IPOLITA, YPOLITA. Hippolyte was the Amazon queen. Her country was never given an exact location but was thought to be near the Caspian or the Euxine Sea. The capture of her girdle was Hercules's sixth labor (Met IX.189). Theseus invaded the land of the Amazons, defeated the queen, and married her.

Ipolita is Theseus's wife in The Knight's Tale and has none of the characteristics of the warrior queen. Chaucer has condensed the greater part of Boccaccio's Il Teseide i and ii (1339-1341) and adds a "tempest at hir hoom comynge," KnT 884, which Boccaccio does not mention. Thomas Walsingham mentions a disturbance of water, "maris commotio," when Anne of Bohemia landed at Calais, December 18, 1381, in his Historia brevis Thomae Walsingham ab Edwardo primo ad Henricum quinto. Perhaps Chaucer had this event in mind. [Emelie: Theseus]

The forms are variants of Boccaccio's Ippolita. Ipolita occurs once initially, Anel 36; Ypolita occurs once initially, KnT 2578; twice medially, KnT 977, 1685, and twice in final rhyming position, KnT 865, 881.