Hippolytus

Euripides · 428 BCE · Play · Greek · Classical

Aphrodite, slighted by a young hunter who worships only Artemis and refuses sex altogether, afflicts his stepmother Phaedra with a consuming desire for him; her nurse extracts the secret under an oath and carries it to him, and Phaedra, overheard and shamed, moves to protect her name. Theseus comes home to find an accusation waiting and a curse from Poseidon still owed him. A rewriting of an earlier version Athens had disliked, it took first prize and became the model for Seneca and for Racine's Phèdre.

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Lineage

• ↓ Phèdre
  Jean Racine · 1677 CE · Play — adapts this
• ↓ Phaedra
  Seneca · c. 50 CE · Play — influenced by this

Attributes

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