EURIPIDES: Hippolytus

In the Hippolytus, Euripides presents the tragic nature of love. Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love, is the first character to appear on stage. She gives a soliloquy, in which she informs the audience that she will avenge herself upon Hippolytus because he does not revere her. She accomplishes her design by making Hippolytus’s step mother Phaedra fall in love with him. Phaedra commits suicide, and accuses Hippolytus of raping her. Theseus, Hippolytus’s father and Phaedra’s husband, believes her deathbed confession, and curses Hippolytus, invoking Poseidon to kill Hippolytus. Poseidon grants Theseus’s wish. The god sends a bull from the ocean that startles Hippolytus’s horses. Hippolytus falls from his chariot and dies.