Hippolyta in a more favorable light, saying that Hippolyta was dead before he and Phaedra were wed, and this battle did not occur. Further complicating the narratives, a number of ancient writers say the Amazon in question was not Hippolyta at all, but her sister Antiope, Melanippe, or Glauce. Moreover, there are combined versions of the tale in which Heracles abducts and kills Hippolyta while Theseus, assisted by Sthenelus and Telamon, abducts and marries Antiope. There are also stories that Hippolyta or Antiope later bore Theseus a son, Hippolytus. In William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Hippolyta is engaged to Theseus,
Nuptial gift suggest that nuptial gift giving represents male mating effort for "P. ornata". Nuptial gifts would allow males to control copulation duration and to accelerate female oviposition, improving sperm supply and paternity, and minimizing possible costs of remating with polyandrous individuals. Additionally, Prokop found that female mate choice is dependent on nuptial gifts rather than female reproductive status as an unmated or mated individual. This effect demonstrates sexual selection's ability to make one sex more discriminatory than the other, since females may negatively impact their output of offspring by refusing mating events with males that do not offer gifts. Nuptial gift