Although the exact dating of Seneca’s plays is elusive, certain stylistic and metrical reasons point to an early date for his
Phaedra, possibly the later years of Claudius’ reign. John Fitch [
AJP102 (1981) 289-307] has claimed that the
Phaedrabelongs to the first group of Seneca’s plays along with the
Agamemnonand the
Oedipus. Richard Tarrant has suggested that these three plays (
Phaedra, Agamnenon, Oedipus) “represent an attempt to treat material conspicuously associated with each of the three canonical Greek tragedians” (1995, 220).
In this tragedy Seneca treats the well-known myth of Phaedra’s love for her stepson Hippolytus. Like his Medea, Seneca’s Phaedra is a study on a family ruined by an uncontrollable passion. The place of the dramatic action is Athens, the
2028 words
Citation: Michalopoulos, Andreas. "Phaedra". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13463, accessed 12 December 2024.]