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Phaedra, sometimes known as Hippolytus is a play by Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Ancient Rome Stoicism philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature....
, telling the story of 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....
 and her taboo love for her stepson 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....
. It is an adaptation of Hippolytus
Hippolytus (play)

Hippolytus is an Ancient Greek drama tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus , son of Theseus. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy....
 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....
; in Seneca's version, Phaedra is more sensual and shameless, deceiving her nurse in order to gain her as an accomplice.

According to Pierre Grimal
Pierre Grimal

Pierre Grimal was a France historian, classicist and Latinist. Fascinated by the Roman civilization, he did much to promote the cultural inheritance of ancient Rome, both among specialists and the general public....
, it seems that this work is the result of the "contamination" of several sources, including Sophocles
Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
 (a lost tragedy), Lycophron
Lycophron

Lycophron was a Greece poet and grammarian .He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, and flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus ....
 and Ovid
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
.

591, Jean Yeuwain
Jean Yeuwain

Jean Yeuwain was a dramatist and man of letters born in the Southern Netherlands. In 1591 he produced Hippolyte, trag?die tourn?e de S?n?que, a French translation of Seneca's Phaedra ....
 translated the play into French, as "Hippolyte, tragédie tournée de Sénèque", taking several liberties with the original.

1.






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Phaedra, sometimes known as Hippolytus is a play by Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Ancient Rome Stoicism philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature....
, telling the story of 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....
 and her taboo love for her stepson 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....
. It is an adaptation of Hippolytus
Hippolytus (play)

Hippolytus is an Ancient Greek drama tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus , son of Theseus. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy....
 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....
; in Seneca's version, Phaedra is more sensual and shameless, deceiving her nurse in order to gain her as an accomplice.

According to Pierre Grimal
Pierre Grimal

Pierre Grimal was a France historian, classicist and Latinist. Fascinated by the Roman civilization, he did much to promote the cultural inheritance of ancient Rome, both among specialists and the general public....
, it seems that this work is the result of the "contamination" of several sources, including Sophocles
Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
 (a lost tragedy), Lycophron
Lycophron

Lycophron was a Greece poet and grammarian .He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, and flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus ....
 and Ovid
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
.

Adaptations

In 1591, Jean Yeuwain
Jean Yeuwain

Jean Yeuwain was a dramatist and man of letters born in the Southern Netherlands. In 1591 he produced Hippolyte, trag?die tourn?e de S?n?que, a French translation of Seneca's Phaedra ....
 translated the play into French, as "Hippolyte, tragédie tournée de Sénèque", taking several liberties with the original.

Plot summary by abbot De Marolles (1664)

Act 1. The young Hippolytus distributes responsibilities in the hunt to each of his people, marking out the places where they must go, and invokes the relief of Diana, goddess of the hunt (1). Phaedra confesses her burning love for Hippolytus to his wet-nurse, who tries in vain to dissuade her.(2). The chorus maintains that all things yield to love - the men of every country, whatever their age or condition, and even the very gods of heaven and hell, as well as all sorts of animals.

Act 2. The wet-nurse (of Phaedra) complains about the evil consequences of love, disease and impatience that results in this violent passion. Then suddenly Phaedra appears, dressed up like an Amazon or huntress to please Hippolytus (1). The wet-nurse strives skillfully to bend Hippolytus's will, to make it consent to the delights of love and to the softness of civil life: but Hippolytus is not at all willing to change his mood, and prefers by far his inclinations for the country life over all the pleasures of the human relations praised by the wet-nurse. (2). Phaedra and the wet-nurse attack his modesty by all sorts of artifices, but they cannot overcome it, and so resort to the slanders (3). The chorus pray to the gods, that beauty be as advantageous to Hippolytus that she was pernicious and fatal to many others and at the end we see the return of Theseus.

Act 3. Theseus, back from the underworld, finds his wife's wet-nurse before him and asks her what is the reason for the mourning in his house, but all she will say is that Phaedra has resolved to die. (1). Phaedra pretends that she prefers to die than to declare to Theseus the wrong that someone has done to him. As Theseus threatens the wet-nurse to make her acknowledge to him the truth of what has happened, she shows him the sword that Hippolytus had left (2). Theseus recognizes the sword, and they leave him to be consumed by anger, wishing his undeserving son dead (3). The chorus complains that the course of the heavens and of all else goes on with regulation, but that human affairs are not governed by justice, since the good are persecuted and the evil are rewarded.

Act 4. A messenger relates to Theseus how Hippolytus was pulled to pieces by his own horses, terrorized by a sea bull sent by Neptune in answer to Theseus's prayer (1). The chorus relates a narrative of the fickleness of good fortunes and the perils to which they are exposed, recommends the children's safety and deplores Hippolytus's death.

Act 5. Phaedra declares Hippolytus's innocence and retracts her confession of his crime, then she kills herself. Theseus regrets the death of his son, gives him the honour of a proper burial, and refuses this to his cruel stepmother.

External links



Bibliography

  • G. Runchina, Tecnica drammatica e retorica nelle Tragedie di Seneca, Cagliari, 1960.
  • P. Grimal, Phædra, Paris, P.U.F., "Erasme", 1965.
  • P. Grimal, « L'originalité de Sénèque dans la tragédie de Phèdre », Revue des Études latines, XLI (1963), p. 297-314.
  • F. Dupont, Les monstres de Sénèque, Paris, Belin, 1995.