Ferguson, John. But in this narrowness of purpose, he fails to achieve the layers of meaning that can be discovered in Euripides’ work, and that make the difference between a moral lesson and a work of art. Ironically, immediately after this Theramenes brings the news that Phaedra’s son has been chosen by the people as Theseus’ successor, solidifying Phaedra’s power. [3], For the play by Seneca sometimes called Hippolytus, see, Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hippolytus_(play)&oldid=978089766, Articles needing additional references from March 2012, All articles needing additional references, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Zeitlin, Froma (1996). His illegitimate son Hippolytus also lives in Troezen. Phaedra, sickly, appears with her nurse. institution. Thus, Seneca has set up his philosophical lesson.
At the beginning of the play, Theseus is … Stanford University Press, 1944. He has been compared with Bernard Shaw; there is the same iconoclasm, the same dramatic genius, the same dedicated revolt.”[2] Given this demonstrated tendency to use his drama to challenge the status quo, what were Euripides’ intentions in his dramatic portrayal of Hippolytus and Phaedra? Therefore, Euripides must draw upon Phaedra and Theseus to fill out the requisite elements of a classical tragic drama. Rather than recoiling, he draws his sword to attack.
It is not hard to imagine that the Renaissance mentality could more easily assimilate the Greek plot lines, offering a welcomed larger-than-life tragic nobility, filtered through Seneca’s Stoicism, resembling as it does a Christian morality. The first, called “Hippolytos who veils his head,” generally translated as Hippolytus Veiled, is known only in fragments and is surmised to be the source of much of Seneca’s plot for Phaedra.
Phaedra is a play written by the Greek playwright Euripides. Unfortunately for her, Hippolytus turned out to be a tough nut to crack: not only he rebuffed her advances, but he also did it without blinking an eye. Instead, Seneca names his work Phaedra, signaling that it is in this character that his Stoic lesson is to be found. The Greek Myths: 1 & 2. Then we see a quick series of reverses: Rather than seducing, she lunges at him. Phaedra has just revealed her desire for Hippolytus, and the nurse and chorus have concluded that Phaedra’s perverse passion is a curse from Aphrodite. In order for a tragedy to engage an audience’s interest, there must be introduced at the beginning a character for whom the audience can feel sympathy. Since they contradict each other, we decided to share them with you separately; after all, both deserve to be narrated in full.
Tobin, Ronald W. Racine and Seneca. Quite the opposite, she was interested in her husband’s son from his previous marriage with the Amazon queen Antiope (also known as Hippolyte). Racine, Jean. Phaedra nobly sacrifices her own life to save her husband and children from shame. Hippolytus is carried in physically battered and barely clinging to life. After hearing Hippolytus’ harsh reply, the audience feels pity for Phaedra because she has not acted on her passion and had resigned herself to death before being unfaithful; however, she will soon endure a tarnished reputation because of her servant’s lack of honesty. If we were to try to place it in history, it would be about 1300 BC. [3]:3, Euripides revisits the myth in Hippolytos Stephanophoros, its title referring to the garlands Hippolytus wears as a worshipper of Artemis. Lastly, Phaedra uses deceit to protect her reputation from being tarnished after she dies. Their task is no longer simply to get him interested in Phaedra, they must first convince him of the merits of women in general.
[18] The Art and Craft of Playwriting, Jeffrey Hatcher (Cinc.
She falls in love with her step-son Hippolytus, and, even though she knows this is wrong, she does not succeed in controlling herself.
Whereas Phaedra’s crime was simply an illicit love which she tried vainly to resist acting on, Theseus not only failed to moderate his vengeful passion, but he also used the last wish granted him by Poseidon against his own son.
JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. All this occurring as the background to a literal, and therefore ironic, depiction of how Hippolytus came to be revered as a cult figure. Thinking that anything is better than facing him, Phaedra decided to kill herself. Euripides: Medea, Hippolytus, Electra, Helen, Maize Mountain – A Mayan story about corn, Who we are: Quatr.us' mission and history.
However, from this point on the drama degenerates into a disjointed sequence of regret and recrimination. It is concerned with dike, justice, but also with sophrosyne, or control: how do people control themselves? This item is part of JSTOR collection He makes this aim clear in his preface to Phedre: “What I can assert is that no play of mine so celebrates virtue as this one does.
She explores different angles of her reasoning, and the audience sympathizes with trying to understand why something bad might happen to someone, accessing the thoroughly human instinct to find an origin for unexplained tragedies. Hippolytus appears with his followers and shows reverence to a statue of Artemis, a chaste goddess. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1941. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy. The chorus sings a lament for Hippolytus.
We provide you with original essay samples, perfect formatting and styling. This serves to humanize her, in that it is making the formerly selfish and indulgent character more pitiable, as well as to raise the stakes, similar to introducing a ticking clock into the drama. In the following scene, Seneca makes effective use of suspense when Phaedra feigns a fainting spell to get Hippolytus’ attention. Easy reading. When Hippolytus professes his love to Aricia and is received favorably by her, the tension builds.
We will not be coerced into conforming either to the traditional paradigms or to the "new" metaphysic and ideological absolutism of contemporary theory. As the debate goes on, Phaedra has an answer for every one of the nurse’s objections until the nurse finally begs her to control her passion, telling her, “Wanting a cure is part of getting well.”[15] Phaedra agrees to obey her, but in the end the nurse loses. When Hippolytus went to Athens two years previously Aphrodite inspired Phaedra, Hippolytus' stepmother, to fall in love with him. Richard Wilbur. Scenes from Greek Drama. As it could only be expected, upon reading Phaedra’s letter, Theseus prayed to Poseidon to kill his son; and the god did, in much the same manner as in the first story of Hippolytus and Phaedra. With the help of Artemis, he and Hippolytus are reconciled before Hippolytus’ death, and Hippolytus ascends to cult hero status. This means swimming against the mainstream, resisting the extremes of conventional philology and critical fashion into which the profession is now polarized. In being presented this way, he is less faultless than in Euripides’ and Seneca’s versions. Phaedra, on the other hand, is not at all in control of her emotions or her body.
Cornell University Press, 1986. Phaedra wrote to him, confessing her love and suggesting he pay homage to Aphrodite with her. As the nurse goes off to accomplish her task with Hippolytus, we are reminded that if Phaedra doesn’t get what she wants, she will die, whether it be by her own hand or from lovesick wasting away. Phaedra falls in love with the hunter Hippolytus (Pompeii, ca. The first, called “Hippolytos who veils his head,” generally translated as Hippolytus Veiled, is known only in fragments and is surmised to be the source of much of Seneca’s plot for Phaedra. Phaedra’s eagerness to be at such a place and partake in the same hunt that Hippolytus does is an indication that she wants to be near and interact with Hippolytus due to her desire for him. GradesFixer.
We were thinking of the four corners of the world - four Quarters. The difference between these two titles gives an indication of Euripides intentions in each play. Hippolytus (Ancient Greek: Ἱππόλυτος, Hippolytos) is an Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. Therefore, when Phaedra commits suicide and ruins her stepson’s reputation with a letter that “loudly tells a hideous tale” (46) to save her own, the audience does not condemn her for her desperate actions though they are not excusable either. Indeed, Phaedra immediately changes from lovesick pursuer to scheming avenger. Classics scholar Philip Whaley Harsh points out that in the course of the extant play, Hippolytus’ character remains consistently self-righteous.
The Art and Craft of Playwriting. The nurse creates the drama of the ensuing scene by announcing Phaedra’s intention to kill herself. With origins in both the Greek myths and the biblical story of Potiphar and his wife, the fate of Phaedra and Hippolytus has been recounted by numerous playwrights throughout history.
Now she must make a political alliance with him for the sake of her son, who is Theseus’ legitimate heir. And Racine fashions a cautionary tale on the destructiveness of human perversity around the unfortunate fates of not only Phaedra, but Hippolytus and Theseus as well. The slave comes back to tell Phaedra that Hippolytus is shocked by her love. The monster chased Hippolytus, causing his horses to stampede, the chariot to crash and Hippolytus to be caught in the reins and dragged along the ground to his death. First, Hippolytus is introduced as feeling restless and confined, wanting to go look for his missing father, and unwilling to admit that he’s in love with his father’s enemy Aricia. Curley, Thomas F., III. 28. London: Methuen & Co., 1941. On balance, her problems appear greater than Hippolytus’ such that she is the character in whose fate we become invested. Good question!
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1961.
In turn, this causes the audience to see themselves in Phaedra and feel as if this could have easily been one of them struck by Aphrodite’s power and uncontrollably in love with someone they shouldn’t. Theseus, king of Athens, has disappeared during one of his expeditions. It is necessary at this point to bring Theseus back from the underworld, where he has been incarcerated as a result of his own giving in to passion. Nonetheless, Seneca’s tragedies were taken quite seriously as drama by subsequent generations of playwrights, most notably the Elizabethans in England but also not inconsiderably the Italians and the French.
this essay is not unique. Theseus is painfully devastated by this revelation.
Theseus asks why he has been brought back from the dead to bear such misfortune and begs the gods to take him. Harsh, Philip Whaley. If you’d like this or any other sample, we’ll happily email it to you.
We can custom edit this essay into an original, 100% plagiarism free essay. But this is not the real reason he wishes to leave Troezen, where the court has been in residence for some time.