Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

224
THE MYTHS OF CREATION: THE GODS
There have been many subsequent dramatic versions of the legend. The treatment
of the Roman Seneca (d. A.D. 65) in his Phaedra is well worth studying for
its own dramatic merit and as a contrast to Euripides' extant version. There are
many differences, both in plot and in characterization, and he explores the psychological
tensions of the myth without the goddesses Aphrodite or Artemis appearing
as actual figures in the play. Seneca has Phaedra herself (not her Nurse)
confront Hippolytus with her lust as she attempts to seduce him. Euripides wrote
two dramas about Hippolytus, and Seneca, in this scene, was probably inspired
by the earlier of the two versions by the Greek playwright; this first Hippolytus
of Euripides was not a success and no longer survives. The second version
(named Hippolytos Stephanephoros to distinguish it from the first), which Euripides
produced in 428, is the one that we know today.
Other later plays on the theme are Jean Racine's Phèdre (1677); Eugene
O'Neill's Desire under the Elms (1924), also influenced by Medea; and Robinson
Jeffers' The Cretan Woman (1954). The manipulation of the character of Hippolytus
is illuminating. For example, Racine, by giving Hippolytus a girlfriend
in his version, drastically changes the configuration of the Euripidean archetype.
Jeffers is closer to Euripides by keeping Hippolytus' abhorrence of sex; but when
he introduces a companion for Hippolytus who is "slender and rather effeminate,"
he suggests another shifting of the archetype of the holy man. At any rate,
once Hippolytus' sexual orientation is made too explicit, the mystery of his psyche
is diminished. Euripides gets everything right, a judgment made with due
respect for the masterpieces that he has inspired. The twentieth-century novel
The Bull from the Sea, by Mary Renault, is yet another rewarding reinterpretation
of the myth.
The attempted seduction of a holy man and its dire consequences represent
familiar motifs in literature (in the Bible, for example, see the stories of Joseph
and Potiphar's wife and of John the Baptist and Salome).
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wall, Kathleen. The Callisto Myth from Ovid to Atwood: Initiation and Rape in Literatu
Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1988.
Zeitlin, Froma. Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature. Chic
University of Chicago Press, 1996. Many of the essays are revisions of previously
published material.
NOTES
1. Sometimes the place of birth is called Ortygia (the name means "quail island"), which
cannot be identified with certainty. In some accounts, it is clearly not merely another
name for Delos; in others, it is.
2. Niobe was the wife of Amphion, ruling by his side in the royal palace of Cadmus.
As the daughter of Tantalus and the granddaughter of Atlas, her lineage was much
more splendid than that of Leto, the daughter of an obscure Titan, Coeus.