9 - Hippolytus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Euripides produced two plays entitled Hippolytus. One, produced in 428 BCE, was in a victorious tetralogy (Sophocles' son Iophon was second, Ion of Chios third). Ancient scholars called one the Hippolytus-Covered-Up, because Hippolytus was so shocked by Phaedra's advances that he pulled his cloak over his head so as not to hear them, and the other, which survives, the Hippolytus-with-a-Garland, because he first enters carrying a garland of flowers for the statue of Artemis on one side of the central door (there was a statue of Aphrodite on the other side). The Hippolytus-Covered-Up was a shocking play. Phaedra was not only shameless in trying to seduce Hippolytus but also probably defended her behavior, as Euripidean characters so often did. She accused Hippolytus directly to Theseus, and killed herself only after the truth came out. The ancient scholar, Aristophanes of Byzantium, judged that the surviving Hippolytus was Euripides' second treatment of the material because it fixed what was “unsuitable and deserving of criticism” in the first. Most modern scholars agree that the surviving play was the second, though not for this reason, since Euripides never reacted to criticism of any other play by rewriting it. However, the surviving play does show signs of being designed to be different from other versions – the setting in Troezen instead of Athens, for example – which seems likelier in a second visit to the material. The story was familiar in any case.
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- An Introduction to Greek Tragedy , pp. 133 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010