Phaedra

Abstract

Abstract This chapter argues that revenge plays a more integral role in Seneca’s Phaedra than has traditionally been recognized. Although Seneca chooses not to characterize Phaedra as overtly vindictive, revenge nonetheless manifests itself throughout the play in various ways. One such way is through the figure of Venus, inherited partly from the character of Aphrodite in book 8 of the Odyssey and in the prologue of Euripides’ extant Hippolytus, whom Phaedra presents as having caused her infatuation for her stepson Hippolytus as an act of vengeance for the humiliation inflicted on her and on her lover Ares/Mars by Phaedra’s ancestor, the Sun, a scene most famous from book 8 of the Odyssey. By means of complex etymological wordplay, Seneca hints at allegorical interpretations of the Homeric Aphrodite as a cosmic force which binds lovers together in chains. Seneca thus identifies Venus with natura, a force capable, according to the chorus, of making stepmothers, who in Roman culture are proverbially hateful towards their stepsons, fall in love with them. Another manifestation of revenge in Phaedra is through the latent presence of Medea, presented by the misogynistic Hippolytus as the most evil woman of all on account of her failed attempt on the life of her stepson, and Hippolytus’ father, Theseus. In line with the play’s overarching theme that history repeats itself, Phaedra will turn into an avatar of Medea and, by causing the death of her own stepson, Hippolytus, will involuntarily succeed where Medea had failed.

Authors 1

1. Basil L P Nelis corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University