thumb|Detail of the Hippolytus volute-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), , British Museum.

Hippolytus (; )

Premise of the myth

thumb|Hippolytus and Phaedra, antique fresco from [[Pompeii]]

Hippolytus is a hunter and sportsman who is more inclined towards hunting than towards marriage and love. In consequence, he scrupulously worships Artemis, the virgin huntress, and refuses to honor Aphrodite. Offended by this neglect, Aphrodite causes Phaedra, Hippolytus’ stepmother, to fall in love with him; Hippolytus rejects Phaedra's advances, setting events in motion that lead to his death in a fall from his chariot. Theseus, furious, uses one of the three wishes given to him by Poseidon, his father: Theseus calls on Poseidon to kill Hippolytus, who has fled the palace to go hunting. Poseidon sends a sea-monster to terrorize Hippolytus' chariot horses, which become uncontrollable and hurl their master out of the vehicle. Entangled in the reins, Hippolytus is dragged and suffers lethal wounds. Artemis reconciles father and son by telling Theseus that Phaedra's accusation against Hippolytus was not true. Artemis comforts the dying Hippolytus with a promise to make him the subject of religious practice so that his memory will live forever. She assigns a band of Trozenian maidens the task of preserving the story of Phaedra and Hippolytus in a ritual song.

Versions of this story also appear in Seneca the Younger's play Phaedra, Ovid's Metamorphoses and Heroides, Jean Racine's Phèdre, and Thomas Sturge Moore's Aphrodite against Artemis.

In Italy as Virbius

thumb|right|Diana returning to Aricia Hippolytus resuscitated by Aesculapius

During a later phase of Hellenization, Virbius, one of two figures associated with the ancient cult of Diana Nemorensis (the other being Egeria), was assimilated to the Hippolytus, as a metamorphosis.

The version presented by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, and by Pausanias, relates a story about Hippolytus that differs from the version presented by Euripides.

The nature of Virbius' function remains enigmatic, but his cult maintained that Artemis asked Asclepius to resurrect the young man since he had vowed chastity to her. Followers of Hippolytus' cult cut off a piece of their hair to dedicate their chastity to him before marriage.

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File:Esculape rend la vie à Hippolyte.jpg|Esculape rend la vie à Hippolyte by Abel de Pujol

File:German school Hippolytus, Phaedra and Theseus.jpeg|Hippolytus, Phaedra and Theseus. German School, 18th century

File:Hippolytus mosaic 01.jpg|Part of the mosaic of Hippolytus in the Archaeological Park of Madaba, Jordan

File:Hyppolitus készlet.jpg|Hippolytus set – Seuso Treasure

File:Hippolytus Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema.jpg|The Death of Hippolytus, by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912)

</gallery>

See also

  • Rex Nemorensis
  • The Golden Bough
  • Phaedra complex
  • Ippolito ed Aricia
  • Hippolyte et Aricie

References

  • Hippolytus for details on the figure of Hippolytus and a classicist's philological study of the evolution of Hippolytus as a chastity paradigm in Euripides, Seneca, Racine; extensive bibliography (in Dutch)