Phaedra (mythology)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Phaedra, a princess of Crete in Greek mythology, carried a name that comes from the Greek word phaidros, meaning bright. Her story is anything but bright. It is a tale of forbidden longing for her own stepson, and of a royal household that did not survive it.

  Ancient storytellers could not agree on what kind of woman she was. Some made her a schemer who brought ruin on herself. Others made her a victim of forces far beyond her control.

  Who was she married to, and what family did she come from? Which ancient writers preserved her story, and why do their versions differ? Was her desire truly her own, or was it forced on her by a god? And why did artists keep returning to her for two thousand years?

  1926

• 2. From Crete to Athens

  ›

  King Minos and Queen Pasiphaë of Crete had eight children together, and Phaedra was one of them. Acacallis, Ariadne and Xenodice were among her sisters. Androgeus, Deucalion, Glaucus and Catreus were among her brothers.

  The Minotaur counted as her half-brother on her mother's side. Through her father, she also had several half-siblings.

  Phaedra became the wife of Theseus, the Greek hero remembered as the legendary founder of Athens. They had two sons together, Demophon and Acamas. But Theseus already had a son named Hippolytus, born to the queen of the Amazons, who is called either Hippolyta or Antiope.

  Theseus married Phaedra only after some earlier adventures. He had helped Heracles steal the belt of Hippolyta and had killed the Minotaur. During the Amazon expedition, he carried off the queen, and she bore him Hippolytus. A variant says she fell in love with Theseus and left with him willingly.

  The wedding feast itself turned violent. A band of Amazons led by Hippolyta attacked the hall where the reception was under way. Theseus killed Hippolyta in the fighting, so the mother of Hippolytus died at Theseus's own hand during his marriage celebration to Phaedra.

  14789

• 3. Lost and Surviving Plays

  ›

  Sophocles wrote a play called Phaedra, and Euripides wrote another named Hippolytus Veiled, yet neither of them survives. Much of what the ancient world made of this story has simply vanished.

  Three works did survive. The Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca the Younger wrote a play titled Phaedra. Ovid wrote Heroides, a collection of poems that includes her story. Euripides also wrote a second play on the subject, called Hippolytus.

  Because so many authors handled the material, many versions of the tale exist. They all share one general structure. Over time, two versions became the most prominent. In one, Phaedra acts alone on her desires. In the other, the goddess Aphrodite curses her.

  The older of the two is usually called the traditional version. In it, the blame for the catastrophe falls on Phaedra alone.

  23111619

• 4. The Scheming Stepmother

  ›

  Hippolytus was a devoted follower of Artemis who had sworn to preserve his virginity, and that vow decides everything in the traditional telling. Here Phaedra is the main cause of the misfortune. She falls in love with her stepson and resolves to entice him into a sexual relationship.

  Hippolytus refuses her. The rejection leaves Phaedra humiliated, and she also knows what Theseus would do to her if he learned what she had attempted.

  So she tells her husband a lie. She claims that Hippolytus tried to rape her.

  Theseus is furious. Poseidon had once granted him three wishes, and he now holds one of them in reserve for his own son.

  216111526

• 5. Aphrodite's Curse

  ›

  In the version popularized by Euripides, Phaedra is known as a virtuous queen, and the fault lies with Aphrodite. The goddess of love is angered by Hippolytus. He hails Artemis as the greatest of all deities and vows eternal chastity, swearing never to love or marry. He also refuses to worship Aphrodite.

  Aphrodite punishes him by cursing Phaedra to fall madly in love with him. Theseus happens to be abroad at the time.

  For several months, Phaedra lies in her bed and refuses to eat. At last she can no longer bear her suffering in silence and confides in her nurse. The nurse, worried for her mistress's health, tells Hippolytus how Phaedra feels.

  Hippolytus is bound by his oath of abstinence and rejects his stepmother. When Phaedra learns what the nurse has done, she fears the consequences of her immoral desires and plans to take her own life.

  First she writes to Theseus. Her letter accuses Hippolytus of seducing and assaulting her, an attempt to clear her name and perhaps shield her children from misfortune. Then she hangs herself, the letter held in her hand.

  1819202124

• 6. Death on the Shore

  ›

  A monster, or a sea-bull, rose from the water while Hippolytus drove his chariot along the seashore. Poseidon had granted the wish, and the creature terrified the horses. They bolted and smashed the chariot to pieces. Tangled in the reins, Hippolytus was dragged to his death.

  Euripides tells it almost the same way, with a different trigger. Theseus reads the letter in Phaedra's hand and learns of his son's supposed sins. He prays to Poseidon, who summons a huge bull to send the horses into a wild frenzy.

  The two versions part ways after the death. In the traditional telling, Phaedra's treachery is discovered, and she hangs herself.

  In the Euripides version, Artemis is saddened at losing her devout follower. She tells Theseus about the curse Aphrodite placed on his wife. The story ends with Theseus grieving over the deaths of both his wife and his son.

  252161124

• 7. Shrine and Myrtle

  ›

  On the south slope of the Acropolis, the Athenians kept a shrine to Aphrodite "for Hippolytus." The place of worship tied the goddess to the young man's name.

  The travel writer Pausanias adds details about where the pair ended up. He writes that Phaedra and Hippolytus were buried close to each other, near a racetrack where Hippolytus used to practice. A myrtle tree grew over her tomb.

  Pausanias weaves the tree into her story. He claims that Phaedra used to hide behind a myrtle while she watched Hippolytus train.

  The Troezenians, he writes, had a myrtle whose leaves were all pierced with holes. They said a pin from Phaedra's hair had made every one of them.

  10272826

• 8. Centuries of Retelling

  ›

  A wall painting of Phaedra from the early first century CE comes from Pompeii and is now in the Antiquarium di Pompeii. A second-century Roman sarcophagus in the Camposanto in Pisa is also linked to her story. It became the model for Nicola Pisano's work on the Pisa Baptistery in the mid-thirteenth century. Alexandre Cabanel painted his own Phaedra in 1880.

  Writers followed in great numbers. Jean Racine wrote the French play Phèdre in 1677. Algernon Charles Swinburne produced an English lyrical drama, Phaedra, in 1866. Herman Bang published a Danish novel, Fædra, in 1883.

  In 1905, Willa Cather wrote an American short story called The Marriage of Phaedra. Gabriele D'Annunzio wrote the Italian play Fedra in 1909, and Miguel de Unamuno wrote a Spanish Fedra two years after that. Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms followed in 1924, and Marina Tsvetaeva wrote a Russian Fedra in 1928. Mary Renault's novel The Bull from the Sea appeared in 1962, and Sarah Kane's play Phaedra's Love in 1996.

  Music took up the tale as well. Jean-Philippe Rameau's tragédie en musique Hippolyte et Aricie dates from 1733. Giovanni Paisiello wrote an opera called Fedra in 1788, and Simon Mayr wrote another in 1820. Jules Massenet composed a Phèdre overture in 1873, and Ildebrando Pizzetti built a 1915 opera on D'Annunzio's play.

  The modern age has kept going. Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra recorded Some Velvet Morning in 1967. Tangerine Dream released an LP called Phaedra in 1974, and Benjamin Britten wrote a Phaedra cantata in 1975. Hans Werner Henze finished an opera in 2007. Julia Holter's album Tragedy, from 2011, shows the story still drawing artists some two thousand years after the Pompeii wall painting.

  3031323329