Phædra

, a daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, who married These us, by whom she became mother of Acamas and Demophoon. They had already lived for some time in conjugal felicity, when Venus, who hated all the descendants of Apollo, because that god had discovered her amours with Mars, inspired Phædra with an unconquerable pa ion for Hippolytus the son of These us, by the Amazon Hippolyte. This shameful pa ion Phædra long attempted to stifle, but in vain; and therefore, in the absence of These us, she addre ed Hippolytus with all the impatience of a desponding lover. Hippolytus rejected her with horror and disdain; but Phædra, incensed on account of the reception she had met, resolved to punish his coldne and refusal. At the return of These us she accused Hippolytus of attempts upon her virtue. The credulous father listened to the accusation, and without hearing the defence of Hippolytus, he banished him from his kingdom, and implored Neptune, who had promised to grant three of his requests, to punish him in some exemplary manner. As Hippolytus fled from Athens, his horses were suddenly terrified by a huge sea-monster, which Neptune had sent on the shore. He was dragged through precipices and over rocks, and he was trampled under the feet of his horses, and crushed under the wheels of his chariot. When the tragical end of Hippolytus was known at Athens, Phædra confe ed her crime, and hung herself in despair, unable to survive one whose death her wickedne and guilt had occasioned. The death of Hippolytus, and the infamous pa ion of Phædra, are the subject of one of the tragedies of Euripi des, and of Seneca. Phædra was buried at Trœzene, where her tomb was still seen in the age of the geographer Pausanias, near the temple of Venus, which she had built to render the godde favourable to her incestuous pa ion. There was near her tomb a myrtle, whose leaves were all full of small holes, and it was reported that Phædra had done this with a hair-pin, when the vehemence of her pa ion had rendered her melancholy and almost desperate. She was represented in a painting in Apollo’s temple at Delphi, as suspended by a cord, and balancing herself in the air, while her sister Ariadne stood near to her, and fixed her eyes upon her; a delicate idea, by which the genius of the artist intimated her melancholy end. Plutarch , These us .— Pausanias , bk. 1 , ch. 22 ; bk. 2 , ch. 32 .— Diodorus , bk. 4 .— Hyginus , fables 47 & 243.— Euripi des , Hippolytus & Seneca , Phædra .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 445 .— Ovid , Heroides , poem 4.