Antiope (Amazon)

Antiope was one of the Amazons and a daughter of Ares. She was the sister of Melanippe, Hippolyta and possibly Orithyia. She was the wife of Theseus, and the only Amazon known to have married. There are various accounts of themanner in which Theseus became possessed of her and of her subsequent fortunes.

In one version, Heracles had to obtain the girdle of Hippolyte for one of his labors. When Heracles captured the Amazon's capital of Themiscyra, his companion, Theseus, king of Athens, abducted Antiope and brought her to his home (or she was captured by Heracles and given to him by Theseus). According to Pausanias, Antiope fell in love with Theseus and betrayed the Amazons of her own free will. They were eventually married and she gave birth to a son, Hippolytus, who was named after Antiope's sister. Soon after, the Amazons attacked Athens in an attempt to rescue Antiope and to take back Hippolyta's girdle; however, in a battle near the hill of Ares, they were defeated. During this conflict, known as the Attic War, Antiope was accidentally shot by an Amazon named Molpadia, who, in her turn, was then killed by Theseus.

According to some sources, the cause for the Amazons' attack on Athens was the act that Theseus had abandoned Antiope and planned to marry Phaedra. Antiope was furious about this and decided to attack them on their wedding day. She promised to kill every person in attendance; however, she was slain instead by Theseus himself, fulfilling an oracle's prophecy to that effect. Ovid mentions that Theseus killed Antiope despite the fact that she was pregnant.

An alternative version of the myth relates all of the facts concerning Antiope (abduction by Theseus, their marriage, birth of Hippolytus, her being left behind in favor of Phaedra) not of her, but of Hippolyta. In various accounts of this version, the subsequent attack on Athens either doesn not occur at all or is led by Orithyia.