Phaedra
mythological figure · 4 works · 5 mentions · 16 anchored passages
hapless daughter of Crete · his father's noble wife · my father's wife · my queen · our queen · the Queen · thy wife
in the texts
Hippolytus
Wife of Theseus and stepmother of Hippolytus, made to fall in love with Hippolytus by Aphrodite's design; conceals her passion, is betrayed by the Nurse, and hangs herself rather than face dishonor.
For as he came one day from the home of Pittheus to witness the solemn mystic rites and be initiated therein in Pandion’s land, Phaedra, his father’s noble wife, caught sight of him, and by my designs she found her heart was seized with wild desire.
Curses, hideous curses on that wife, who first did shame her marriage-vow for lovers other than her lord!
Yet shall my dying be another’s curse, that he may learn not to exult at my misfortunes;
Stromata
Tragic figure listed as an example of desire driving wrongdoing.
but desire, ten thousand others — Phaedra, Antheia, Eriphyle, "who received precious gold for her dear husband.
Orations
Mythological figure who blamed Fortune for her false accusation.
Indeed, men charge even their private passions to Fortune:
Odyssey
Heroine named briefly among the ghosts Odysseus sees, without further elaboration in this passage.
"Then I saw Phaedra, and Procris, and fair Ariadne daughter of the magician Minos, whom Theseus was carrying off from Crete to Athens, but he did not enjoy her, for before he could do so Artemis killed her in the island of Dia on account of what Bacchus had said against her.