Hypsipyle (1)

The daughter of king Thoas and the grand-daughter of Dionysus.

Hypsipyle was from the island of Lemnos and a woman of rare strength and resilience; when the Argonauts came to Lemnos they married the women of the island because they (the women) had previously murdered the all men of the island.

Before the Argonauts arrived, the men of Lemnos had “conceived a fierce passion” for the women they had captured during their raids in Thrake (Thrace) and neglected their wives; the women of Lemnos not only killed their husbands and the captive women but, to assure that there would be no retribution for their harsh justice, they killed all the other men of the island; during the women’s revolt, Hypsipyle refused to participate and helped her father, Thoas, escape from the island.

The Argonauts arrived a year after the women’s revolt and Hypsipyle offered the throne of Lemnos to Iason (Jason) and bore him twin sons; there is a mention in Argonautika (book 4, lines 421-422) of the Robe of Hypsipyle which was a crimson robe made by the Graces for Dionysus, given to king Thoas and then to Hypsipyle; she finally gave the Robe to Iason along with many other riches.

After the Argonauts left Lemnos, Hypsipyle was captured by pirates and taken as a slave to Nemea where she was the nurse for the king’s infant son, variously named as either Arkhemoros (Archemoros) or Opheletes (the name Opheletes implies a debt or obligation); when the expedition of the Seven Against Thebes passed through Nemea, Hypsipyle acted as a guide for the soldiers and, while she was preoccupied with the soldiers, the child was bitten by a snake (or dragon) and died; she was granted a pardon for the child’s death and the Nemean Games were founded in the child’s honor.

• Argonautika, book 1, lines 620, 638, 650, 654, 675, 698, 712, 719, 786, 836, 846, 853, 873, 886, 887 and 899; book 3, line 1206; book 4, line 426