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Hippolytus ( / Hippolytos) is an Ancient Greek tragedy
Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
 by Euripides
Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
, based on the myth of Hippolytus
Hippolytus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Hippolytus was a son of Theseus and either Antiope or Hippolyte. He was identified with the Roman mythology forest god Virbius....
, son of Theseus
Theseus

For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra , and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night....
. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
 in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy.

Euripides first treated the myth in Hippolytos Kalyptomenos (Hippolytus Veiled), now lost. Scholars are virtually unanimous in believing that the contents to the missing Kalyptomenos portrayed a shamelessly lustful Phaedra who directly propositions Hippolytus, to the displeasure of the audience.

This failure prompted Euripides to revisit the myth in Hippolytos Stephanophoros ("Hippolytus who wears a crown"), this time with a modest Phaedra who fights her sexual appetites.






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Hippolytus ( / Hippolytos) is an Ancient Greek tragedy
Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
 by Euripides
Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
, based on the myth of Hippolytus
Hippolytus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Hippolytus was a son of Theseus and either Antiope or Hippolyte. He was identified with the Roman mythology forest god Virbius....
, son of Theseus
Theseus

For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra , and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night....
. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
 in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy.

Euripides first treated the myth in Hippolytos Kalyptomenos (Hippolytus Veiled), now lost. Scholars are virtually unanimous in believing that the contents to the missing Kalyptomenos portrayed a shamelessly lustful Phaedra who directly propositions Hippolytus, to the displeasure of the audience.

This failure prompted Euripides to revisit the myth in Hippolytos Stephanophoros ("Hippolytus who wears a crown"), this time with a modest Phaedra who fights her sexual appetites. The surviving play offers a much more even-handed and psychologically complex treatment of the characters than is commonly found in traditional retelling of myths.

The gods play a very important role in Hippolytus, framing the action. Aphrodite
Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
 appears at the beginning and Artemis
Artemis

In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth/virginity/fertility, the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.....
 at the end, and they were possibly represented onstage throughout the action in the form of statues. These two goddesses can be taken as representing the conflicting emotions of passion and chastity.

Synopsis


The play is set in Troezen
Troezen

Troezen , modern: Troizina or Trizina is a small town in the northeastern Peloponnese, located southwest of Athens and a few miles south of Methana....
, a coastal town in the northeastern Peloponnese
Peloponnese

The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a large peninsula and Regions of Greece in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth....
. Theseus
Theseus

For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra , and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night....
, the king of Athens, is serving a year's voluntary exile after having murdered a local king and his sons. His illegitimate son Hippolytus, whose mother is the Amazon
Amazons

The Amazons , ) are a nation of all-female warriors in Classical and Greek mythology, who were possibly historical. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatians....
 Hippolyta
Hippolyta

In Greek mythology, Hippolyta or Hippolyte is the Amazons queen who possessed a magical girdle she was given by her father Ares, the god of war....
, has been trained here since childhood by the king of Troezen, Pittheus
Pittheus

In Greek mythology, Pittheus was a son of Pelops and father of Aethra. He was the King of Troezen. He was a wise man and understood the words of Aegeus' prophesy when no one else did....
.

At the opening of the play Aphrodite
Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
, Goddess of love, explains that Hippolytus has sworn chastity
Chastity

Chastity is sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the ethics norms and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion.In the western world, the term has become closely associated with sexual abstinence, especially Pre-marital sex....
 and refuses to revere her. Instead, he honors the Goddess of the hunt, Artemis
Artemis

In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth/virginity/fertility, the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.....
. This has led her to initiate a plan of vengeance on Hippolytus. When Hippolytus went to Athens two years previously Aphrodite inspired Phaedra
Phaedra (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Phaedra is the daughter of Minos, wife of Theseus and the mother of Demophon and Acamas.Though married to Theseus, Phaedra fell in love with Hippolytus , Theseus' son born by Antiope, queen of the Amazons....
, Hippolytus' stepmother, to fall in love with him.

Hippolytus appears with his followers, and shows reverence to a statue of Artemis, goddess of chastity. A servant warns him about his overt disdain for Aphrodite, but Hippolytus refuses to listen to him.

The chorus
Greek chorus

The Greek chorus is a group of twelve or fifteen minor actors in tragedy and twenty-four in Ancient Greek comedy plays of classical Athens....
, consisting of young married women of Troezen, enters, and describes how Phaedra is not eating or sleeping. Phaedra, sickly, appears with her Nurse. After an agonized discussion, Phaedra finally gives into her nurse's demands and confesses why she is ill; she loves Hippolytus. The Nurse and the Chorus are shocked. Phaedra explains that she must starve herself and die with her honor intact. However, the Nurse quickly retracts her initial response and tells Phaedra that she has medicine to cure her. However, to one side she states that she has other plans.

The nurse tells Hippolytus of Phaedra's desire, after making him swear an oath that he will not tell anyone else. He reacts with a furious, misogynistic tirade on the 'poisonous' nature of women. Since the secret is out, Phaedra believes she is ruined. After making the Chorus swear secrecy, she goes inside and hangs herself.

Theseus returns and discovers his wife's dead body. Since the Chorus is sworn to secrecy, they cannot tell Theseus why she killed herself. Theseus discovers a letter on Phaedra's body, which clearly places the blame for her death on Hippolytus. Theseus takes this to mean he raped Phaedra, and enraged, he curses his son to death or at least exile. He calls upon Poseidon
Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
, his father who has promised him three curses, to enforce the curse. Hippolytus enters and protests his innocence, but cannot tell the truth because of the binding oath that he swore. Taking his wife's letter as proof Theseus exiles his son.

The Chorus sings a lament for Hippolytus.

A messenger enters and describes a gruesome scene to Theseus; as Hippolytus got in his chariot to leave the kingdom, a bull roared out of the sea, frightening his horses, which dashed his chariot among the rocks dragging Hippolytus along. Hippolytus seems to be dying. The messenger protests Hippolytus' innocence but Theseus refuses to believe him.

Theseus is pleased with Hippolytus' suffering, until Artemis appears and tells him the truth. She explains that his son was innocent and that it was Phaedra who lied. Although she attacks Theseus' decision, she ultimately recognizes that the blame must be placed on Aphrodite. Hippolytus is carried in half-alive and Artemis promises to kill any man Aphrodite holds dearest in the world. Finally, Hippolytus absolves his father of his death and dies.

Characterization

In many ways, this play is surprising in its even-handed approach to the two main characters, neither being presented in a wholly favorable light. Euripides has often been accused of misogyny in his presentations of characters such as Medea and Electra. However, Hippolytus seems unsympathetically puritan and misogynistic, though he is partially redeemed by his refusal to break his oath to the nurse and his forgiveness of his father ('I absolve you of this bloodshed'). Similarly, Phaedra is initially presented as sympathetic, honorably struggling against overwhelming odds to do the right thing, though our regard for her is reduced by her indictment of Hippolytus.

The tragedy occurs because of Hippolytus's hubris
Hubris

Hubris or hybris , mythology is a term used in modern English to indicate overweening pride, superciliousness, or arrogance, often resulting in fatal retribution....
 (his rejection of Aphrodite) and not for his lack of sympathy for Phaedra or his laughable misogynism, which positively reeks of sophistry. The true malevolent force of the play is uncontrollable desire personified by the vindictive Aphrodite in the introduction of the play.

Another monstrous force at work is the disaffected goddess of chastity, Artemis. She does not try to protect her favorite, as the Gods are sometimes represented as doing (e.g., the relationship between Odysseus and Athena), but rather abandons him at his very moment of death.

Texts

  • Barrett, W. S.
    Spencer Barrett

    Spencer Barrett British Academy, was an England classical scholar, Fellow and Sub-Warden of Keble College, Oxford, and Reader in Greek Literature in the University of Oxford....
     (ed.), Euripides, Hippolytos, edited with Introduction and Commentary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964; Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1964)


Translations


  • Edward P. Coleridge, 1891 - prose:
  • Gilbert Murray
    Gilbert Murray

    George Gilbert Aim? Murray was a United Kingdom classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century....
    , 1911 - verse:
  • Arthur S. Way
    Arthur S. Way

    Arthur Sanders Way was an English people classical scholar and poet, born at Dorking. He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, Somerset, and at Queen's College , Melbourne, where he was afterward fellow....
    , 1912 - verse
  • Augustus T. Murray, 1931 - prose
  • David Grene
    David Grene

    David Grene was a professor of classics at the University of Chicago from 1937 until his death. He was a co-founder of the Committee on Social Thought and is best known for his translations of ancient Greek literature....
    , 1942 - verse
  • Philip Vellacott, 1953 - verse
  • Robert Bagg
    Robert Bagg

    Robert Bagg is an American poet and translator. He has published several volumes of poetry and has authored critical studies of Sappho and Catallus....
    , 1973. ISBN 978-0-19-507290-7
  • David Kovacs, 1994 - prose:
  • David Lan
    David Lan

    David Lan is an England playwright, filmmaker, theatre director and social anthropologist. Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1952, he emigrated to London in 1972....
    , 1998
  • Anne Carson
    Anne Carson

    Anne Carson is a Canada poet, essayist, translator, and a professor of Classics and comparative literature at the University of Michigan. Carson lived in Montreal for several years and taught at McGill University....
    (2006). Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides. New York Review Books Classics. ISBN 1-59017-180-2.
  • Jon Corelis, 2006:


Additional references

  • for a philological study of the evolution of Hippolytus as chastity paradigm (in Dutch)
  • ZWIERLEIN, Otto, Hippolytos und Phaidra: Von Euripides bis D’Annunzio. Mit einem Anhang zum Jansenismus, Paderborn : F. Schöningh, 2006, 79 p. (Vorträge Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Geisteswissenschaften G 405), ISBN 3-506-75694-X.