Antiope (comics)

Antiope
Queen Antiope. Art by Phil Jimenez.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Pre-Crisis: Wonder Woman #312, Vol. 1 (February 1984) Post-Crisis: Wonder Woman #1, Vol. 2 (February 1987)
Created by	George Pérez
In-story information
Team affiliations	Amazons
Abilities	Enhanced strength, enhanced speed, enhanced durability, and highly developed fighting skills.

General Antiope, is a DC Comics character based on the mythological Amazon Antiope. In the comics, she is the Amazon sister of Queen Hippolyta, and aunt to Wonder Woman. She is the founding member of the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall, whom they worship as a sacred ancestor.

Antiope was originally portrayed as a high-ranking Amazon, with no apparent familial relation to Hippolyta. She bore resentment against Queen Hippolyta and plotted to overthrow her. She was eventually killed by Shadow Demons during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Antiope and the rest of the Themyscirian Amazons were first created by a select few of the Greek Gods, which included Artemis, Athena, Hestia, Demeter and Aphrodite. They took the souls of women slain throughout time by the hands of men and sent them to the bottom of the Aegean Sea. The souls then began to form bodies with the clay on the sea bed. Once they reached the surface the clay bodies became living flesh and blood Amazons.

The first one to break surface was Hippolyta and thus she was elected Queen of the new race. The second Amazon to break surface was her sister Antiope, and she ruled as a second to Hippolyta in all affairs.

Each of the goddesses that created the Amazons blessed them with personalized gifts: hunting skills (Artemis'), wisdom (Athena's), warm homes/skills of domesticity (Hestia's), plentiful harvests (Demeter's), and beauty inside and out (Aphrodite's). As a symbol of their leadership titles, the gods gave Hippolyta and Antiope each a Golden Girdle of Gaea which enhanced their strength and abilities significantly. The Amazons eventually founded the city of Themyscira in Anatolia and became known as fierce warriors of peace in Turkey, Greece and Rome.