Hippolytus (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Euripides
- First Published: 428
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Tragedy
- Time of Work: Remote antiquity
- Setting: Troezen in Argolis
- Genres: Drama, Tragedy
- Subjects: Love or romance, Suicide, Virginity or virgins, Kings, queens, or royalty, Gods or goddesses, Hunting or hunters, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people, Chastity
- Locales: Athens, ancient, Crete, ancient, Troezen, ancient
Characters Discussed
Hippolytus (hih-POL-ih-tuhs), the son of Theseus by Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Because he pays exclusive worship to the virgin goddess Artemis, Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, determines to punish him by making Phaedra, the wife of Theseus, fall in love with her stepson. Phaedra is dying of her guilty passion; when her nurse reveals her state to Hippolytus, after swearing him to secrecy, he is horrified. Phaedra kills herself out of shame, but because Hippolytus has shown no pity for her plight she leaves a tablet saying that she has killed...
[The entire page is 985 words long]
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