Suzy Dixon

Clara Hardy

Gender and Sexuality in Antiquity

February 11, 2002

Female Deception in Hippolytus: The Ruin of Men

In Ancient Greece, deceit was considered to be part of a woman's nature

and an inherent female characteristic. It was generally believed that a

good woman was the result of the careful cultivation of her morals by her

guardians, and if left to her own devices, a woman was apt to be wicked.

The deceit of women is a theme that shows up often in Ancient Greek

literature, and many Ancient Greek authors portray women as jealous,

plotting, deceitful, and vengeful creatures capable of destroying the men

affiliated with them. Hippolytus, a tragedy by Euripides, is an excellent

example of the Greek notion of the deception of women because it involves

the deceit of a goddess as well as two women.

In the beginning of the tragedy a very jealous Aphrodite delivers a

self-serving justification of her actions as she prepares to punish the

virgin Hippolytus. Aphrodite's reason for wanting to castigate Hippolytus

is really quite selfish. She is extremely angry with him because he has

sworn off physical love and he honors Artemis, the goddess of chastity

rather than her, Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Scheming Aphrodite who

made Phaedra, Hippolytus' step-mother, Phaedra, fall in love with

Hippolytus, decides to reveal Phaedra's love because she knows that if

Theseus, Hippolytus' father, discovers Phaedra's secret, "all shall come

out," the truth will be revealed, "father shall slay son with curses," and

Hippolytus will be ruined (line 43 and line44). As Aphrodite, who appears

to be so hateful and cold, plots his demise she vengefully says, "He

[Hippolytus] does not know that the doors of death are upon him, that he is

looking at his last sun" (line 55).

Although Aphrodite is a goddess and not a mortal woman, she is still

female; thus the female trait of deceit is also applied to her. Aphrodite

is an example of divine deception, and the fact that she is the goddess of

love makes it even more shocking that she would be capable of such

resentful scheming and plotting. Yet at the same time, the fact that

Aphrodite gives in to her deceptive side emphasizes the notion that women,

even goddesses, cannot escape their natural tendency towards deception.

Early on in the play, Phaedra does not yet fit the model of the deceitful

woman, moreover, she exercises considerable self-control to avoid

deception, and she even attempts to advance towards honor and truthfulness.

Phaedra is willing to die without ever uttering a word of her love for

Hippolytus because she believes that "[her] honor lies in silence" (line

329).

However, the nurse is a cunning and deceitful woman from the very start of

the play. She asks Phaedra what is troubling her, but Phaedra will not

divulge her secret. Nevertheless, the nurse continues to question Phaedra

and, refusing to yield to Phaedra's silence on the subject, exclaims, "I

have tried and still have won no foot of ground. But I'll not give up

trying, even now" (line 284-285). The nurse is extremely prying, and

because she is so probing of Phaedra's reason for wanting to die, she

employs different tactics in hopes of discovering Phaedra's secret.

Although the nurse partly wants to find out the secret in order to help

Phaedra, she mainly just wants to uncover Phaedra's secret so she can

satisfy her own selfish curiosity. The nurse seems very manipulative and

crafty when she says, "We are as far from our goal as before. She was not

melted by anything I said. She would not obey me" (line 302-303). The nurse

tries to persuade Phaedra that "there is no remedy in silence" and that if

she dies she will betray her children because they will not inherit (line

297). The nurse still makes little headway until she casually mentions

Hippolytus' name. By witnessing Phaedra's reaction at the mention of this

name, she realizes that Phaedra's secret is her love for her stepson. Once

the nurse learns the secret, she schemingly encourages Phaedra to abandon

her morals and tries to persuade her to surrender to her desire. Phaedra

begs the nurse, "My very soul is subdued by my love and if you plead the

cause of wrong so well I shall fall into the abyss from which I now am

flying" (line 504-507). However, the nurse does not cede to Phaedra's

pleas; instead, she offers Phaedra a love potion. When Phaedra realizes

that the nurse's actions are totally deceptive and scheming, she cries, "I

am afraid of you: I am afraid that you will be too clever for my good"

(line 518). The knowledge of the secret has transformed the nurse from a

meddlesome woman into a manipulative, deceitful monster with knowledge that

enables her to determine Phaedra's fate. Phaedra nervously asks the nurse

if she will make known the secret to Hippolytus, and the plotting nurse

replies, "Come, let that be: I will arrange all well" (line 521). The nurse

is now exercising her power over the situation by deciding to release the

secret, and she is no longer concerned with the consequences that Phaedra

will have to face when the truth facilitates disaster.

Even though Phaedra tries to steer clear of deceit, the nurse's trickery

ultimately leads to Phaedra's own duplicity. Because deceit is an inherent

female trait, no matter how hard Phaedra may try, she does not have the

power to control or avoid it. When the nurse tells Hippolytus of Phaedra's

love, the virgin Hippolytus feels that Phaedra is a wicked, unchaste woman

for loving him, and he disgustedly says, "Either let someone teach them

[women] to be chaste or suffer me to trample on them forever" (667). When

Phaedra discovers that Hippolytus did not react well upon hearing the

secret and does not love her, she knows that a great dishonor will be cast

upon her. However, she soon realizes that although she is ruined, she can

still "pass on to [her] children life with an uncontaminated name" if she

can restore her honor by transferring her dishonor to Hippolytus. Phaedra

decides to deceitfully and vengefully retaliate Hippolytus' cold reaction

to the knowledge of her love so that "his high heart may know no arrogant

joy at [her] life's shipwreck" (line 729). Consequently, Phaedra kills

herself and leaves a note falsely accusing Hippolytus of raping her in

order to ruin the man who cast shame upon her by not returning her love.

In due course, the deceptive deeds of Aphrodite, the nurse, and Phaedra

lead to the ruin of both Hippolytus and Theseus. By making Phaedra fall in

love with her own stepson and then revealing this secret love, Aphrodite

creates a situation that is doomed to end in disaster. The nurse adds to

the problem by divulging Phaedra's secret to Hippolytus. The actions of the

goddess and the nurse lead to Phaedra's untruthful suicide note that

results in the downfall of a father and his son. When Theseus reads the

note, he is so outraged and convinced that the note is the true that he

becomes extremely hateful towards Hippolytus. Theseus puts a death curse on

his son through Poseidon, and this results in the violent death of

Hippolytus. When Theseus learns of his son's innocence and witnesses

Hippolytus' death, he feels completely guilty and says, "And so you

[Hippolytus] leave me my hands stained with murder" (1448). Hippolytus

forgives his father, yet Theseus must still live with the burden of his

knowing that he led to the death of his innocent son. Although Theseus,

unlike Hippolytus who was killed, still has his life, his life is now

miserably filled with regret and guilt. The deception of women leads one

man to his bitter death and another man to a life filled with remorse.

Ultimately, the men's lives are ruined.

In Hippolytus, three women, a goddess, a nurse, and a wife, each exemplify

the Greek idea of the deceitful woman. Even though two of the women are

from different social classes and positions and one of the women is an

immortal goddess, they share something in common; none of them can evade

their inescapable, natural female inclination toward trickery and

deception. All of these women surrender to their cunning, duplicitous

sides, and the people who pay the price for their deceitful deeds are the

men connected to them whose lives are completely shattered.