Phaedra and Hippolytus

Phaedra and Hippolytus is the Greek story of Phaedra, wife of Theseus, who fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus and brought about his death. The ancient authors tell it in two ways: in one Phaedra herself pursues Hippolytus and accuses him when he refuses her; in the other, told in Euripides’ surviving Hippolytus, Aphrodite causes her love and Phaedra tries to hide it. Pausanias says that “everybody, even a foreigner who has learnt Greek, knows about the love of Phaedra and the wickedness the nurse dared commit to serve her” (Description of Greece 1.22.1).

The First Story of Hippolytus and Phaedra

The Unscrupulous Phaedra

In the version told by Apollodorus, Theseus married Phaedra, a daughter of Minos (Epitome 1.17; Library 3.1.2). Phaedra bore him two sons, Acamas and Demophon, and then fell in love with Hippolytus, the son Theseus had by an Amazon (Epitome 1.18). The Amazon is usually Antiope; some call her Melanippe, and Simonides calls her Hippolyte (Epitome 1.16). Pausanias says that Theseus sent Hippolytus to Pittheus at Troezen to be brought up there, and that Phaedra first saw him when Theseus came to Troezen to be purified after killing the sons of Pallas (Description of Greece 1.22.2). Hippolytus rejected her because he hated all women (Epitome 1.18).

The Death of Hippolytus

Fearing that Hippolytus would tell his father, Phaedra tore open the doors of her room, ripped her clothes and accused him of assaulting her. Theseus believed her and prayed to Poseidon that Hippolytus should die. As Hippolytus drove his chariot along the shore, Poseidon sent a bull up from the surf; the horses panicked, the chariot broke, and Hippolytus was dragged to death, tangled in the reins. When the truth came out, Phaedra hanged herself (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.18–19). In Hyginus, Phaedra writes tablets telling Theseus that Hippolytus had raped her and then hangs herself; Theseus banishes his son and asks Neptune to destroy him, and a bull from the sea frightens the horses (Fabulae 47).

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The Second Story of Hippolytus and Phaedra

Hippolytus the Chaste

Euripides’ Hippolytus begins with Aphrodite explaining why she will destroy Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and the Amazon. Alone among the people of Troezen, she says, he calls her the worst of the gods; he refuses marriage and honours Artemis as the greatest, spending his time in the woods hunting with her (Hippolytus 10–19).

Aphrodite and Phaedra

Aphrodite punishes him through Phaedra, whom she makes fall in love with him. Phaedra first saw Hippolytus when he came to Athens to see the Mysteries, and fell in love with him (Hippolytus 24–28). Aphrodite says that Phaedra is of good repute, but that she too will die, because the goddess does not mean to lose her revenge on her enemy (Hippolytus 47–50). Theseus has brought Phaedra to Troezen for a year of exile, to escape the pollution of the blood of the Pallantidae (Hippolytus 34–37). Aphrodite says that Theseus will kill his own son with the curses that Poseidon granted him: three prayers that the god would fulfil (Hippolytus 42–46). Pausanias adds that there was a temple of Aphrodite “the Spy” at Troezen from which Phaedra used to watch Hippolytus exercise, and a myrtle with pierced leaves where she took out her frustration (Description of Greece 2.32.3).

The Nurse and Hippolytus

Phaedra wastes away in silence and tries to hide her passion. Her old nurse forces the secret from her (Hippolytus 310–352), and then, without Phaedra’s consent, tells Hippolytus after making him swear an oath of silence (Hippolytus 611–612, 656–658). Phaedra hears his reaction from inside the house and decides to die (Hippolytus 565–600, 723–731).

Hippolytus’ Response

Hippolytus is furious. He asks Zeus why he put women into the light of the sun, and says that men should buy children with bronze, iron or gold in the temples and live in houses free of the female sex (Hippolytus 616–624). He tells the nurse that only his oath stops him from telling his father, and leaves the house (Hippolytus 656–660).

The Death of Phaedra

Phaedra decides to die so that her children will keep their good name, and so that Theseus will never see her disgraced (Hippolytus 715–721). She hangs herself, leaving a tablet that accuses Hippolytus (Hippolytus 802, 856–886). Theseus, coming home wearing a garland as an envoy to an oracle, finds her body and the tablet (Hippolytus 806–807, 856–863). He banishes his son and calls on Poseidon to use one of his three curses (Hippolytus 887–898). Hippolytus is driving along the shore by the Saronic Gulf when a huge wave throws up a bull; the horses bolt, the chariot is wrecked, and Hippolytus is dragged along the rocks, tangled in the reins (Hippolytus 1198–1239). Artemis appears to Theseus, tells him that his wife’s story was false and that Aphrodite wanted this to happen (Hippolytus 1283–1289, 1327–1328). Hippolytus is carried in dying, and forgives his father before he dies (Hippolytus 1442–1451).

The Outcome

Artemis promises Hippolytus great honours at Troezen: unmarried girls will cut their hair for him, and songs will be made about him and Phaedra’s love (Hippolytus 1423–1430). Pausanias confirms that every maiden in Troezen dedicated a lock of hair at his shrine before marriage; the people there would not say that he was dragged to death by horses, and believed that he had become the constellation called the Charioteer (Description of Greece 2.32.1). Phaedra’s tomb stood near his, by the myrtle (Description of Greece 2.32.4). In Athens, Pausanias also saw a mound for Hippolytus before the temple of Themis, below the Acropolis (Description of Greece 1.22.1). Phaedra’s sons Acamas and Demophon later went to Troy and led Theseus’ mother Aethra away from the city (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.22).

In the Italian tradition, Asclepius brought Hippolytus back to life, and Artemis (Diana) hid him in her grove at Aricia, where he lived under the name Virbius (Virgil, Aeneid 7.761–780; Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.497–546). Pausanias says that the people of Aricia told the same story (Description of Greece 2.27.4).