The Death of Hippolytus by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
This is the site for the dramaturgy for Apoloniad Productions’ Hippolytus by Euripides. (Tickets can be bought here for the New York City based Euripides Summer Series.)
In Hippolytus, Euripides uses the myth of Hippolytus and Phaedra to explore the danger of denial. In the myth, a now almost elderly and very famous Theseus marries and has two children with a young Cretan princess, Phaedra. So young, in fact, that she was closer in age to Theseus’ illegitimate son Hippolytus, the love child of Theseus’ abduction/seduction of the Queen of the Amazons than she was to her husband. Hippolytus was sent to Troezen and swore a vow of celibacy, claiming complete loyalty and service to his father and a distrust of all women, especially clever ones, upsetting Aphrodite in the process. (This from a son of an Amazon.) Phaedra visited Troezen at one point with her husband, sees the boy and…well, anyone who has watched a tele-novella knows what happened next.
Check out some of the articles I’ve already posted below, and keep checking back. Questions and comments are always welcome either by email or through comments on the pages! (If you want some general idea of how this works, check out the previous archive I have for Alcestis.)
Real People
About Euripides (the Man, the Myth, the Legend who was torn apart by hunting dogs)
Probably Not Real People
About Hippolyta, Hippolytus, and the Amazons
About Phaedra and the Royal House of Crete (also discover what’s up with all those bulls)
Cultural/Geographical Information
Shame and Sexuality in Ancient Greece
Women’s Roles in Theseus’ Time, and Euripides’
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