The myth and story of Hippolytus, studied the relationship of stepson, Hippolytus and stepmother, Phaedra. Examining the two plays presenting this narrative reveals that, the characters and basic plot points could be seen with similarities, however the way the story is told and the themes that are explored are different in nature. Much can be comprehended about the evolution of drama through a comparing Euripides’ Hippolytus and Seneca’s Phaedra. Seneca made several changes to the work in order to deliver a humanistic approach to the subject material, in contrast to Euripides god dependant plot.
As Rebecca Armstrong says in, Cretan Women: Pasiphae, Ariadne, and Phaedra in Latin Poetry, “Euripides’ Hippolytus gives us the first clear indication of such self- consciousness about the pattern of family sin.” In the context of the original myth, king of Athens, Theseus, was father of his bastard son, Hippolytus. Hippolytus devoted his worship towards Artemis, the goddess of hunt. This angered the goddess of love, Aphrodite, which subsequently led her to punish him by making his stepmother, Phaedra, fall in love with him. Phaedra soon began to waste away with her suppressed desire. Her nurse advised her to write to Hippolytus, to confess her love. Her letter contained her sentiments and asking Hippolytus to pay homage to Aphrodite. Filled with rage, Hippolytus stormed into Phaedra’s chambers. Now feeling rejected, Phaedra shifts the accusation on her stepson by creating a scene of sexual violence and calling for help. Phaedra could not bear to live and ultimately ended her life. She left behind a note, accusing Hippolytus of rape. Theseus banished Hippolytus from Athens then called upon Poseidon. He asked to use up his last wish to destroy his own son. During Hippolytus’ travels along the shore, heading to Troezen, a monster resembling a bull appeared. The monster attack his carriage and caught him in the reins of his horses, dragging him along the ground, leading to his death. Artemis ordered that Troezenians now must pay divine honours towards Hippolytus.
Understanding why Euripides chose to take on this story is not a difficult task considering it contains themes of love, betrayal, passion, transgression, revenge and human against divine will. John Ferguson describes Euripides as “a restless modernist, a propagandist with a genius for poetry and drama.” He demonstrated a tendency to use his drama to challenge the expected. Philip Whaley Harsh, a classic scholar, points out that throughout the course of the play, Hippolytus’ character remains consistently self-righteous. During the opening scene, Hippolytus confidently states his virtuousness in remaining clean any kind of sexual love. Even in the conclusion of his character, he continues to not question his own innocence in the events that lead him to his eventual death. This reveals that Hippolytus is not providing the plot’s driving force of drama. However, for an ancient Greek audience, the moral purity in Hippolytus’ character did serve to tell the story of how he became a worshipped cult figure within the city of Troezen. As Harsh says, “Such conceit is proper to the semi-divinity which he has now become. The whole characterization of Hippolytus, indeed, has been designed to be compatible with his eventual status as a god or hero.” A Greek tragedy must contain tragic hero, and Hippolytus, with his lack of remorse, does not fit into the ideal mold of a hero. Leaving Euripides to depend upon Phaedra and Theseus to fill out the elements of a classical tragic drama. They ultimately offer a similar amount of material as Hippolytus since they do as well, suffer from abnormal passions. Hippolytus has a passion against women and sexual love, Phaedra has a passion for her stepson and Theseus succumbs to a passion to be the cause of his son demise. Considering this, all three characters are of equals, however each serves a unique purpose throughout the course of the story. To truly engage an audience’s interest towards a tragedy, a sympathetic character must be introduced from the very beginning. Because we are not more likely to feel sympathetic towards Hippolytus’ character, considering his remote nature, we are presented the character of Phaedra, an inadvertent victim of Aphrodite’s manipulations. We see her struggling to rebel against the spell Aphrodite directed upon her and she begins to victimized for a second time by her nurse’s incompetents. Through an act of nobility, Phaedra sacrifices her life to save her children and husband from shame of her actions.
The death of Phaedra is a shocking event since she is the character we have become attached to. In fact, it threatens to dissolve the whole drama until we learn that in her passing she has falsely accused Hippolytus. Our feelings for Phaedra disappear as we become invested in the fate of Hippolytus, knowing that he is now the one who has been undeniably wronged and is deserving of our sympathies. Theseus takes on the role of the persecutor and Hippolytus is sentenced to death. Now Euripides has the problem that the story of a victim being sent to his demise is also not interesting in a dramatic sense, unless we have a moment of redemption or awareness. But, again, this is not going to happen to Hippolytus, who must be morally un-compromised for his hero status to remain. He can’t admit to any mistakes during his judgment. This is where the dramatic function of Theseus comes into play, in his recognition of the error he made in condemning his son without an honourable hearing. Indeed, Theseus’ crimes are the worst of all. Whereas Phaedra’s crime was only a wrongful love in which she tried to refrain from acting upon. Theseus used the last wish granted him by Poseidon against his own son and also did not retain his vengeful passion. It is in Theseus actions that transport us to the drama at its highest state of tension, which is then resolved. He begins to act out wrongfully, in which he will clearly regret, and then confront the truth of his errors. With the help of Artemis, he and Hippolytus are reconciled before the death of Hippolytus. The tragedy is brought back through our sympathies for Phaedra, we are brought to the climax through an investment in the fate of Hippolytus, and then we are able to have a feeling of resolution in Theseus’ recognition of his error in judgment. All this occurring as the background to a literal depiction of how Hippolytus came to be known as a cult hero.
Seneca’s Phaedra is not quite as resonant as Euripides’ Hippolytus. Scholars at times argue that it is unjust to refer to Seneca exclusively by a standard of dramatic literature since he was foremost a philosopher. It should not be assumed that his foremost purpose in his writing of plays was that of a dramatic standard. A common belief is that Seneca’s plays were not written to be acted on stage. Rather for an individual to be read by a single speaker. During a performance of a select scene from the play for a class project, it was clear it was dependent on its descriptive dialogue rather than using actual stage business. Being that he was a philosopher, Seneca’s interest was in portraying a dramatic stoic view that man should put aside passion and indulgence. They should have reasoning to their actions and feel harmony within the world at large. Indeed, the story of Phaedra and Hippolytus provides a platform from which to support this standard. It is first shown in Seneca’s choice of title, not choosing the name of Hippolytus. Instead, Seneca names his work Phaedra, demonstrating that it is this character that his stoic ideals and lesson is to be discovered in.
From preconception, Phaedra is presented with the tendency to be ruled by her perverse passions. She is mad with her husband Theseus for joining Pirithous to the underworld to find Persephone, leaving her all alone in their house while he “hunts for fornication or the chance to rape.”She is also dealing with personal turmoil, “erupts and scalds like a volcano’s smoky waves.” Nurse begs her to “smother the flames of your incestuous love.” To display his argument of reasoning against passion, Seneca uses the characters of Phaedra and the nurse to lay out an agonistic argument. Phaedra agrees with the nurse, that she should not act on her desires. However she then begins to claim that she is unable to contain herself:
“What power has guiding reason? Victory
goes to the passions, they’re now in control,
their potent god is master of my mind.
To which the nurse counters:
Lust in its craving for debauchery
invented the idea of love as god.
It gave passion this fake divinity,
this title of respectability,
so it could be freer to rove at will.”
The debate continues and Phaedra has an answer for the nurse’s concerns and sentiments until the nurse finally begs her to at last control her passion, she implores, “Wanting a cure is part of getting well.” Phaedra explains that if she cannot pursue her lust and passion, she will end her own life. The nurse ultimately agrees to help her win the affections of Hippolytus. Seneca has begun to lay out his philosophical lesson. The narrative’s mission from this point on, is to reveal the inevitable consequences of unnatural passion. However, the execution is not short of utilizing dramatic plot techniques throughout. The next scene, we discover that the physical condition of Phaedra has worsened. This begins to humanize the character, not only does it raise the stakes of drama but creates her as a more pitiable form of herself. While the nurse leaves to meet with Hippolytus, it is brought to our attention again that if things do not go in Phaedra’s favour, she will die, whether it be by suicide or from being lovesick. The nurse speaks to Hippolytus of the pleasures of sexuality, and is met not only by a speech of the pleasures of woodland life, but also a misogynistic rant against the evils of women. Now Seneca has increased the difficulty of the task in which the nurse and Phaedra must face to win the affections of Hippolytus. They must not only get his interest to be directed towards Phaedra, but also make him realize the good in women.
Continuing on, Seneca creates a sequence of events that make good use of suspense. Phaedra acts faint in order to get the attention of Hippolytus. We are aware her plan is to seduce him, however things take a twist. Instead of seducing Hippolytus, Phaedra lunges at her stepson. He does not recoil and pull his sword on her. She does not flee and welcomes her fate and finally her chance to die at his hand. He does not follow through, refusing her the gratification of death. And finally, rather than being accused, the nurse immediately conspires to accuse Hippolytus of rape. Seneca has successfully achieved his plan to illuminate the evils of human passion. Theseus is brought back from the underworld due to the necessity of his unresolved anger. The nurse begins to build on to the drama by proclaiming Phaedra’s intention to kill herself. Phaedra reveals Hippolytus’ sword and this ensues Theseus next explosive burst of passion and anger. He calls upon Neptune to kill his own son. This is when the sentiments of regret pour out of the unfortunate subjects of the plot. Phaedra, now filled with guilt, admits to her crimes and now turns the blame on Theseus. She ends her life in order to be with Hippolytus. Now Theseus is forced to deal with the events that have just transpired. He asks why he must bear such misfortune and begins to beg upon the gods to bring him back to the underworld. He attempts to reassemble his now broken son’s body, but failing. Seneca has now succeeded at illustrating his philosophical view in the dramatic and engaging narrative. However, it could be argued that he fails in comparison to Euripides at portraying depths of meaning in his work. Thus, creating the divide between a moral quest and the conception of a work of art.