As Hippolytus drove along the shore towards Troezen, a great wave rose up throwing a bull-like monster onto the shore.

And if ever there were a playwright who delighted in knocking things off pedestals, it was Euripides.It is possible that in the first play Euripides focused on the real consequences of Hippolytus’ blindness, which may not have been well received by his cult-worshipping contemporaries. Their task is no longer simply to get him interested in Phaedra, they must first convince him of the merits of women in general. Phaedra wrote to him, confessing her love and suggesting he pay homage to Aphrodite with her.

Phaedra nobly sacrifices her own life to save her husband and children from shame.Phaedra’s death is a startling event since she is the character to whom we have become attached.

The particular version involving Much of the power of the play stems from the tension between the high emotionality, violence and passion of its storyline, and the eloquent discourse through which Although a celebrated hero from Greek mythology, the character of English translation by Frank Justus Miller (Theoi.com): Those who advocate the spurious theory that literature consists of a finite number of dramatic situations, which each generation of writers can only repackage, may be tempted to utilize the story of Phaedra’s love for her stepson Hippolytus as a defining case in point. Our good feeling for Phaedra evaporates as we become invested in Hippolytus’ fate, being that he is now the one who has been undeniably wronged and is deserving of our sympathies.

We see her struggling against the spell that Aphrodite has cast upon her and we see her victimized a second time by her nurse’s incompetent attempt to help. As punishment, Aphrodite caused Hippolytus’ stepmother Phaedra to fall in love with him. Seneca uses the character of Phaedra to present his Stoic argument for the superiority of reason over passion. The original myth, on which all subsequent works are based, tells the story of Hippolytus, the bastard son of Theseus, king of Athens, and his devotion to Artemis, goddess of the hunt, which angered Aphrodite, goddess of love, due to his … Theseus takes the part of persecutor and Hippolytus is unjustly sentenced to death.Now the playwright has the problem that the story of a victim being sent to his demise is also not dramatically interesting, unless we have a moment of redemption, transcendence or newly gained awareness. Therefore, Euripides must draw upon Phaedra and Theseus to fill out the requisite elements of a classical tragic drama. He can’t admit to any mistakes, faults or errors in judgment.This is where Theseus serves his dramatic function, in his recognition of the mistake he made in condemning his own son without a fair hearing. After his departure, Phaedra appears, racked with despair. He has been compared with Bernard Shaw; there is the same iconoclasm, the same dramatic genius, the same dedicated revolt.”According to ancient records, Euripides wrote two versions of this story, of which it is the second that survives.

What becomes clear, however, in even the most cursory analysis, is the great difference of thematic statement and dramatic effect achieved in each treatment of the same story. Phaedra produces Hippolytus’ sword and Theseus explodes in yet another passion of anger and revenge, calling upon Neptune to destroy his son.Seneca then fully exploits the action/adventure entertainment value in the messenger’s story of Hippolytus’ demise under attack from the bull-like sea monster. The nurse creates the drama of the ensuing scene by announcing Phaedra’s intention to kill herself.

Hippolytus was horrified at the letter and marched into her chamber in anger. For all his piety and righteousness, he seems incapable of any real human warmth or affection. But, again, this is not going to happen to Hippolytus, who must remain morally uncompromised for his hero status. In this, Racine’s ending is superior to Euripides’. With this the playwright has significantly raised the bar over which the nurse and, ultimately, Phaedra must leap to win the interest of Hippolytus. And Seneca is well on his way in his illustration of the evils of human passion. Whereas Phaedra’s crime was simply an illicit love which she tried vainly to resist acting on, Theseus not only failed to moderate his vengeful passion, but he also used the last wish granted him by Poseidon against his own son. The question remains, though, as to what lessons the Renaissance playwrights were able to take from Seneca on the nature of drama.Being that he was a philosopher, Seneca’s overriding interest was in portraying dramatically the Stoic view that man should put aside passion and indulgence and conform his actions to reason in order to harmonize himself with the world at large.From the start, Phaedra is presented as ruled by her passions. Phaedra – Seneca the Younger – Ancient Rome – Classical LiteratureThe myth underlying the story of the play is very old, going back far beyond even the classical Greeks, and is found in various forms all over the Mediterranean area. Innocent though Phaedra was of intentional malice, her natural human perversity plays out to its inevitable destructive conclusion.Such a brief examination as this into the themes and dramatic functioning of these three plays can only provide a superficial glimpse of their complexity. This serves to humanize her, in that it is making the formerly selfish and indulgent character more pitiable, as well as to raise the stakes, similar to introducing a ticking clock into the drama. Having been raised in the Jansenist sect of the Catholic church, which believed in the natural perversity of the human will that can only be overcome by individuals who are predestined by divine grace,Curiously, despite Racine’s strict adherence to the classical requirements put forth by Horace dictating that a play should have five acts, the structure of The point of attack in the story comes with the news that Theseus is dead. Rather than recoiling, he draws his sword to attack.

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