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 increases copulations and searches to find females to mate with. Albo and Costa conducted an experiment with "Paratrechala ornata" spiders to determine the function of the nuptial gift. Two groups of males were exposed to virgin females, 23 males with no nuptial gift (prey) and 21 males with a nuptial gift (prey). Mating ovulation were recorded and the researchers found that males that gave a nuptial gift had better mating success, longer copulations, and longer palpal insertions than those who did not give an nuptial gift. Longer copulations were associated with earlier egg sac construction and oviposition. The researchers' findings