Theseus and Antiope: Amazon War

The remainder of Theseus's life was as convoluted as that of Hercules. Theseus's marriage to the Amazon, Antiope (or Hippolyte), started a war with the Amazons which the Athenians won.

Antiope, one of the Amazon queens, fell in love with him. Betraying her sisters, she followed Theseus on his way back to Greece. The Amazons pursued the hero and Antiope to Athens, where they engaged in a fierce battle. Hippolyte, defeated, escaped to Megara, where she died.

Antiope and Theseus had a son, Hippolytus. Storytellers disagree on the way she died:Some say she was killed by an Amazon warrior, while others say that she was accidentally killed by an Amazon ally of hers, Penthesilia, while they were battling against the other Amazons. 

The AMAZONS attacked Athens and were vanquished by Theseus. 0112: Amazonentriptychon 1887. Mittelstück: Amazonenjagd. Adolf von Hildebrand 1847-1921. Neue Pinakotek, München.

Theseus and Antiope

Antiope was the name of a daughter of Ares, the god of war, and a queen of the Amazons. The Greek hero Theseus carried her off.

Though hundreds of cubits separated the two craft, Theseus still cast a nervous glance behind, recalling a time when death stared him in the face through the bull’s eyes. When the sails were fully furled, the rowing master stopped his cadence and sent the youths to their tasks on the ships. Theseus found himself looking down to a long, tan pair of legs that sent his heart racing. They belonged to Antiope.

~ Excerpt From Ariadne: A Tale of the Minotaur

 
Theseus and Antiope. The mithical hero is poised to deliver the final to the Amazon who has fallen on her shield. Metope of the treasury of the athenians in Delphi. Archaeological museum of Delphi.

Theseus and Antiope

Two figures stand on a ground-line of meander on the shoulder of this hydria. At left, a young Greek soldier advances to the right, his legs and head in profile, with his torso turned to present his back to the viewer. He wears a chitoniskos, chlamys, greaves and an Attic helmet, its cheek pieces raised to expose his face. His left arm, obscured by his body, holds a shield and two spears. He extends his right hand toward the Amazon before him, and their gazes meet. 

The Amazon attempts to flee from the soldier, her legs are in profile moving right, while her torso is depicted frontally and her head turns back to look at her pursuer. Like the soldier, she is clad in a chitoniskos, though hers has a loose kolpos in front, and she wears a short mantle, a disk earring, and a pointed cap, from which small curls emerge around the forehead. Her weaponry includes a bow in her left hand, and a sagaris, or small axe, ineffectually pointing downward, in her right hand. 

The scene might depict Theseus, the Athenian hero who fought the Amazon queen Antiope.

THESEUS & THE MINOTAUR

     "In my mercy I have offered Theseus, the head tribute and son of Aegeus, the chance to revoke the treaty of Tribute now and forever." He looked at Theseus, who remained still, eyes unblinking. "He has only to enter the Labyrinth, kill that which dwells within and return alive. Many of you have named the creature the Minotaur, the Bull of Minos. So be it. If Theseus defeats the Minotaur, he and the others shall return to Athens free and the Tribute will be ended forever. If not it will continue in seven more years."  He stopped and let his gaze travel around, searching. "If any challenges this judgment, let him speak now."

~ Excerpt From Ariadne: A Tale of the Minotaur

circa. 500-450 b.c. British Museum,
London, United Kingdom

Theseus grasps the bull-headed Minotauros by the snout as he prepares to slit its throat with his sword. 

Ariadne and Dionysus

ARIADNE was the immortal wife of the wine-god Dionysos

According to this tradition, Ariadne put an end to her own life in despair, or was saved by Dionysus, who in amazement at her beauty made her his wife, raised her among the immortals, and placed the crown which he gave her at his marriage with her, among the stars.
 

Dionysus & Ariadne, Athenian red-figure krater

C5th B.C., Archaeological Museum, Naples 

 Detail of Dionysos and Ariadne sitting on a vineyard hill, from a vase depicting the retinue of the god. ( Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA)