Don't mess with the Gods: abide by their rules or perish.The anger of a deity who feels dishonored by the choice made by a human; the wrath of the Goddess of Love - Aphrodite - who can't stand her impotence for not being able to subdue the chaste Hippolytus to her powers of passion and desire. The rivalry of two opposites: Virginity (Artemis) and Sex (Aphrodite), and the prevail of the latter. A world ruled by lust and desire were chastity has no place.
"Freedom is merely an illusion, a dreamlike thing, for Fate is the master of all of us. Like slaves, we must submit".
Once again, a story that reflects the poor and submissive condition of human existence: no life of your own, a life that belongs to the unpredictable and selfish will of the Gods.
The Plot
The goddess Aphrodite is much incensed because Hippolytus, bastard son of King Theseus of Trozên and the Amazon "Hippolyte", worships only pure Artemis. She resolves, therefore, to bring about his death through the very sex that he has scorned, and scorning, has thus offered insult to the mighty Aphrodite.
For some months past, Phaedra, beloved wife of Theseus, has hidden in her inmost heart a secret passion for the manly Hippolytus. Through unsatiated desire and secret shame she has wasted away until her old nurse despairs of her life. Finally, after much coaxing, the old nurse learns her secret. On pretense of making a love-philter that will cure Phaedra of her unholy love, the nurse confesses her mistress' secret to Hippolytus. The latter in anger scorns and upbraids Phaedra. Only his oath of secrecy given to the nurse, he admits, keeps him from confessing his stepmother's shame to the King as soon as His Majesty returns.
Phaedra, in her half-crazed state, scarcely heeds him. She sees honor gone and her life ruined through her old servant's mistaken kindness, for she really believes that Hippolytus means to tell the King. In despair she hangs herself. Before the dread deed, however, she has written on her tablet, sealed with a royal seal, the charge that Hippolytus has dishonored her. On the King's arrival the first thing he notes is the tablet fastened to his dead wife's wrist. Grief-stricken, he opens it believing that it will contain some final directions for the care of their children, only to be shocked by the terrible accusation against Hippolytus.
The Prince's protestations of innocence are unavailing against the King's unreasoning anger, and his oath prevents his speaking the whole truth. Theseus condemns his son to life-long exile and in addition prays to his ancestor, Poseidon, powerful god of the sea, to destroy the ravisher of his dear wife.
Hippolytus, knowing the futility of further arguments, mounts his chariot to drive along the seashore until he shall reach his father's boundaries. As he drives, a terrible monster, riding a huge wave, so frightens his spirited horses that he is dashed against the rocks and is carried back, dying, to his father's presence. While he is still conscious Artemis appears in a cloud and explains to Theseus how cruelly Aphrodite had plotted against Hippolytus. Thus both the youth and Phaedra are revealed as the innocent victims of a goddess' jealousy and their honor is vindicated.
Note: summary taken from Moonstruck
Best extracts of the play
- The nurse, having heard Phaedra's in love with his stepson, tries to comfort her mistress by reminding her that mortals are helpless to the desire of the Gods. It's impossible for a simple woman to escape the longings of a God.
Nurse: "Give up your railing. It's only insolent pride to wish to be superior to the Gods. Endure your love, the Gods have willed it so. You are sick (...)"
- When Hippolytus learns by the Nurse that his stepmother is in love with him.
Hippolytus: "Women ! (...) Why, why, Lord Zeus did put you in the world, in the light of the sun? If you were so determined to breed the race of man, the source of it should not be women. (...) how great a curse is woman (...) beauty heaped on vileness (...) I'll hate you women, and hate you and hate you, and never have enough hating."
- The moment Theseus arrives home and curses his son for having murdered Phaedra.
Theseus: "Citizens, Hippolytus has dared to rape my wife. He has dishonored God's holy sunlight. Father Poseidon (...) I pray, kill my son (...) I banish him from this land's boundaries. So fate shall strike him, one way or the other, either Poseidon will respect my curse, and send him dead into the House of Hades, or exiled from this land (...)".
- When Artemis appears to Theseus and the hole truth is revealed.
Artemis: "I call on the noble king [Theseus] to hear me ! It is Artemis, child of Leto. Miserable man (...) you have murdered your son! (...) I have come here for this - to show you that your son's heart was always just, so just that for his good name he endured to die. I will show you, too, the frenzied love that seized your wife, or I may call it, a noble innocence. For that most hated Goddess [Aphrodite], hated by all of us whose joy is virginity, drove her with love's sharp prickings to desire your son. She tried to overcome her love with the mind's power, but at last against her will, she fell by the nurse's stratagems (...) who told your son under oath her mistress loved him (...) But he, just man, did not fall in with her counsels, and even when reviled by you refused to break the oath he had pledged. But your wife fearing lest she be proved the sinner wrote a letter, a letter full of lies, and so she killed your son by treachery (...)".
- The closing dialogue between the Goddess Artemis, father (Theseus) and son (Hippolytus): with his last breath, a dying son forgives his murderous father for having killed him.
Aphrodite:"You have sinned indeed, but you may win pardon. For it was Cypris [Aphrodite] who managed the things this way to gratify her anger against Hippolytus" (...)".
- When Artemis appears to Theseus and the hole truth is revealed.
Artemis: "I call on the noble king [Theseus] to hear me ! It is Artemis, child of Leto. Miserable man (...) you have murdered your son! (...) I have come here for this - to show you that your son's heart was always just, so just that for his good name he endured to die. I will show you, too, the frenzied love that seized your wife, or I may call it, a noble innocence. For that most hated Goddess [Aphrodite], hated by all of us whose joy is virginity, drove her with love's sharp prickings to desire your son. She tried to overcome her love with the mind's power, but at last against her will, she fell by the nurse's stratagems (...) who told your son under oath her mistress loved him (...) But he, just man, did not fall in with her counsels, and even when reviled by you refused to break the oath he had pledged. But your wife fearing lest she be proved the sinner wrote a letter, a letter full of lies, and so she killed your son by treachery (...)".
- The closing dialogue between the Goddess Artemis, father (Theseus) and son (Hippolytus): with his last breath, a dying son forgives his murderous father for having killed him.
Aphrodite:"You have sinned indeed, but you may win pardon. For it was Cypris [Aphrodite] who managed the things this way to gratify her anger against Hippolytus" (...)".
Hippolytus: "O father, this is sorrow for you indeed".
Theseus: "I, too, am dead now. I have no more joy in life".
Hippolytus: "I sorrow for you in this more than myself" (...) The darkness is upon my eyes already. Father, lay hold on me and lift me up". (...)
Theseus: "And so you leave me, my hand stained with murder."
Hippolytus: "No, for I free you from all guilt in this".
As I tried to introduce in the opening, I find Euripides' Hippolytus to be the most tragic and emotionally devastating of classical poems. Thus, I encourage you to stop watching those brain-washing soap operas that appear on TV and start reading this writer's awesome play!
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