Hippolytus: Seneca, Euripides, Ovid

Liz Soolkin Hippolytus Seneca, Euripides, Ovid The bilgewater of Hippolytus, a man wronged and killed by his take stepm some separate is a falsehood retold by many dissimilar writers. For this paper, I hold in chosen to discuss the myth as retold by Ovid, Seneca, and Euripides. Each multiform has a few distinct differences that impacts the heart of the myth as whole. While reading apiece myth, the ratifier receives a solely divergent sense from the story, a conclusion that is strange to sever entirelyy(prenominal) story.The difference in each retelling that changes the nub of the story about signifi orduretly is the stepmother, Phaedras role and the emphasis each motive places on her genius in his form of the story. The variations in the portrayal of her cite provide each story a contrastive meaning a deep portion of the meaning comes from the contri barelyors ability or inability to furbish up to Phaedra this ability dep hold ons on the writes portrayal of her and her actions.Senecas magnetic variation of the story of Hippolytuss closing is called Phaedra. Before charge beginning to read the narrative, the reader understands that Phaedra is the chief(prenominal) showcase in the story the important strife of the story is unitary amidst her and her stepson. She does e precisething in her power to get Hippolytus to residue with her she asks the nurse to convince him and yet tries to do so herself by and by fainting in his arms. She does non seem to care or so his upstanding morals or her own morals.Aphrodites curse on her has led her to be so determined to sleep with her stepson that she ignores her itidy sums and the ideals of Hippolytus. When she is rejected, she dots the lies some Hippolytus having raped her and lives to see the consequences of those lies though she is in control of the situation and could physically collapse the story from ending tragically, she does vigor to counter her stepson from being cursed by his father. She is existent when Hippolytus mangled mud is brought to her and her husband, Hippolytuss father, Theseus.Only so does she realize her immense bewilder because she recognizes that her venal actions lead to Hippolytuss undoing and that her make for revenge is what causes Hippolytus to suffer his horrendous fate. Her rape only comes after she causes her stepsons death. In Euripides form, Phaedra kills herself ahead Hippolytus is cursed. She leaves a suicide government none blaming Hippolytus with her death. She is unable to outlive Hippolytus and see the consequences of her vengeful actions.Unlike in Senecas version, in Euripidess retelling Phaedra dies and has no ability to stop the spread of lies round Hippolytus. She can do nothing to take back her actions like she could open in Senecas version. The reader can accept Phaedras actions more in Euripidess version because she dies, attempting to keep herself morally good and free from disconcert and iniq uity for her lust she is portrayed more as essentially a good soul who is cursed by Aphrodite and her liking to her stepson. mavin can be more empathic to her in this version because Aphrodite could cast the resembling curse on anyone.In her death, she blames Hippolytus of rape, relating her to Senecas version of her character as a acidulous person, intent on revenge, someone to whom the reader cannot easily relate. Ovids retelling of the myth of Hippolytus is totally different from Seneca and Euripides narratives. First of all, Ovids narration starts with Hippolytuss narration of the story the reader is first introduced to Hippolytus as someone returned from the stone- dead(p) so, even without reading the story, the reader already knows that Hippolytus suffers tragic death at the end of the story.Because he is telling his story to a bystander, Hippolytus does not go into great position of his life he recounts the story of his stepmothers betrayal in a very short and succi nct manner, concentrating more on the throe he faced when his limbs were involve in the reins of his chariot (Ovids Metamorphoses p. 539 line 608-609). The item that Hippolytus talks of his own death in a conversational manner, attempting to console genus Egeria is important because it is one of Ovids techniques that he used to place the readers attention on Hippolytus.Whereas Seneca wrote about Phaedra and depict the story with her as the main character, Ovid wrote about Hippolytus, from Hippolytuss point of look. In this story, Aphrodite is not even discovered as being the instigator of Phaedras lust. Phaedra is portrayed as a cold-blooded, merciless killer who did not disembodied spirit shame for her murder of Hippolytus. The shame aspect, that was so important in defining the other authors versions of the myth, is absent from Ovids version. Phaedras shames absence seizure from the myth can be explained by the fact that Hippolytus himself is narrating the story.Ovid gives the reader a locating from the victims point-of-view, which does not view any guiltiness mat up by Phaedra as relevant. Even if she timbres guilt, she is still held liable for her actions. Whereas in the other myths, the reader knows that Aphrodite is the final examination cause of Hippolytuss death and Phaedra is not completely guilty, in Ovids myth, she is not mentioned since Hippolytus was not aware of her influence on Phaedra. The three versions portrayals of Phaedra are important when analyzing the different meanings of the multiform myth.The difference lies in the different conflicts that arise in each myth and the various sources of Phaedras shame, or the absence of it. In Euripides version of the story, the main difference of the myth lies in Phaedras knowledgeable conflict she struggles with her desires and is unable to express them and deal with them in a healthy vogue. She must use the economic aid of her nurse to help her and before the story is over, the sha me of her evil thoughts kills her. Unlike Euripides version, Senecas retelling of the myth shows her conflict to be one with Hippolytus.Phaedras every action is a struggle against Hippolytus material morals and chastity. The story is one of a fight between the two characters, think with Hippolytus loss of life, an event that leads to Phaedras shame and eventually her death. Ovid tells the story as a conflict between Hippolytus and Phaedra from Hippolytus point-of-view. Hippolytus, in Ovids version is wronged by his stepmother, who is portrayed as evil and coldhearted. There is no mention of any shame she might feel for her stepsons murder the lack of shame depicts as heartless, an obvious antagonist to Hippolytus.From these differences, one can interpret that a greater meaning lies in the three authors definitions of shame. Whereas Phaedra in Senecas version is shameful of her own immoral thoughts and urges, the other Phaedra, in Euripides version, only realizes her guilt when sh e sees Hippolytus dead body she acts more child-like, not accept that such terrible consequences could come from her actions until she sees them. Ovid differs completely in his view of shame. He sees it as irrelevant to the victims suffering and pain.In his version, Hippolytus does not consider Phaedra as having felt any remorse for her actions, he sees her as a coldblooded killer who caused him immense grief. The way I began to analyze the myths of Hippolytus was to think about the major differences between the characters. Because the story is all about the characters rather than the setting or culture, I thought that the differences of each character among each multiform would give me a clear view of the meanings of each multiform. The character that seems to influence each story the most is Phaedra.I could have gone into greater feature about the differences amongst each Hippolytus, Theseus, and nurse precisely I realized that analyzing those differences would precede in an e ssay of 20 pages and would not be as meaningful. Relying on the differences among each authors version of Phaedra to give meaning to the differences was very fruitful. I managed to find that the differences in Phaedras character were based in her decisions throughout the story. In one story, she killed herself before Hippolytus was dead in another version, she killed herself after Hippolytus died and in the third version, she was barely even mentioned.Each story showed her as more or less humane in Euripidess and Senecas versions of the story, Aphrodite was mentioned as the source of her attraction to Hippolytus. The godesss participation in the criminal offence took some of the blame off of Phaedras shoulders and made it easier for the reader to relate to Phaedra. In Ovids version, Aphrodite was not mentioned and Hippolytuss death was viewed as a direct result of Phaedras cruel passion. More differences between Seneca and Euripidess versions could be found and meaning could be dis covered from the timing of Phaedras death.I asked myself, why caused her to die before or after Hippolytus and what is the meaning of the difference in her suicide? I realized that in both cases, shame had caused her to kill herself but in each story, shame was a result of something different. In Euripidess version, Phaedra kills herself because of her own immorality she feels guilty about her infernal passions towards Hippolytus. In Senecas versions, she commits suicide from guilt of seeing Hippolytuss mangled corpse and realizing that her actions had caused his death.