The wreathed Hippolytus
The wreathed Hippolytos ( Hippolytos Stephanephoros ) is a tragedy by the Greek poet Euripides . It is about Phaidra's love for her stepson Hippolytus. The work was performed at the Dionysia in 428 BC. Chr.
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Hippolytos is the son of the hero Theseus and the Amazon queen Hippolyte . Hippolytus was a worshiper of Artemis , goddess of the hunt and chastity . Aphrodite , annoyed and jealous about this fact, takes revenge on Hippolytus by enchanting Phaidra . As the goddess of love, she causes Phaidra to begin to love her stepson Hippolytos.
Hippolytus learns of Phaidra's unnatural affection through Phaidra's wet nurse and is seriously shocked. He vehemently rejects Phaidra, whereupon she hangs herself. However, she leaves a suicide note in which she accuses Hippolytus of chasing after her. When Theseus, Phaidra's husband, who came home, reads the farewell letter, his grief turns into blind anger: He banishes Hippolytus from Troizen and curses him at Poseidon . He does not go into Hippolytus' attempts to explain it.
Poseidon immediately fulfills Theseus' wish by raising a sea monster that frightens the horses of Hippolytus, so that he is almost dragged to death. Meanwhile, Theseus the goddess Artemis appears , who tells him the truth. Theseus regrets his hasty curse.
When Theseus and Hippolytus meet for the last time, Hippolytus forgives his father. Hippolytus dies shortly afterwards.
Work history
Euripides took up the legend of "Hippolytos" twice. The older work, "The Veiled Hippolytus", has been lost. However, Euripides probably had little success with this piece because it was too offensive. With this more recent work, Euripides won the first prize of the Dionysia of 428 BC. Chr . Ovidius Naso ( Ovid ) also uses the material of Euripides in his Metamorphoses and the Heroides (letters from mythical women to their men). The subject of Euripides is also the model for the tragedy Phèdre by the French poet Jean Racine .
expenditure
- Euripides, Hippolytus. Edited with Introduction and Commentary by William Spencer Barrett . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1964, ISBN 0-19-814167-X . - Review by DJ Conacher, in: Phoenix 19, 1965, pp. 338-343, (online) ; William M. Calder III , in: Classical Philology 60, 1965, 277-282; Hugh Lloyd-Jones , in: Journal of Hellenic Studies 85, 1965, 164-171.
Web links
- German translation in the Gutenberg project
Alcestis | Andromache | The Bacchae | Elektra | Hecabe | Helena | Heracles | The Heraclids | Hippolytus | Ion | Iphigenia in Aulis | Iphigenia among the Taurians | Medea | Orestes | The Phoenicians | The supplicants (Hiketides) | The Trojans
Fragments of Euripides and Cyclops ( satyr play )