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 pad Nuptial pad A nuptial pad (also known as thumb pad, or nuptial excrescence) is a secondary sex characteristic present on some mature male frogs and salamanders. Triggered by androgen hormones, this breeding gland (a type of mucus gland) appears as a spiked epithelial swelling on the forearm and prepollex that aids with grip, which is used primarily by males to grasp (or clasp) females during amplexus. They can also be used in male-male combat in some species. Austrian biologist Paul Kammerer experimented on midwife toads' nuptial pads. He used the offsprings' apparent enlargening from generation-to-generation as evidence of Lamarckian evolution.