Phaedra

Phaedra is one of the 10 surviving Roman tragedies attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca. It was probably composed in the first half of the first century CE, during the time when the Julio-Claudian Dynasty was in power in Rome. Considered one of Seneca’s most influential plays, Phaedra tells the story of Phaedra’s disastrous and unrequited passion for her stepson Hippolytus, loosely drawing on Euripides’s much earlier Greek tragedy, Hippolytus. The play explores themes such as The Destructive Power of the Passions, The Interplay of Heredity and Fate, and The Conflict of the Sexes.

This study guide refers to Emily Wilson’s translation of the play from the Oxford World Classics volume of Seneca: Six Tragedies (2010).

Content Warning: The source material features violence, rape, suicide, and sexual practices that may be disturbing to some readers.

Plot Summary

In the first “act” of the play, Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and an Amazon woman, makes preparations to go hunting. He prays to Diana, goddess of hunting and nature, to give him success. As Hippolytus departs, his stepmother, Phaedra, enters. Phaedra complains about the absence of her husband, Theseus, who has descended to the Underworld to abduct the goddess Proserpina for his friend Pirithous.