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Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians; and
having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus, who
excelled in beauty and chastity. When his wife died, he married, for his
second wife, Phædra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and
Pasiphaë. Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his
kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Trœzene, where it happened
that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus: but Phædra having seen
the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was incontinent, but in
order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having determined to destroy
Hippolytus on account of his chastity, brought her plans to a conclusion.
She, concealing her disease, at length was compelled to declare it to her
nurse, who had promised to relieve her, and who, though against her
inclination, carried her words to the youth. Phædra, having learned that he
was exasperated, eluded the nurse, and hung herself. At which time Theseus
having arrived, and wishing to take her down that was strangled, found a
letter attached to her, throughout which she accused Hippolytus of a design
on her virtue. And he, believing what was written, ordered Hippolytus to go
into banishment, and put up a prayer to Neptune, in compliance with which
the god destroyed Hippolytus. But Diana declared to Theseus every thing
that had happened, and blamed not Phædra, but comforted him, bereaved of
his child and wife, and promised to institute honors in the place to
Hippolytus.
The scene of the play is laid in Trœzene. It was acted in the archonship of
Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides first, Jophon
second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that name, and is
called ΣΤΕΦΑΝΙΑΣ: but it appears to have been written the latest, for what
was unseemly and deserved blame is corrected in this play. The play is
ranked among the first.
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