In the Euripidean tragedy Hippolytus, the most powerful and destructive force is that of eros. Most often translated as love, eros is under the domain of Aphrodite, goddess of not only love, but also beauty, desire, and pleasure. Within Hippolytus, eros is best described as representing desire: the longing Phaedra feels for Hippolytus. Eros is consistently described as very powerful through a variety of metaphors, but the most frequent metaphor used within the play to describe eros is as disease. This comparison, unusual for many modern readers, between love and disease requires further examination. In this essay, I will track this association between eros and disease. I will then attempt to answer how eros is shown as disease, how it affects both Phaedra and Hippolytus, how it differs between the two based on their gender, and finally determine if Hippolytus truly shares in Phaedra’s disease by the end of the play.
Eros is a force mentioned consistently throughout the play, but fittingly is first described by Aphrodite herself saying, “now Phaedra suffers badly, feels the lash of Eros, dread desire: she is destroyed.”[1] Within the first few pages of the play, eros is described negatively, not as a beautiful bond between people, but as a terrifying power capable of destruction. It is also of note that Aphrodite is the deity responsible for the infliction of this suffering on Phaedra, not on Hippolytus, the human she is angry with. This will be an important point to remember when examining the effectiveness of Phaedra’s curse upon Hippolytus. The first human description of eros comes from Phaedra when she says, “What do people mean when they speak of … eros? The sweetest thing there is – and the most painful.”[2] This description by Phaedra, the one who feels eros most strongly, shows again how painful love and desire can be: sweet but painful. Phaedra feels this pain, not sweetness. Another interesting mention of eros’ power is said by the Chorus: “Yet we forget to placate Eros, the tyrant, Eros, who holds the keys to Aphrodite’s most intimate chamber: Love the destroyer” clearly showing the fear that eros inspires in mortals. Not only is love called a tyrant, but a destroyer as well.
All of these passages clearly represent eros as a powerful and terrible entity within the world that Euripides has created. More than just a powerful force however, eros is associated with disease numerous times throughout the play by, interestingly, all of the female characters: Aphrodite, the Nurse, the Chorus, and Phaedra. I shall now track each of these mentions and analyze the meaning of each mention of disease. As with eros in general, Aphrodite is the first to refer to Phaedra’s affliction as a disease, saying “She groans, yet will not say the name of her disease.”[3] Even Aphrodite, who knows why Phaedra suffers, refers to the eros she inflicted as an illness, showing that eros was intended as a disease. However, the Chorus and Nurse initially do not know what is causing Phaedra’s condition, seeing only the symptoms. The Nurse laments “the woes of mankind and their hateful diseases” as she brings Phaedra outside for the first time.[4] After Phaedra asks for her veil to be removed, the Nurse reminds her that “If you remain calm and remember your breeding, you can bear this disease, and not let it oppress you.”[5] Despite not knowing what Phaedra is afflicted with, the Nurse believes it can be helped. After Phaedra’s outburst, the Chorus describes Phaedra’s “mournful state” but can’t figure out “from what disease she suffers” but the Nurse cannot tell them because Phaedra “conceals her illness by her silence.”[6] The manifestations of her illness are clear, but even those closest to her cannot determine what ails her due to her silence. In an attempt to discover what is causing Phaedra’s suffering, the Nurse asks her to reveal it saying, “If you have some unmentionable illness – well, these are women. They can help you cure it.”[7] This comment shows that there are some diseases that cannot be treated by a doctor, giving the first indication that the Nurse understands this may not be a physical illness, but rather a situation causing her suffering. However, despite being unaware of the ailment, the Nurse is still confident that she and other women will be able to cure it.
Once Phaedra reveals that the disease she is suffering from is eros, the discussion of her illness changes dramatically. Phaedra explains for the first time in the play the specific connection between eros and disease: “I knew that this disease was a disgrace, no less than the act, and I knew well that I was a woman – an object of contempt to all. I wish an evil fate on her – that woman who was first to bring disgrace to her own bed, with other men! This spread from the nobility, and now infects all females.”[8] Not only does she directly explain that eros is in fact a disease, but also that for her, it is connected to the disgrace of women, which has spread to all women. The Nurse was correct: Phaedra suffers from desire, a shameful illness when it affects women. Euripides finally shows the reason why Phaedra was keeping eros as a secret and why she believes she must die. The previous metaphors related to disease have led to the reveal that Phaedra is afflicted with incurable desire. The Nurse, however, reassures her that because a “god has engineered these things” there must be a way “to get the best of this, and make it well” and she “will find some drug for this disease.”[9] This comment by the Nurse shows that not only does she believe there is a drug for eros like any other disease, but she tries to convince Phaedra that the power of a god can be overcome by the actions of mortals. She even claims that she has “charms at home, to soothe desire, to put an end to this disease” convincing Phaedra to at least delay her plans to end her own life, assuring her that eros can be cured, just like physical ailments. However, of course, there is no cure and the Nurse even admits as much when she says, “I tried to cure your illness, but the drug I found did not work out the way it was supposed to.”[10] Of course no drug could cure an illness given by a god, so the Nurse turned to another method of curing desire. With good intentions but terrible outcomes, the Nurse revealed Phaedra’s disease to Hippolytus hoping that he would sleep with her to relieve her of her desire. In attempting a cure, the Nurse only expedited Phaedra’s desire to end her own life before she loses her honor.
The final uses of the metaphor of eros as disease occur with Phaedra’s final speech and the Chorus reaction to her imminent suicide. One of the most famous and meaningful parts of the play is Phaedra’s final speech before her suicide where she describes her plan to hurt Hippolytus with her death: “The bitterness of Love prevails, and I shall be defeated. But I shall do great evil to that man by dying – he will share in my disease, not place himself above me; he will learn to practice wise restraint, when all is done.”[11] Phaedra’s final proclamation shapes the plot for the rest of the play since this suicide note creates a cascade of events leading to Hippolytus’ death. How Phaedra did or didn’t inflict her disease on Hippolytus will be explored later in this essay, but the fact that she describes eros not as desire, love, or even suffering but rather as disease shows the way that she views her suffering. For Phaedra, eros has infected her against her will and, like any illness, she fights against it. Eventually, she knows that the disease will overcome her judgement, so she ends her life to maintain her honor. The final mention of eros as disease in the play is by the Chorus after Phaedra has gone to end her life. In the second Antistrophe, they say, “Then she was trapped; sent by the dread goddess of love like a disease, impure desire shattered her mind.”[12] This time, not only is eros yet again described negatively, but Aphrodite, the goddess of all love, is called dread and is named as the cause of the disease. Additionally, this recognition that desire is the disease shows that the Chorus views Phaedra as blameless in this situation. They say Phaedra was trapped and her mind shattered, showing that they view her as a victim to Aphrodite who caused the suffering brought about by the disease of eros.
There are two other moments in the play where the notion of disease is referenced, though not specifically in relation to eros. These mentions are of note because of the way that they broaden the understanding of disease within the play. In contrast with the earlier discussions of disease, both these other mentions are said by men. When the Nurse confronts Hippolytus and reveals Phaedra’s desire for him, he begins a tirade against women as a whole. He asks the gods why they “plague all men on earth with this affliction, brass disguised as gold – women!”[13] The use of the word plague to describe women shows that Hippolytus views women, rather than desire, as a disease that affects all men. Extreme misogyny aside, the irony of Hippolytus’ later death because of Phaedra’s actions should not be lost. Theseus also references disease after he reads the tablet Phaedra wrote and tied to her wrist. In accusing Hippolytus, he says, “Your presence has infected me already.”[14] This infection that Theseus mentions is that of the disgrace he believes Hippolytus has brought upon him after the accused rape of Phaedra. Again, the disease is not eros, but rather the perversity of Hippolytus’ actions and false purity. This is very similar to the way that Phaedra discusses the disgrace that spread from the first unfaithful woman. The rhetoric of disgrace, sexual misconduct, and false purity relates to both women and Hippolytus, in both cases creating a fear of infection. As I have examined how disease is talked about in the play, I will now move on to looking at the specific effects of the disease upon Phaedra and Hippolytus.
Phaedra’s suffering is described vividly throughout the play, starting with Aphrodite’s speech. Aphrodite says Phaedra feels “Desire’s dreadful choking grip around her heart” and “the lash of Eros” describing the physicality of Phaedra’s condition.[15] The grip of desire indicate how trapped Phaedra feels and the lash of Eros expresses the pain her disease is causing. Phaedra’s suffering is not only emotional turmoil, but also extreme pain and isolation. Her descriptions focus on the true cause of the suffering, her desire. When she is brought before the Chorus, they ask, “What has wrecked the queen’s body, drained her complexion?”[16] Not only does Phaedra feel terrible, but clearly is visibly ill. From all these descriptions, we can see that Phaedra’s suffering is both emotional and physical, ranging from a metaphorical grip on her heart to the reality of near starvation. These visible and invisible symptoms of her disease show how completely overtaken she is by her condition. In her bedridden state, Phaedra is first seen as a very sickly woman, but by the end of the play, Artemis describes her disease differently. Artemis agrees that Phaedra suffered terribly due to Aphrodite, but Artemis adds that “Phaedra tried to overcome the goddess by sheer force of her intellect and judgement” even adding that she was destroyed by the Nurse telling Hippolytus about her desire, against her will.[17] Rather than being seen as a weak suffering woman, after Phaedra’s suicide, Artemis shows her to have fought a losing battle using intellect and judgement, not to mention force of will. Phaedra is shown in two ways in the play. In the beginning she is bedridden and at the end she is dead from hanging herself. I will explore the impact of these visual representations later in relation to Hippolytus, but it is important to note that Artemis, a divine voice in the play, describes Phaedra’s suffering in such noble terms.
The effects of eros on Hippolytus are more difficult to explore, since nowhere in the play is he shown to be overcome with it like Phaedra. While he does not feel desire, he still is shown to be affected by Phaedra’s feelings and actions. First, I want to point out two moments when Hippolytus is affected by Phaedra’s disease. One of these moments occurs when the Nurse tells Hippolytus of Phaedra’s desire for him. He tells her that he “must go purify [his] ears” and that her “words alone are a pollution” that he must cleanse himself of.[18] The uncleanliness he feels in relation to desire shows how he is deeply disgusted by even the notion of desire. Being aware of Phaedra’s disease profoundly affects him and makes him feel impure, despite no action being taken involving him. More indirectly, because Hippolytus’ death is caused by Phaedra’s suicide note, the pain he feels after the chariot accident is because of Phaedra’s illness. He describes the physical ramifications on his body that follow from Phaedra’s disease as “arrows of pain.”[19] Seeing the ways that disease has affected both Phaedra and Hippolytus, I would like to examine how their experiences differ based on their gender.
In Froma Zeitlin’s discussion of Hippolytus, she asks that we “examine why [Aphrodite] uses the woman as her instrument and agent on the state” as she delves into an argument about how gender dynamics function in the play.[20] Zeitlin’s argument hinges around an idea of binding and loosening in relation to eros’ effect on Phaedra and Hippolytus. She uses Aristotle’s notions of plot structure saying that every tragedy “‘has a desis and a lusis’” in which the desis refers to “‘the knot, the binding’” and the lusis refers to “‘the dénouement.’”[21] Within this context she argues that “Eros, according to his traditional epithet, is the lusimelēs, “the one who loosens the limbs,” an epithet he shares with both sleep and death and from with Phaedra can liberate herself only by fastening the tightly drawn rope around her neck.”[22] Thus, building off this argument, I believe that the primary symptom of Phaedra’s illness is how it has loosened her. As Zeitlin says, “[Phaedra’s] soul is bound fast to her sickbed, while at the same time the ‘fastening’ of her limbs is loosened by the afflictions of her disease – eros.”[23] Her disease has released her inhibitions and made her more susceptible to the influence of the Nurse who so easily convinced her of a possible cure to her illness. However since no cure exists, Phaedra can only escape from the disease by binding herself, specifically with a rope around her neck. The mirrored imagery between Phaedra’s choking desire and hanging herself should not be lost to the audience since it is deeply important to Hippolytus’ own suffering. The difference in suffering between Phaedra and Hippolytus can better be explored by examining Euripides’ lost first version of Hippolytus. In this version, Phaedra did not try to hide her desire, but instead shamelessly tried to convince Hippolytus to sleep with her. Brooke Holmes describes the relationship between the Phaedras in each play and argues that “Whereas Euripides’ earlier Phaedra seems to have readily capitulated to eros, this Phaedra tries to (re)write the story of her suffering as one of heroic self-mastery.”[24] Phaedra’s suffering in our version of Hippolytus shows a woman bedridden while fighting her disease. It is this fighting of eros that is similar between Phaedra and Hippolytus, ultimately leading to both of their demises. Where Hippolytus fights eros on his feet, disrespecting Aphrodite, Phaedra is bedridden while trying to resist it.
However, when Phaedra has ended her suffering, it is Hippolytus’ turn to lie down in pain. Holmes says, “The wrecked body dragged onstage at the end of the tragedy becomes a mirror that reveals the inner conflict hidden by Phaedra’s apparently inviolate corpse.”[25] Despite all her physical suffering, Phaedra’s body is unviolated in death. Hippolytus’ body on the other hand shows the degree of suffering that he is feeling. Where Phaedra hid her illness, Hippolytus suffers loudly and openly. Zeitlin argues that in his suffering “his desire is now all for a sword to cleave himself in two and ‘put his life at last to bed.’ His symptoms are those of a woman, racked with the pain of childbirth or the torment of sexual desire.”[26] Hippolytus’ position on his back deeply suffering mirror Phaedra’s position earlier in the play, but also the pain of so many women going through childbirth. Eros differs between Phaedra and Hippolytus because her suffering is based on emotional pain first, while Hippolytus only suffers emotionally as a result of physical pain. All of Phaedra’s physical suffering is due to her emotional suffering. Holmes points out that the queen’s complexion is not altered by eros, but rather by her refusal to eat.[27] All of her physical ailments result from her battle against her desire. Hippolytus is forced to feel the pain she feels, but through physical means not emotional.
This, of course, brings up the overarching question: how does Hippolytus share in Phaedra’s disease? I believe Hippolytus suffers in the way Phaedra wanted, not only being in pain, but experiencing it because of eros. Phaedra’s suffering in silence is noble, but “As long as eros remains a secret, no one can understand the context of her destructive self-mastery through starvation,” claims Holmes.[28] She adds that “By appropriating the language of power and honor for herself, on the other hand, she inhabits the heroic, masculine position” which relates to the way that Hippolytus shares in Phaedra’s disease.[29] In Artemis’ final speech, she details the new cult in honor of Hippolytus, which binds him to Phaedra forever.[30] This binding of Phaedra to Hippolytus also echoes the visual imagery of binding that I discussed earlier. Just as Phaedra is only able to escape eros through death, Hippolytus is entangled in Phaedra’s disease, a bond which “will only be loosened at the cost of loosening his limbs from the bonds of life.”[31] Phaedra binds Hippolytus to her with the tablet and in doing so, binds his suffering to hers.
“By making him ‘share in her disease,’ Phaedra has now transferred her story to him, making him the unwitting double of herself…In short, he will have to live through her experience in every respect, sharing the symptoms of her ‘disease’ in the eyes of the world until the condition of his sick and suffering body as seen as the end of the play symmetrically matches her physical state at the beginning.”[32]
Zeitlin clearly outlines the entanglement Phaedra enacts between her and Hippolytus. Not only does he share in her physical suffering but is tied to her fate. Their story will go down in history in the form of a cult where he will be bound to a woman and the goddess he despised forever. In ever greater irony, Phaedra is shown as heroically resisting eros, ending her life with her honor intact, while Hippolytus is disgraced and put in the position of the diseased woman before his death. Phaedra forced the physicality of feminine suffering on Hippolytus and in that way, he was forced to share in her disease, not the eros of desire, but the eros of pain. After examining how intricately Euripides weaved disease and desire together in the play, I see the way that each form of disease is tied to eros. Aphrodite inflicts the illness on Phaedra as desire, meant to act through her in order to harm Hippolytus. Phaedra nobly resists the disease, trying to fight the infection that can affect all women, disgrace by infidelity. Upon learning of her desire for him, Hippolytus agrees with her that women are the disease, spreading their evil to men in return for children. Finally, Theseus learns of the desire Hippolytus felt for Phaedra, and though a lie, it infects him as well. He decries the false purity of Hippolytus, his child, just as Hippolytus and Phaedra had said about womankind. By the end of play, eros has spread to the entire family. The wife, the son, and the husband are all bound together by eros, the destroyer, bringing only tragedy upon their house.
[20] Froma I. Zeitlin, Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015037284943, p. 224
[24] Brooke Holmes, The Symptom and the Subject: The Emergency of the Physical Body in Ancient Greece (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), doi:10.2307/j.ctt7tbjr.12, p. 253
Euripides. Alcestis ; Medea ; Hippolytus. Edited by Robin Mitchell-Boyask. Translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 2007.
Holmes, Brooke. "Forces of Nature, Acts of Gods: Euripides’ Symptoms." In The Symptom and the Subject: The Emergence of the Physical Body in Ancient Greece, 228-74. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010. Accessed April 23, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctt7tbjr.12.