crisis versions: she is blonde, yet maintains her Post-Crisis personality as a stately queen. Putting her religion and devotion to the Olympian Gods above all, she exiles her daughter Diana from Paradise Island rather than risk incurring divine wrath, when Diana brings out-worlders (the Justice League) to Themyscira in Paradise Lost. In this series it is explained that the Wonder Woman uniform was actually made by the god Hephaestus for Queen Hippolyta to use (but he cheekily comments that the uniform looks better on Diana). Hippolyta is seen comforting Diana following Superman's supposed "death" in the episode Hereafter, and in The Balance she lifts the exile she put on her daughter as well as informing her of her full power.
- In 2004 a brief mention to Hippolyta was made in The WB television series Smallville in the season three episode Asylum. In the episode a newspaper is shown with the headline stating: "Themyscirian Queen Addresses the Vatican".
- As the upcoming Wonder Woman film is stated by writer/director Joss Whedon to be an origin story, the depiction of Hippolyta is expected to take place.
