Hippolyta
ALETHEIA: Hippolyta! It is so good to see you! How are you?
HIPPOLYTA: I have been well, you?
ALETHEIA: I've been fantastic! So, let's get right to it. How did you meet Hercules?
HIPPOLYTA: Oh, Hercules. I met the young man when he came looking for the golden girdle of the Amazons.
ALETHEIA: Golden Girdle... sounds like the name of a band!
Audience laughs, but Hippolyta keeps her composure.
HIPPOLYTA: The golden girdle was said to make anyone who wore it as strong as an Amazon. Amazon women are known for their strength, so it is easy to see why someone would want it.
ALETHIA: But Hercules already had god-like strength. Why would he want it?
HIPPOLYTA: It was not him that wanted it, but Admeta, the daughter of King Eury. So, the King sent Hercules to obtain it for her.
ALETHIA: Now, you already said the Amazon women are strong but from what I have heard you didn't even try to defend it. You just gave it over?
HIPPOLYTA: I know that from the outside it might seem as such, but you see, I had heard of Hercules and knew that if, I gave him what he came for he could be a great help in battle.
ALETHIA: I see, now I hate to call your bluff... but some say you gave it over because, well, you were enchanted by him.
HIPPOLYTA: Preposterous. Hercules is a good-looking young man, but I would never let a man sway my decisions based on looks. My women took men and made them slaves. Hercules would have been no exception.
ALETHIA: Speaking of the other women, how did they take your decision to just give the golden girdle away?
HIPPOLYTA: This is where things get complicated. I had fully planned to hand it over to Hercules and I did just that. But Hera thought it a good time to take my form and tell the Amazon women that Hercules had intentions of taking not only the girdle but me as well.
ALETHIA: Oh, Hera... I need to get her on this show sometime. Anyway, so Hera really screwed things up for Herc?
HIPPOLYTA: On the contrary, my women waged war on the demigod and his ships and in the midst of battle Hercules hurt me rather badly. I fell on the battlefield where my women came to my rescue and Hercules got away with the girdle and my pride.
ALETHIA: You are still a great warrior and queen, Hippolyta.
HIPPOLYTA: I appreciate that. You could say my relationship with Hercules was the never the same after that.
ALETHIA: I can see why! Well, I am glad you are still here to tell the tale. Oh shoot! It looks like we are all out of time, ladies! Thank you all for tuning in for Herstory and the tales of Hercules. We'll see you next week where we will be interviewing Atalanta! See you then, ciao for now!
Author's Note:
For my last character I chose to cover Hippolyta the queen of the Amazons. Her encounter with Hercules is brief in the fact that I only covered the one instance of the Golden Girdle. The biggest change I made was keeping Hippolyta alive. In most renditions of the story Hercules ends up killing the queen not just wounding her. I couldn't have her talk from beyond the grave to I made the decision to just have her hurt. I did include some motivation in the story and tried to address that fact that there are many renditions of this story but had Hippolyta there to set things straight. Otherwise, I took the approach of having her be rather formal. I mean she is a queen. She is not as extroverted as the others and I feel like she would have a great deal of poise. Don't get me wrong: she is sassy, but classy. I chose a person at random as the guest for next week's show so there is no correlation from these characters to her except that she is woman, just wanted to make that clear. I then chose this picture because I thought it was the most regal rather than raunchy like most of the other depictions of her. I really enjoyed this character and I enjoyed making her sound different. Hope you enjoy!