Queen Hippolyta of Themyscira is the mother of Wonder Woman and the much loved Queen of the Amazons of Themyscira. A powerful warrior and wise queen, Hippolyta is frequently torn between her love for her daughter and her duties as a queen of an entire nation of superhuman women.
Once a cavewoman who was murdered by her mate, Hippolyta was resurrected by the Goddesses of Olympus to lead a race of women blessed with the gifts of the gods. Tasked with the mission to bring peace to the land, Hippolyta was betrayed yet again when she was tricked and imprisoned by the demi-god Hercules.
Now ruling her Amazons from the safety of Themyscira Island, Hippolyta warily watches her daughter's exploits in Man's World while remaining constantly vigilante for the betrayals of mankind.
Background
Born in the time of cavemen, Hippolyta was a compassionate cavewoman who led a typical life with a mate. Eventually becoming pregnant with a female child, one day her mate returned home with his hand maimed by a sabertooth-tiger during a coming-of-age ceremony and banished from his tribe due to it. Hippolyta, seeing her mate cowering in the shadows, attempted to comfort him but the man, overcame by his own fear, brutally beat her to death in a fit of rage.
Centuries later, the Olympian goddesses Hestia, Aphrodite, Demeter, Athena and Artemis desired to create a nation of warrior women that would help to spread their ideals to the world. Travelling to the Well of Souls, where they had stored the souls of all women who were unjustly murdered by a man's rage, they gathered the souls and dropped them into the Aegean Sea. The souls then began to form bodies within the clay on the sea bed and returned to the surface as living flesh and blood woman that the goddesses dubbed as their "Amazons".
The first Amazon to break the water's surface was Hippolyta and thus she was titled as Queen of the new race. The second Amazon to break the surface was Antiope and she was dubbed as Hippolyta's sister to rule as second to Hippolyta in all affairs. As a symbol of their leadership titles, the goddesses gave Hippolyta and Antiope each a Golden Girdle of Gaea which enhanced their strength and abilities significantly.
Dictated by the goddesses that they should spread the message of peace, tolerance and equality to the ancient world, the Amazons founded the city of Themyscira in Anatolia and became known as fierce warriors of peace in Turkey, Greece and Rome. However, while the Amazons are successful at first and grew in number, the Greek kings become jealous and spread lies that the Amazons were killers, warmongers and thieves. Soon the Amazons became outcasts and were forced to withdraw behind the walls of their city for safety. While Antiope took advantage of the city's fortification to send out parties under the guise of "diplomatic envoys" to free female slaves from neighbouring kingdoms and shelter them within Themyscira, Hippolyta lamented their inability to do their goddess' bidding and spread the message of peace and co-operation.
Eventually Ares, who held the Amazons' existence in contempt, led the demi-god Hercules, who was in the midst of Hera's induced madness, to believe in the lies surrounding the Amazons and that Hippolyta considered him a "dog". Marching upon the walled city, Hercules tricked Hippolyta into thinking that he desired an alliance, only to drug and imprison her during the celebratory banquet.
With Themyscira razed and the Amazons raped and ravaged, Athena appeared before Hippolyta and reprimanded the Amazons for cowering behind their walls and ignoring their mission. Demanding that the Amazons serve penance for their failure, she instructed them to retire in exile to an island cut off from mankind where they are to be given immortality to forever safeguard a doorway to the underworld. While Hippolyta agreed to the goddess' wishes, Antiope denounced all ties to the Olympian gods and left with half of the Amazon Nation in a quest of vengeance against Hercules.
As the Amazons built a new city on the island, Hippolyta elected four Amazons to be her royal guard. Zealous in their devotion to their queen and their new-found positions, the royal guard, known as "The Circle", slept in rooms overlooking Hippolyta's private chambers and accompanied their queen everywhere she ventured. After 30 centuries Hippolyta wished to have the child she had been pregnant with in her previous life. The goddesses granted her desire and instructed Hippolyta to mold a baby from clay. Imbuing the figure with Hippolyta's baby's soul, the goddesses granted the child various gifts in strength, speed, and wisdom as Hippolyta named her "Diana". Fearing that Hippolyta having a child would create jealousy and rebellion amongst the amazons who also desired children, "The Circle" attempted to kill the baby "for the good of their nation" but were defeated and imprisoned by Hippolyta's Captain of the Guard, Phillipus, and Hippolyta.
Years later, Ares initiates his plan to take over the planet and the gods dictate that the Amazons must elect a champion to face him. Holding a tournament to decide their champion, Hippolyta forbids Diana's involvement, however, Diana masks herself and competes anyway, winning the tournament thanks to her God-given gifts. While distressed that her only daughter was to face Ares, Hippolyta granted Diana's right to be their champion and sent her on her way to enter Man's World.
While increasingly distressed for her daughter's safety, Hippolyta non-the-less obeyed the will of her gods as they sent Diana again and again to man's world on various quests until Hippolyta bore witness to a premonition prophesying her daughter's death as Wonder Woman during an incident where the Amazons of Themyscira and Bana-Mighdal were trapped in a demon dimension.
Fearful for her daughter's welfare, Hippolyta planned to remove Diana from the role of Wonder Woman and have another amazon bear the title by holding another contest under the guise that the chosen champion would be now representing the Amazons of both Themyscira and Bana-Mighdal. While initially doubtful over the ability of the Bana-Mighdal Amazons, Hippolyta noticed that the most likely warrior to win was one of their number, Artemis. Hippolyta then had the mystic Magala transfer half of Diana's god-given powers to Artemis to ensure Artemis' victory and provided incidents to distract Diana from the contest.
After Artemis became the new Wonder Woman, Diana discovered her mother's duplicity. After Artemis was killed in battle the title of Wonder Woman was returned to Diana and Hippolyta, guilty over her role in Artemis' death, went into self-imposed exile; boarding a small boat and letting it cast adrift. She eventually landed in Louisiana where she met a psychic named Angela and formed a normal life as "Poly Athena". After becoming friends with Angela and her family, Hippolyta's identity was revealed when the Amazons began reverting to clay due to the Olympian Gods leaving the Earthly plane. Shortly thereafter, Angela informed Hippolyta that Diana was in serious danger due to still being reduced in strength due to Magala's spell. Rushing to aid her daughter, Hippolyta arrived too late to save Diana from the demon Neron and bore witness to the vision of her daughter dying as Wonder Woman coming true.
As self-inflicted penance, Hippolyta took up her daughter's role as Wonder Woman to live in Man's World; a world which she hated, however, Hippolyta eventually grew to enjoy the freedom and adventure the title came with after time traveling to the 1940s with Jay Garrick where she elected to join the Justice Society of America for eight years.
In 1948, while fighting members of Villainy Incorporated, Hippolyta felt that she could do more to help in the world and so taught Amazonian methods of healing to military physicians in Washington, DC, founded the Wonder Scouts program for young girls and befriended the Holliday Girls of Holliday College, Washington DC.
When she returned from the past, Hippolyta took her daughter's place in the Justice League of America until Diana returned to the mortal plane after giving up her godhood, however, still clinging to her newfound sense of freedom, Hippolyta did not wish to relinquish her title as Wonder Woman and chose to remain operating as a hero in Man's World.
When Diana discovered that the Amazons were on the verge of a civil war due to unresolved issues and mysterious acts of sabotage, both Diana and Donna Troy confronted Hippolyta on her refusal to return to her role as Queen of the Amazons. Eventually, in order to quell the conflict which was escalated due to the Bana-Mghdal's feeling of unfair treatment by the "entitled" Themyscirans, Hippolyta and Diana agreed to denounce their royal titles in order for both tribes to have an opportunity for peace through united rule.
With her duties of Queen now denounced, Hippolyta no longer needed to return to the island and continued to establish a distinguished career as Wonder Woman, however, mother and daughter still fought on several occasions over Hippolyta's past behavior over her expected roles and these issues were unresolved after the arrival of the Imperiex War, where Hippolyta sacrificed her life in stopping a squadron of planet destroying Imperiex Probes.
Some time later, after the Infinite Crisis, Circe revived Hippolyta and showed her that the United States of America had illegally kidnapped Diana and was torturing her to reveal the secrets of Amazonian technology. Angered over this betrayal, Hippolyta resumed leadership of the Amazons and had them attack Washington, D.C. in the hopes of rescuing Diana and serving their own form of justice after learning of the USA's treatment of the Amazonian nation before and during the crisis. Upon learning that Circe's true intention was not to aid, but to destroy the Amazons, it was also discovered that Circe had used a portion of her own soul to revive Hippolyta from death; tainting her personality to be far more destructive than she originally was. It is not until Circe was rendered temporarily impotent that her influence over Hippolyta's mind was removed and Hippolyta regained enough of herself to end the Amazonian crusade and return to Themyscira.
Combat Statistics
- Hippolyta (Act of Defiance)
- JSA Wonder Woman
Involvement
- Disillusioned with mankind's ability to fight Brainiac, after cleansing Themyscira of Brainiac's forces, Hippolyta initiates a full scale Amazonian siege upon the galactic conqueror's beachhead in Gotham City. While Circe allies herself with Hippolyta's Loyalist Forces and aids her attack upon the city, Diana marshals a Rebel Force to oppose her mother's uncharacteristic aggression.
Heroes
- Through a Scrying Bowl, Heroes can experience the event when Diana, after hearing that her mother intended to march upon Gotham, confronts Hippolyta on her decision and, upon learning of her alliance with Circe, builds a rebel force to hamper her mother's invasion forces.
- Deducing that the Hippolyta leading the Amazon attack was not her mother, Wonder Woman marshals a group of New Heroes to confront Hippolyta and then, after discovering that her soul was actually been held captive within Hades, gathers an invasion force to enter Hades and retrieve her mother's soul to disrupt Ares' plan to gain more power.
Villains
- Through a Scrying Bowl, Villains can experience the event when Circe, after hearing that Hippolyta intended to march upon Gotham, offers her aid in the coming battle through the use of the Victory Stone.
- In a bid to gain more power, Circe marshals a group of New Villains to confront Hippolyta and then, after discovering that her soul was actually been held captive within Hades, gathers an invasion force to enter Hades and retrieve the queen's soul to disrupt Ares' plan to gain more power.
Trivia
- Hippolyta is voiced by Beth Broderick
- Hippolyta first appeared in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941/January 1942)
- Hippolyta was Ares' daughter before her murder and later reincarnation as an Amazon.
- Hippolyta was the first woman murdered by man's hatred.
- Although she is technically the third woman to take the title of Wonder Woman (following her daughter and Artemis), due to time travel the general public has dubbed Hippolyta as the "First Wonder Woman" as she appeared during World War II; decades before the other two would appear in modern time.
- Following her brief time as an average citizen in Louisiana, Hippolyta has taken fondly to the name "Polly" and insists that her friends call her by the nickname instead of her full name.
- During her time with the Justice Society of America, Hippolyta formed a relationship with Ted Grant. A relationship they reignited upon her return to the present.
- Although she is attracted to men; with her mate in her original life being male, expressing attraction with Hercules during the age of antiquity and indulging in a relationship with Wildcat (Ted Grant) that extends to present day, Hippolyta is also attracted to women and engaged in relationships with her fellow Amazons; as was common practise on the island due to their isolation. Hippolyta's longest lasting relationship is with her Captain of the Guard, Phillipus.
- While operating as Wonder Woman in the 1940's Hippolyta had her own collection of female villains who eventually gathered together and called themselves "Villainy Incorporated".
Gallery
External links
- Hippolyta (DC Comics) Wikipedia
- Hippolyta DC Database