|
Hippolyta is the queen of
the Amazons, a group of warrior women from ancient Greece, created by
the main Greek goddesses to help them in the future. All those women
were reincarnations of mortal women murdered in the past due to men's
brutality.
Heracles, demigod and son of Zeus, was
charged with 12 trials, one of them being getting Hippolyta belt, and
deceived by Ares, god of war, he attacked the women, but although he was
stronger, due to his blinding fury Hippolyta easily vanquished him.
Then, he tried treason, fooling the Amazons into a deal of brotherhood.
The truth was that all the women were drugged, beaten, tied and raped
that night and the belt was stolen. Hippolyta, however, got free with help
from the goddesses and freed as well as her companions, vanquishing the
soldiers, but losing the belt, for Heracles was already gone. Hippolyta
took that as a punishment for her naiveté and pride and accepted the
goddess' command : they left the human world (Patriarch's World, or
Man's World) and went to a little island (Themiscyra) located in a
dimensional nexus, where no man should ever set foot. The island was over the mythological
Tartarus (the cold, dark Greek hell) as well, and the Amazons were
charged with protecting the world from Tartarus' inhabitants. Hippolyta
sister, Artemis, led some Amazons into Man's World, intending to fight
for a place among the nations of the Earth. Hippolyta ruled over Paradise Island
for two thousand years, but began to feel strange. She had been the only
woman pregnant when murdered and the spirit of her unborn daughter was
waiting for life. She then went to the beach and built a baby in the
sand, and the goddess gave life to the statue, who was named Diana, the
future Wonder Woman. Hippolyta was not very happy with her only child
leaving Paradise Island, and she did her best to avoid that, but fate
was already written, and when Stephen Trevor's plane crashed over the
island, Wonder Woman left Themiscyra to save the world from Ares'
nuclear plot. Lately, Diana has had a quarrel with
her mother, for Hippolyta, knowing a prophecy about the death of Wonder
Woman, held a new competition to chose another one to play the role.
Artemis, a descendant of the group of amazons who followed Artemis
(Diana's aunt), was the one chosen, and she died, in fact, leaving Diana
unable to forgive her mother for allowing her sacrifice to keep her
child alive.
Following Diana's death at the hands
of Neron and her rebirth as the Greek goddess of truth, Hippolyta took
on the role of Wonder Woman as penance for her mistakes as leader of the
Amazons, as well as Diana's place in the JLA. Hippolyta also traveled
back in time to 1941 in order to aid The Flash, Jay Garrick, and
remained in '40's as part of the Justice Society, as well as the wartime
All-Star Squadron.
Following Diana's relinquishing of her
godhood, Hippolyta gave up the role of Wonder Woman in favor of Diana
and had lately been spending more time with the reformed Justice Society
until she died while trying to save Athens, Greece from an Imperiex
probe during the Our Worlds At War crisis. Notes:
-
As Wonder Woman, Hippolyta traveled back in time to the
1940's, joining the Justice Society of America for several years, battling
Axis forces and super-villains like Red Panzer an Dark Angel.
-
She once used Diana's magic lasso spun from the girdle of
Gaea which compels those caught in it to tell the truth. She also used the
"morphing" nearly-invisible vehicle which becomes whatever form of
transportation necessary. This technology can compact into a small
lightweight disc, but has now taken the shape of the WonderDome.
|
