Speranza
SENECA, "Fedra"
Lines 1-423
Ippolito, son of King Teseo of Athens, leaves his palace at break of dawn to go boar-hunting--his favorite sport.
Ippoltio prays to the virgin goddess Diana for success in the hunt.
After he goes, Phaedra, wife of Theseus and daughter of King Minos of Crete, appears in front of the palace, lamenting her fate.
Teseo has been gone for years after having left with his old friend Pirithous to capture Persephone from the underworld.
Phaedra has been left alone to take care of the palace, and has lately felt ill.
She finds herself pining for the forests and the hunt.
Wondering what is causing her desire for the forest glades, she reflects on her mother,
Pasiphae, daughter of Apollo,
who was cursed to fall in love with a bull and give birth to a monster, the Minotaur.
Phaedra wonders if she is as doomed as her mother was.
Phaedra’s aged nurse interjects that Phaedra should control the passions she feels, for love can be terribly destructive.
She warns that Phaedra is on the brink of committing a terrible crime, more sinful in a way than the “monstrous passion” that gripped her mother, and that she should be cautious.
Just because Theseus is in the underworld does not mean Phaedra’s crime will “go concealed”.
Her father Minos and her ancestor Apollo will see to it that the deed is exposed.
Phaedra explains that she is gripped by an uncontrollable lust, and that her passion has defeated her reason.
It becomes clear that Ippolito is the object of Fedra's lust.
The nurse warns Phaedra to “fear and respect” her husband.
Phaedra counters that Theseus is probably forever trapped in the underworld.
Theseus is not the only problem, however.
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Ippolito himself detests women in general and Fedra in particular.
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Nonetheless, Phaedra vows to follow him.
Every argument the nurse makes, Phaedra shoots down.
Hippolytus may shun all women, but that means Phaedra need “fear no rival.”
Try as the nurse may to persuade her, Phaedra cannot be reasoned with, and declares that she will commit suicide.
The nurse then begs Phaedra not to end her life, and promises to help her in her love:
“Mine is the task to approach the savage youth and bend the cruel man’s relentless will.”
The Chorus sings of the power of love: Cupid is “reckless alike with torches and with arrows,” and even the gods are not immune.
Zeus dons earthly disguises in order to possess the objects of his affection or lust, and Diana left her lunar perch in order to seek love with the shepherd Endymion.
Phaedra goes into an emotional frenzy, and the nurse begs the goddess Diana to soften Hippolytus' heart and make him fall in love with Phaedra.
Lines 424-834
Hippolytus returns from hunting and, seeing Phaedra’s nurse, asks her why she looks so sullen and worried.
The nurse replies that there is no need to worry, but that Hippolytus should “show [him]self less harsh," enjoy life, seek the company of women.
Hippolytus responds that life at its most innocent and free is life spent in the wild.
He reflects on the men and women of “the primal age,” who lived “in friendly intercourse with gods.”
They did not thirst for power; they found all they needed in the nature that surrounded them, and they lived in peace.
Civilization changed everything; with it came crime and warfare.
Hippolytus alludes to Phaedra, saying that stepmothers “are no whit more merciful than beasts”;
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He goes on to declare women “the leader of all wickedness” and points to Medea (Jason’s wife, who killed her own children) as an example.
“Why make the crime of few the blame of all?” the nurse asks.
She then argues that love can often change stubborn dispositions.
Still, her arguments fall on deaf ears.
Hippolytus maintains his steadfast hatred of womankind.
Phaedra appears, swoons, and collapses.
Hippolytus wakes her.
When asked why she is so miserable, she decides that she will confess to Hippolytus, hoping that her words might sway him.
After ensuring that no else is watching or listening, Phaedra tries to subtly suggest Hippolytus should take his father’s place, as Theseus will likely never return from the underworld.
Hippolytus takes the bait, offering to fill his father’s shoes while awaiting his return.
Phaedra sees her opportunity and declares her love for him.
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At this, Hippolytus is aghast.
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He cries out that he is “guilty,” for he has “stirred [his] stepmother to love.”
Then he pins the blame on Phaedra, railing against what he perceives as her terrible crime.
He draws his sword to kill Phaedra, but upon realizing this is what she wants, he casts the weapon away and flees into the forest.
“Crime must be concealed by crime,” the nurse decides, and plots with Phaedra to accuse Hippolytus of incestuous lust.
Since Phaedra’s confession was made in secret, it will be Hippolytus’ word against hers.
“Help, Athens, help!” she shouts.
“The ravisher, Hippolytus, with vile, lustful intent, is after us; he is upon us and threatens us with death; with the sword he is terrifying our chaste queen – ah! he has rushed headlong forth and, dazed, in panic flight, has left his sword.”
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The Chorus interjects, praising Hippolytus’ beauty
but noting that beauty is subject to the wiles of time.
The Chorus then condemns Phaedra’s wicked scheme.
It is then that Theseus appears, freshly returned from the underworld.
Lines 835-1280
Theseus asks “What is this tearful outcry that strikes my ears?” The nurse informs him of Phaedra’s plight: “she scorns our tears,” she says, “and is on the very edge of death.” Theseus demands why Phaedra has resolved to die, especially now that her husband has come back.
The nurse explains that Phaedra is telling no one the cause of her grief.
Theseus opens the doors to the palace and sees Phaedra clutching a sword, ready to slay herself. He asks her why she is in such a state, but she responds only with vague, epigrammatic quips, alluding to a “sin” she has committed. Theseus asks to know what that sin is. “That I still live,” comes the reply.
Theseus orders the nurse to be bound in chains and tormented with the “scourge” until she confesses her mistress’s secret.
Phaedra intervenes, telling her husband that she has been raped and that the “destroyer of [her] honor” is the one whom Theseus would least expect.
She then points to the sword Hippolytus left behind.
“Ah me!” Theseus cries. “What villainy do I behold?” After Phaedra tells him that Hippolytus was last seen “speeding away in headlong flight,” Theseus, in a rage, summons his father Neptune to destroy the young man.
He notes that his father granted him three wishes, two of which he has already used.
He vows to pursue Hippolytus "through all thy hiding places... regions remote, blocked, hidden away, far separate, trackless, will I traverse, and no place shall stop me – thou knowest whence I am returned.”
The Chorus asks the heavens why they do not reward the innocent (such as Hippolytus) and punish the guilty and evil. The Chorus asserts that the order of the world has become skewed: “wretched poverty dogs the pure, and the adulterer, strong in wickedness, reigns supreme.”
Moments later, a Messenger arrives to inform Theseus that Hippolytus is dead.
As the Messenger tells us,
a great storm broke out and out of the ocean’s depths, a monstrous bull appeared before Hippolytus. Hippolytus, steering his horse-drawn chariot, kept his calm and tried to control the situation.
Ippolito's horses, however, were terrified from the monster and broke from his grasp.
Hippolytus’ limbs became entwined in the reins, and his body was dragged through the forest and torn asunder.
Upon hearing the news, Theseus breaks into tears. Although he wished this death upon his son, hearing of it makes him despair . “Truly I deem this the crowning woe of woes, if fortune makes what we must loathe that we must long for,” he says. The Chorus proclaims that the gods most readily target mortals of wealth or power, while “the low-roofed, common home ne’er feels [Jove’s] mighty blasts.”
Phaedra reappears, again with a sword. She condemns Theseus for his harshness and turns to Hippolytus’ mangled corpse. She bemoans the young man’s fate: “Whither is thy glorious beauty fled?" Then she reveals the truth – that she had falsely accused Hippolytus of her own crime. With that, she falls on her sword and dies...
Theseus is despondent. He looks upon his son’s body and calls for his missing parts to be assembled, so that Hippolytus may be given a proper burial. Then, pointing to Phaedra’s corpse, he utters the play’s closing line: “As for her, let her be buried deep in earth, and heavy may the soil lie on her unholy head!”
[edit] CharactersHippolytus -Son of Theseus and the Amazonian Antiope. A lover of the hunt and of the woods, he is known to despise women. He prefers the freedoms of the wilderness to the comforts (and constraints) of civilization.
Phaedra - Theseus' wife and Hippolytus' stepmother. Daughter of Pasiphae, who fell in love with a bull and gave birth to the Minotaur, she too becomes stricken with a "sinful" desire - a lust for Hippolytus.
Theseus - King of Athens, famed for his heroic exploits, trapped in the Underworld at the play's beginning, on a quest with his friend Pirithous to capture Persephone and bring her to the mortal world. Known for his harshness, he killed his former wife Antiope, mother of Hippolytus.
The Nurse - Phaedra's nurse, an old woman who at first seems a vessel of wisdom in her attempts to console and advise her mistress, but then reveals a more sinister side when she hatches a plan to falsely accuse Hippolytus of trying to rape his stepmother.
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