One of Euripides’ most successful plays, Hippolytus displays some of the author’s finest poetry and is a fascinating portrait of passion, morality, and religion. It was the playwright’s second attempt at depicting the Greek myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. The first version shocked Athenian audiences when it presented Phaedra as a sexually lustful woman. The idea of Phaedra freely offering herself to Hippolytus face-to-face was deeply offensive to contemporary audiences and the play was considered a failure.
Determined to create a more successful representation of the same subject matter, Euripides wrote a new version of the play in which Phaedra fights honorably against her illicit...
