Hippolytus - Euripides

Advantages: A great example of a greek tragedy
Disadvantages: Doom and gloom

...his wife, Theseus remarried and Hippolytus has a stepmother, Phaedra. The young prince, footloose and fancy-free, devotes himself to the sport of hunting and the worship of Artemis (the chaste goddess of the hunt) spurning love and marriage. The goddess Aphrodite is enraged at this and swears vengeance on him. She resolves to bring about his death through a woman. Just a word of warning, the next paragraph will reveal the ending to the play. Whilst, ...
...herself leaving a note accusing Hippolytus of attempted rape. When Theseus returns to this turmoil, he curses Hippolytus. Hippolytus leaves only to have a fatal accident. Artemis appears and tells Theseus the true story thus redeeming the honour of his son and his wife. Euripides was born about 480 B.C. somewhere by Athens. A prolific writer he is said to have written between 75 – 92 plays of which only 19 survive. Hippolytus is fast moving with ... Read review

Advantages: Hippolytus' speech slagging off women is beautiful (I'm a woman, I'm allowed to say that)
Disadvantages: The characters just don't... feel right... somehow.

Euripides’ Hippolytus is weird. I can’t really describe it better than that. Despite the title, it’s hard to work out whether the focus of the tragedy is Phaedra, wife of Theseus, Hippolytus, her step-son, or Theseus himself. The themes within the play are easy to see, but the play doesn’t really feel like a coherent whole, somehow. The story is about the family of Theseus, the man who famously killed the Minotaur. Theseus’ son, Hippolytus, is a ...
...the death of Phaedra and Hippolytus and great grief to Theseus. The plot, in its simplest form, makes sense, in a soap-opera kind of way. Phaedra falls in love with Hippolytus, he finds out, rejects her, she kills herself, leaving behind a note in retribution accusing Hippolytus of rape, Theseus comes home, finds out, reads note, curses Hippolytus, Hippolytus is banished and mortally wounded, brought home, Theseus finds out he was wrong, there’s ... Read review

Advantages: Powerful, deals with important issues
Disadvantages: Maybe a teeny bit *too* powerful in parts, and better if seen performed

...Athenians so much. Medea is an absolutely terrifying character, but it is impossible to hate her. My copy of Medea is part of a compilation of 4 Euripides plays, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, with the Medea translated by Rex Warner. The translation is fairly easy to read whilst remaining incredibly poweful, and much easier than trying to translate Euripides for oneself (his language is not exactly the easiest to handle). The volume is called Euripides I, and also contains Alcestis, Heracleidae and Hippolytus. And it really helpfully doesn’t have a price on it, but though I personally don’t like Hippolytus that much, and am not a great fan of Euripides in general, I’d have to say that as long as it’s not too expensive, it’s probably worth getting. Having read only one or two Greek Tragedies can really enhance one’s opinion... Read review

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