Phaedra
Phaedra :: Tragedy and Passion
Phaedra was a daughter of Minos and Pasiphae of Crete, and the sister of Ariadne. She married Theseus of Athens, and in the most famous version of her story she fell in love with Theseus’ son Hippolytus. Her death and his are the subject of Euripides’ tragedy Hippolytus.
Marriage to Theseus
Phaedra was one of the children of Minos and Pasiphae (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.2). Theseus received Phaedra in marriage from her brother Deucalion, who ruled Crete after Minos (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.17). They had two sons, Acamas and Demophon (Epitome 1.18). Pausanias adds that Theseus, not wanting Hippolytus to rule or be ruled by any children of the new marriage, had already sent the boy to Pittheus at Troezen, and that Phaedra first saw Hippolytus there (Pausanias 1.22.2).
Forbidden Love for Hippolytus
Hippolytus was the son of Theseus by the Amazon. Apollodorus says only that Phaedra fell in love with him and asked him to lie with her, and that he refused because he hated all women (Epitome 1.18). In Euripides’ play the cause is divine. Hippolytus honours Artemis and keeps away from Aphrodite, and the angry goddess punishes him by making his stepmother fall in love with him. In this version Phaedra is a woman who tries to hide a passion she knows to be shameful and is willing to die rather than speak. The play is set in Troezen.
The Accusation
In the play Phaedra’s old nurse worms the secret out of her and tells Hippolytus. He is horrified and rejects it with angry words. Phaedra, humiliated, hangs herself, leaving a tablet tied to her hand that accuses Hippolytus of rape. In Apollodorus’ shorter account, Phaedra, afraid that Hippolytus might report her to his father, tore open the doors of her room, ripped her clothes and falsely charged him with attacking her.
Theseus’ Curse
Theseus believed the accusation and prayed to Poseidon that Hippolytus should die. Poseidon sent a bull from the sea (Epitome 1.19). In Euripides, the bull frightens the horses of Hippolytus’ chariot as he drives along the shore, and he is dragged to his death. Artemis then appears, tells Theseus the truth and promises Hippolytus honours at Troezen: unmarried girls will cut their hair for him before their weddings (Hippolytus 1423–1430). Father and son are reconciled before Hippolytus dies.
The two versions end differently for Phaedra. In Euripides she kills herself before Theseus returns, so that her death and her accusation come together. In the version Apollodorus gives, she hangs herself after Hippolytus has died. Hyginus follows Euripides: Phaedra sends Theseus a written tablet accusing Hippolytus and hangs herself, and the bull’s bellowing makes the horses tear Hippolytus apart (Fabulae 47). Diodorus (4.62) has a version without the god: Phaedra, when Theseus summons Hippolytus to test the charge, hangs herself in fear, and Hippolytus, distraught at the accusation, loses control of his horses and is dragged to death in the reins; he also says that she built the temple of Aphrodite on the Athenian acropolis from which one can see Troezen.
Family of Phaedra
Phaedra in Greek and Roman Drama
The ancient summary (hypothesis) of the play records that Euripides had written an earlier Hippolytus, now lost, in which Phaedra was bolder; the surviving play makes her more sympathetic, since the passion is forced on her by Aphrodite. Sophocles also wrote a Phaedra, of which only fragments survive. In Latin literature the story was retold in Seneca’s tragedy Phaedra and in Ovid’s Heroides 4, a letter in which Phaedra of Crete writes to Hippolytus, “born of an Amazon”.
Two main traditions can therefore be distinguished. In one, Phaedra herself, out of desire and then spite, is the author of the lie. In the other, which comes from Euripides’ surviving play, she is the victim of Aphrodite’s anger against Hippolytus and acts to protect her name. Both agree on the main events: the false charge, the curse of Theseus, the sea-bull sent by Poseidon, the death of Hippolytus and the suicide of Phaedra.
Phaedra in Homer and at Troezen
Homer already knew her: in the Odyssey (11.321–322) Odysseus sees Phaedra among the famous women of the past in the underworld, beside Procris and Ariadne. Pausanias, describing Troezen, saw the grave of Phaedra near the tomb of Hippolytus, and beside it a myrtle whose leaves were full of holes; the Troezenians said that Phaedra, in the torment of her passion, had pierced them with the pin she wore in her hair (Pausanias 1.22.2, 2.32.3–4). Above the race-course where Hippolytus exercised stood a temple of Aphrodite the Spy, from which, they said, Phaedra used to watch him. The page on Phaedra and Hippolytus tells the story in full.
See Also: Phaedra and Hippolytus, Minos, Pasiphae, Theseus, Hippolytus, Aphrodite, Artemis, Poseidon, Ariadne
What the ancient sources say
Passages that name Phaedra, in the original with English translation. The line gives the work and reference as scholars cite it.
- Euripides, Hippolytus 313–352bFirst episode: Phaedra confesses her love for HippolytusThe Nurse clings to Phaedra's knees until she speaks. Phaedra says that her hands are pure but her soul is stained, and then cries out for her mother's love…
- Euripides, Hippolytus 482–524Second episode: the Nurse offers a cure; Phaedra yieldsThe Chorus says that the Nurse gives the better counsel, but Phaedra thinks that such smooth words are the ruin of cities and houses and rejects the…
- Euripides, Hippolytus 669–731Third episode: Phaedra turns on the Nurse and resolves to diePhaedra laments that women have no arts or arguments left, and tells the Chorus that she is undone. She curses the Nurse as a traitress to her friends, and…
- Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.59.1–4.63.5TheseusThe historian tells of Theseus' birth at Troezen and his labours against the robbers on the road to Athens, then of the Minotaur: Minos' war over the death…
- Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.1.1–24Theseus and the Minotaur; Daedalus, Phaedra and PirithousThe Epitome picks up Theseus' labours with the sow of Crommyon and goes on through Sciron, Cercyon and Damastes, after which he reaches Athens and Medea's…
- Euripides, Hippolytus 215–266First episode: Phaedra raves of hunting, then covers her shamePhaedra cries that she wants to go to the mountain and the pine woods, to hunt with the dogs and to throw the javelin, and prays to Artemis. The Nurse asks…
- Euripides, Hippolytus 267–312First episode: the Nurse presses Phaedra to speakThe Chorus asks the Nurse what she has learned, and she says that Phaedra has had no food for three days and will not speak. The Nurse begs her to be gentle…
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.22.1–8Athens: Propylaea, Wingless Victory and the picture gallery of the AcropolisBelow the Acropolis are the temple of Themis, the barrow of Hippolytus with the Troezenian version of Phaedra’s love, and shrines of Vulgar Aphrodite, Earth…
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