The ninth (as usually enumerated) of the twelve labours of
Hercules was to fetch away the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, a gift
from her father Ares, the god of fighting. Admete, the daughter of
Eurystheus (at whose bidding the twelve labours were performed) desired
this girdle, and Hercules was sent by her father to carry it off by force.
The queen of the Amazons was Hippolyta, and she had a sister named Antiopa.
One story says that Hercules slew Hippolyta; another that Hippolyta was
enticed on board his ship by Theseus; a third, as we have seen, that
Theseus married Antiopa. It is not easy to choose incidents from these
conflicting accounts so as to make a reasonable sequence; but, as North
says, "we are not to marvel, if the history of things so ancient, be found
so diversely written." Shakespeare simply states that Theseus "woo'd"
Hippolyta "with his sword." Later in the play we learn that the fairy King
and Queen not only are acquainted with court-scandal, but are each involved
with the past histories of Theseus and Hippolyta (II. i. 70-80).
Apart from these incidents in Theseus' life, Chaucer supplies the dramatist
with all he requires in the opening of _The Knightes Tale_, which we shall
discuss in full shortly.[1]
"Whylom, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a duke that highte[2] Theseus;
Of Athenes he was lord and governour,
And in his tyme swich a conquerour,
That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.
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