Quedé

Hippolytus, Euripides’in antik Yunan tanrılarının acımasızlığına dair tragedyası. Aşk tanrıçası Afrodit, kendisi yerine masumiyet yemini etmiş av tanrıçası Artemis’e tapan Hippolytus’a korkunç bir son hazırlar. Afrodit’in etkisiyle üvey oğluna aşık olan efsanevi Atina kralı Theseus’un eşi Phaedra hem kendisini hem de Hippolytus’u Afrodit’in tuzağına doğru çekecektir. Euripides’in diğer tragedyaları gibi kolay okunan, insanoğlunu ikibin küsur yıl sonra bile etkileyen duyguları konu alan bir eser.

"Life is ugly and disease revolts me" is an excellent tagline for the film adaptation.

The conniving, busybody nurse seems to be the pattern for that other failed intriguer in Romeo and Juliet.

Once again, the gods ruin everyone's lives and also cause their tragic death by execution or suicide. Sucks being an ancient Greek.

Hippolytus worships Artemis, the Virgin goddess and out of devotion remains chaste. Aphrodite considers this as a personal affront and decides to avenge herself against him by causing his stepmother, Phaedra, to fall in love with him.

While his father, Theseus is away, Phaedra, after spending pages lamenting her lot and helpless desire confides to her nurse, who then tells Hippolytus. Hippolytus then embarks on his own lengthy soliloquy, railing against the wretched nature of women and their inferiority. He's so ugly about it that I almost didn't care what was about to happen to him, the jerk.

But it isn't fair what happens. Theseus comes home to find his wife has hanged herself. She has left a tablet on which she has written that Hippolytus has raped her. Theseus is enraged and exiles his son, then calls upon his father, Poseidon to avenge him, which he obligingly does, proving that the Greek gods are not omniscient or Poseidon would have known Hippolytus was innocent. Then again, considering how he treated Odysseus, maybe he's just a sorry sapsucker.

Naturally Artemis comes to inform Theseus of the truth of the matter after its too late. Theseus rushes to his dying son, who forgives him.

It's interesting to me how often mankind is shown to have greater honor and virtue than the gods in many of these plays and sagas.

The chorus plays a small role in this play, only occasionally inserting a third person narrative, usually a lament.

All of the Greek plays I have read so far seem to implicitly describe a great force that draws mankind like an inexorable twine of steel along a predestined path. Plays are mostly dialogue, but through the words one can hear the cry of one being forced to travel a line of destiny through a travesty of events that cause their doom.

I wonder how they arrived at this conclusion? Could it be the result of ancient peoples turning from their authentic Creator and worshiping false gods and ultimately becoming enslaved by their own falsehood?

This is one that benefits from multiple readings. On first brush, it appears to be so linear. Aphrodite spells out the plot at the outset and it doesn't meaningfully diverge from that.

Where it gets more interesting on reflection is seeing how characters describe themselves. Do we take it at face value that Hippolytus is virtuous when he and Artemis say he is? His speech to the nurse doesn't seem noble, and Aphrodite certainly doesn't think he is. Is Phaedra in love because we were told she was or is something else happening to her since it sure doesn't look like love. Is there any order to the moral universe or is capricious vengeance the rule of the day? If you're devoted to the gods, will they be devoted to you?

Much less is answered than first appears. It's worth reading once, but to have any fun with it, it should also be discussed.

this is my least favourite from euripides so far, but it is still very interesting.

we see the gods in a different light in this play; aphrodite and artemis are not working in league with each other, but directly opposite. all the events of this play occur because aphrodite was jealous that she was not getting enough praise from hippolytus.

it appears to me that she is being very spiteful in making phaedra fall in love with him, inciting much suffering where it is not necessary at all.

but also, hippolytus' extreme reaction upon hearing of phaedra's love was no proportionate either. die, both of you, he says, i'll never get enough of hating women. pretty brutal. im not going to say that he deserves to die but ...

anyway. pretty good. i will be sad to see this half of the module go. only bacchae remains!

Another early experiment. Deadly family dynamics and celestial pettiness.
It's Greek, after all.

denial is a river in egypt

n  "Many a time in night's long empty spaces
I have pondered on the causes of a life's shipwreck.
I think that our lives are worse than the mind's quality
would warrant. There are many who know good sense.
But look. We know the good, we see it clear.
But we can't bring it to achievement."n

Hippolytus tells the story of Theseus' wife Phaedra, who is put under a love-spell by the vengeful Aphrodite after the latter is spurned by Phaedra's stepson Hyppolytus. Sick with love for her stepson, Phaedra is at her wits' end and finally shares her shameful secret with her nurse, who proceeds to tell Hyppolytus about it, albeit under oath. Phaedra, devastated by this turn of events, proceeds to take her own life, leaving a suicide note that accuses Hyppolytus of having raped her. Theseus, coming home to all this and refusing to believe Hyppolytus over his dead wife, curses Hyppolytus with (it turns out) one of the three wishes granted to him by Poseidon. He banishes Hyppolytus, but alas, having been cursed, he quickly dies. Artemis, another god whom Hyppolytus favored over Aphrodite, finally reveals the twisted machinations of Aphrodite to Theseus while Hyppolytus lies dying.

"où aboutiront les excès de l'esprit humain? quel sera le terme de son audace et de sa témérité? si en effet sa perversité s'accroît à chaque génération, si les vices des enfants surpassent toujours ceux du père."

A tragedy of frenzied passion; or just possibly, for we moderns, a tragedy of unrequited love.

Don't anger the Gods, especially the vain ones. Wait, thats everybody.