Phaedra

The second act begins with the Nurse describing Phaedra’s state to the Chorus. She enumerates the symptoms of Phaedra’s condition and virtual coma, and says: “There is no hope that such great suffering can be soothed” (360). Phaedra speaks, calling for her finery to be removed so that she can go to the woods in simple raiment.

As Hippolytus returns from the hunt, the Nurse prays for success in what she is about to do. Hippolytus asks the Nurse if anything is wrong, and the Nurse, telling him to put his mind at ease, urges him to “yield to happiness” (437). She tells him that the life he leads is too strict and inflexible, and that he should allow himself to take advantage of the joys of life. Above all, he should indulge in the “pleasures of Venus” and give up his resolve to remain a virgin forever: Hippolytus should take a lover (447). Hippolytus responds with a long speech in which he praises the innocence and purity of a life spent in the woods and hunting. He then delivers an invective against women, whom he sees as “the root of all evil” (559).