Antiope
675 BCE - 21-year-old Antiope tries to defend her sister Hippolyta from her husband’s murderous rage, and is killed. Her soul is kept safe within the Well of Souls.
580 BCE - Antiope is given life by the Goddesses as an Amazon, her new body arising from the Aegean Sea. Her sister Hippolyta becomes their queen, while she becomes a high priestess.
576 BCE - Antiope meets Theseus when Hippolyta opens their city to Hercules and his men. They are betrayed and imprisoned as Hercules steals Hippolyta's magical girdle. The goddesses free them in exchange for their pledge to not seek vengeance, but Antiope leads them to decimate Hercules men, and leads a contingent of Amazons to leave their kingdom and to make war on Athens, ignoring their vow. Theseus wins an audience with Antiope, humbling himself and begging her forgiveness. They are married.
571 BCE - 26-year-old Antiope and her Amazons are betrayed by Ares, who uses them to start a war between Greece & Carthage before punishing them for breaking their vow, turning them to stone.
6 years ago - Antiope and the Lost Amazons are found by Diana Prince and Helena Sandsmark. They are awakened by Ares and used to attack and claim Themescera. Diana undertakes the labors of the gods so that she can breech the barriers of Themyscira and help Antiope to overcome Ares hold on her and free their sisters, allowing the lost Amazons to finally rejoin their the Amazons of Themyscira
5 years ago - Antiope is chosen as the new Queen of the Amazons after the death of Hippolyta. She creates a counsel of advisors from among the Amazons to ensure that they are all heard.
There's been a cast of Amazons surrounding Wonder Woman going all the way back to her creation. The fellowship of women has been a big part of her story. That cast has gone through a few different permutations as Diana's story has evolved, and certain Amazons place in her story has been redefined a few times. There was an Antiope that appeared among the Pre-Crisis Robert Kanigher Amazons, but she wasn't Hippolyta's sister, and wasn't specifically meant to be the character from Greek mythology. so we can safely jump ahead to the Antiope of antiquity and George Perez.
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Antiope's Comic HistoryGeorge Perez launched into his reimagined Wonder Woman mythology in his 1987 post-crisis series with the throttle fully open, beginning not just with the Greek Gods but with actual references to the Amazon's role in classic Greek mythology. In the first issue, when the Amazons were first given life by the goddesses Hippolyta was the first to emerge, followed by her sister Antiope, who is Hippolyta's sister in antiquity, and also often appears as the wife of Theseus.
As Perez leaned into the history of his Amazons, he showed the enslavement of Hippolyta at the hands of Hercules, and in doing so also showed Antiope interacting with Theseus briefly before she led the Amazons in their rage against their captors, and lead a contingent of Amazons against Athens. That was the last we saw her for a while, although later in another flashback we see another reference to her story, depicting her actually falling in love with Theseus, marrying him, and then later being killed by his former wife Ariadne, with the help of Circe. This is basically the role Antiope filled for the duration of Perez's story, appearing in flashbacks to the history of the Amazons. For a while, when drawn by Mike Deodato Jr, she would sometimes be depicted as Hippolyta's twin sister, but otherwise would always be depicted as younger and blonde. |
Our Antiope StoryIn the post-flashpoint DC, Antiope now regularly appears among the living modern Amazons, but I can pretty much guarantee you this is entirely because of her appearance in the 2017 Wonder Woman movie where Robin Wright played her and made her an absolute badass.
We actually considered finding a way to do something similar, but we had a more specific role for her. We made our version of the lost tribe of Amazons actually be the original Amazons that waged war on Athens, and that meant that Atiope could absolutely be among them when they return. This meant that when Hippolyta sacrifices herself to save Diana's life, Antiope can be the new queen of the Amazons. This also gives us an excuse to include a reference to Theseus in our timeline, which is great. In some sources, Hippolyta takes Antiope's place as his wife, including in A Midsummer Night's Dream, which we all know is canon in DC thanks to Sandman, but we can just call that artistic license. |
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