I read of the story in Seneca’s drama Phaedra, yet to me Euripides’ Hippolytus has a real superiority, in general because of the final Theseus-Hippolytus conversation, the concerns with shame and reputation, and aidos, and the intense portrait of a lawless passion connected to Eros and Aphrodite, and more.

از اونجایی که خود اوریپید هم از زنها متنفر بود و در تجرد زندگی میکرد، میشه دیالوگ های ضد زن و تند هیپولیت رو حرف دل اوریپید تلقی کرد؟

Ciò che maggiormente distingue Euripide da altri autori greci è la sua forte critica e demistificazione dei valori tradizionali della sua cultura: il mito e gli dei. “Ippolito", in particolare, non si limita ad essere una tragica rappresentazione degli istinti e delle inclinazioni umane, - che possono talvolta essere positive e altre volte negative - ma propone un’umanizzazione delle divinità tradizionali, che perdono la loro unicità divina, mostrando chiaramente di possedere tratti tipici dell'umanità: odio, gelosia, rabbia e sete di vendetta. Fedra e Ippolito, pervasi dai dubbi e rappresentanti di due credi opposti: castità ed Eros, non sono altro che pedine nelle mani delle due dee Afrodite e Artemide. Mentre Artemide spinge i suoi seguaci verso la via della purezza, respingendo il desiderio carnale e l'amore di qualsiasi tipo, Afrodite è la dea della passione, dell’impeto e dell’istinto, che non tollera di essere ripudiata. L’insegnamento che Euripide vuole trasmettere al pubblico è che l’uomo è una creatura multiforme, ricca di sfumature e incline tanto all'errore quanto alla giustizia. Un essere che non può sottrarsi all’Eros, abbracciando una vita fatta solo di purezza, così come non può lasciarsi dominare completamente dalle passioni, poiché in entrambi i casi peccherebbe di hybris.

نحن أمام قصة هيبوليتوس إبن ثيسيوس .. الفتى العفيف كاره النساء .. وقعت في حبه زوجة أبيه ( فايدرا ) .. قدمت هذه المسرحية أكثر من مرة .. حتى يوريبيدس نفسه قدمها أول مرة ولم يتقبلها الجمهور اليوناني ، حيث صورها يوربيديس إمرأة لا تعرف الخجل تحاول اشباع رغباتها نحو هيبوليتوس و تعرض عليه نفسها .. ثم قدمها سوفوكليس .. و من بعدها أعاد يوربيديس تقديمها مرة أخرى و هذه هي النسخة التي بين أيدينا ..

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لقد لقيت جزائي أيتها الأرض أيها الضوء ..
كيف أهرب من مصيري
كيف أخفي لوعتي يا صديقاتي؟؟
مَن مِن الآلهة أو من البشر
سيظهر مساعداً أو مدافعاً أو مسانداً لأفعالي الخاطئة ؟؟
فالبلاء الذي أصابني يزحف عبر حياتي ولا يمكن الهروب منه
إني أتعس امرأة على وجه الأرض

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It has the strengths of a Euripides play. It is an easy read and rich in context. Unfortunately the story did little for me, the characters being more like archetypes which I think hurts a drama about complex human feelings. Yet there was one theme that resonated: a man choosing his hobby/passion/work over love and the dire consequences of such a choice. That being said I respect the play but I wish it had moved me in some way.

Review of Michael R. Halleran's translation of Euripides' Hippolytus (Focus Classical Library, 2001.) - Halleran's translation is very readable, and he provides brief, but good and helpful notes. This is a revised version of his 1995 translation (Aris and Philips), which also included the Greek text. This newer edition is directed to a wider readership and features a very useful Introduction where Euripides' earlier, now lost, version of Hippolytus (sometimes called 'Hippolytus Veiled') is also discussed - a topic that is (partly) picked up in his very interesting interpretative essay that concludes this book. The Introduction focuses on the play in the time and context it was written and first performed; the original staging of tragedy in general, as well as Hippolytus in myth and cult. The well-written concluding essay deals more in-depth with plot and structure, including major themes like speech, silence and deception; reputation, shame and honour; sōphrosynē; passion, reason and ignorance. – The combination of the translation, introduction and final essay in this edition makes it a very good choice both for the general reader as well as for those with some prior knowledge of Greek tragedy.



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Συγκλονιστικό. Ιδίως το τέλος, κολοσσιαίο.

Hippolytus has angered the goddess Aphrodite with his excessive chastity.

“God of nocturnal prowess is not my God.”

He only worships the virgin Artemis, like it’s a free for all:

“Men make their choice: one man honors one God,
and one another.”

Mistake.

Aphrodite strikes Hippolytus’ stepmother, Phaedra, with an incestuous love for her stepson. Phaedra becomes ill, and Aphrodite herself calls it a sickness, this love she hands out to mortals on a whim.

Phaedra and the women around her understand that her love is externally imposed.
Phaedra’s nurse: “Indeed, it would need to be a might prophet
to tell which of the Gods mischievously
jerks you from your true course and thwarts your wits!”
Phaedra herself: “Where have I strayed from the highway of good sense?
I was mad. It was the madness sent from some God.”
“One I love destroys me. Neither of us wills it.”

Phaedra fights Aphrodite’s sickness, trying to reason and ultimately suicide her way out of it. Her nurse upbraids her for not submitting to the goddess’ plans, noting that that’s just the way it is:
“Why, you should certainly
have had your father beget you on fixed terms
or with other Gods for masters, if you don’t like the laws that rule this world.”

But when Hippolytus finds out about his stepmother’s feelings, he can’t put two and two together and instead flies into a rage. I should already be used to hearing this refrain from ancient Greek men, especially given its similarity to Jason’s in Medea, but Hippolytus still managed to catch me off guard:

“Women! This coin which men find counterfeit!
Why, why, Lord Zeus, did you put them in the world,
in the light of the sun? If you were so determined
to breed the race of man, the source of it
should not have been women.”

He suggests that men should instead bring offerings to Zeus’ temples, and receive the number of children commensurate with their offering (with the wealthy purchasing the most children and so on). He’s angry that instead of the money going to Zeus, it’s wasted on dowries:

“So we might have lived
in houses free of the taint of women’s presence.
But now, to bring this plague into our homes
we drain the fortunes of our homes. In this
we have a proof how great a curse is woman.”
“I’ll hate you women, hate and hate and hate you,
and never have enough of hating…”

Wow. Tell us how you really feel.

Nevertheless, this play was one of my favorite of Euripides’ for its unwanted desire and self-conflict (which are my own scholarly jams), and for its theme of doubles, since Phaedra and Hippolytus mirror each other in several ways. Here is a line uttered by Hippolytus, when banished by his father, underscoring the “doubles” theme, and I wish I had a better idea of what it means:

“If I could only find
another me to look me in the face
and see my tears and all that I am suffering!”

I’d welcome any interpretations!

Questa nel mio parere, è la tragedia con il coro più notevole nella tragedia greca! Anziché il coro come spettatori, qua si vede un coro che cambia proprio l'andamento della storia. Ho deciso di leggere ancora un'altra volta Ippolito perché devo leggere Phèdre di Pierre Corneille! Spero che lui mantenga questa stravaganza delle figure femminili nella sua opera.

"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."

(times read: 2)
2023 review:
LMAOOOO ig hippolytus is not into the whole stepmom thing!!

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?