In Greek mythology, Nicippe or Nikippe (Ancient Greek Νικίππη, "victorious mare") is a Pisatian princess, daughter of Pelops and Hippodamia, who becomes queen of Mycenae as wife of Sthenelus son of Perseus. By him she bears Alcyone, Medusa (Astymedusa), and Eurystheus — the king whom Hera brings to birth before Heracles so that Zeus' oath of kingship falls to Sthenelus' house.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Nicippe" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Nicippe is a daughter of Pelops and Hippodamia and sister of Atreus, Thyestes, and the other Pelopids. She marries Sthenelus, son of Perseus, and becomes queen at Mycenae in the Perseid succession. Apollodorus names their children Alcyone, Medusa, and afterward Eurystheus.
Through Pelops she links the Pelopid and Perseid houses; through Eurystheus she stands at the root of the labours imposed on Heracles.
II.Mythology
Homer's Iliad sets the divine contest at her pregnancy. Hera comes swiftly to Achaean Argos, where the wife of Sthenelus is carrying a son in the seventh month, and brings Eurystheus to the light before his full term while delaying Alcmene's labour. Zeus had sworn that the Perseid born that day would rule; the premature birth gives the kingship to Sthenelus' house instead of to Heracles.
Beyond that Iliadic episode and her place in Apollodorus' Mycenaean genealogy she has little separate adventure; her fame is as mother of the rival king who tasks Heracles.
III.Homonyms
This atlas entry (nicippe) is Pelops' daughter, wife of Sthenelus, and mother of Eurystheus. She is distinct from Nicippe the priestess of Demeter at Dotion whose shape Demeter assumes to stop Erysichthon, from the Thespian princess who bears Antimachus to Heracles, and from the historical dedicant at Mantinea.