“And last when I could not succeed in mastering love hereby, methought it best to die; and none can gainsay my purpose. For fain I would my virtue should to all appear, my shame have few to witness it.”
~ ‘Hippolytus’ by Euripides (Edward P. Coleridge translation. GB5 - p. 228)
The play starts with a monologue from Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who feels that Theseus’ son, Hippolytus, has insulted her by living a life of celibacy and favoring Artemis, the goddess of hunting. She causes Theseus’ wife, Phaedra (Hippolytus’ stepmother), to fall in love with Hippolytus. She predicts that this would lead to Hippolytus’ downfall.
After this, we see Hippolytus coming in after a hunt, giving praise and offerings to Artemis and not acknowledging Aphrodite. Then, the scene shifts to a nurse talking to a very ill Phaedra, asking her why she refuses to eat and what is tormenting her. After multiple prodding, she confides that she is caught in a fierce passion of forbidden love towards Hippolytus and just wants to die before something unhonourable happens. The nurse tries to convince her that living is better than dying. She says she will get a token from Hippolytus and do some charms to get rid of the desire. When the nurse tells this to Hippolytus, he reacts with horror and disgust and cries out to Zeus, questioning why women were created, doubling down on his hatred towards women. He feels polluted even to hear this. Phaedra overhears this outburst, scolds the nurse when she comes in and tells her attendants that her shame is now known to outsiders and she cannot live anymore. She commits suicide by hanging shortly after.