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,
Hippolyta Athenian youths report from the night before. Theseus is skeptical about the veracity of their tale, but Hippolyta questions whether they would all have the same story if indeed, the night's adventures were imagined. She argues that the youths' agreement on the way the night's events unfolded proves that things occurred just as they say. This play is significant in its portrayal of strong women. In Elizabethan England, public and domestic authority rested upon the man and women were expected to be chaste and subservient, as expressed in "The Taming of the Shrew". Hippolyta, queen of a tribe of empowered