Hippolytus

by

Euripides

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Hippolytus makes teaching easy.

Truth, Falsehood, and Reputation Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Desire, Sexuality, and Chastity Theme Icon
Gods and Fate Theme Icon
Truth, Falsehood, and Reputation Theme Icon
Family Relationships Theme Icon
Cities and Place Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hippolytus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth, Falsehood, and Reputation Theme Icon

As the tragedy unfolds, the audience knows everything, sharing the perspective of the gods, and we watch as characters slowly discover truths about each other. This manipulation of truth and falsehood is another commonplace in the ancient Greek theater, and it turns the drama into a kind of detective tale. In the play’s opening lines, Aphrodite tells the audience that Phaidra is sick with desire, but the nurse struggles over a long scene to discover the same truth. Phaidra’s letter, engraved in a wax tablet that Theseus finds in her dead hands, says that Hippolytus raped her. This falsehood dominates the rest of the tragedy only because those who know the truth have sworn oaths to keep silent, which, in ancient Greek culture, is very seriously binding. The nurse swears Hippolytus to secrecy before confessing Phaidra’s love, and Phaidra herself puts the chorus under oath with some of her last words. The consequence is that, ironically, the only character unable to speak (the dead Phaidra) persuades Theseus, while those characters who still can speak must remain silent. “She gives her dead body as proof,” says Theseus (1444). It takes Artemis and the dying Hippolytus, at the end of the play, to prove the truth to Theseus, and his discovery of what really happened makes for a dramatic climax.

This interplay of truth and falsehood connects the characters of this play to a major concern for characters of Greek tragedy in general: one’s reputation. As members of the nobility, the three primary characters of the play each cares deeply about what general society thinks of him or her. This powerful emotion pairs with the feeling of shame at one’s actions, which is the judgment about oneself, rather than the judgment of an entire society. Phaidra hides her love, and then frames Hippolytus, in order to save her own reputation. Similarly, Theseus explains that he has to fiercely punish Hippolytus in order to uphold his reputation as a strong leader, while Hippolytus fears that his own reputation will be tarnished by Phaidra’s accusation. By the end of the play, once the truth comes out, Phaidra’s own reputation falls, and Artemis works to restore Hippolytus’ story – but this repair comes too late to save his life.

Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…

Truth, Falsehood, and Reputation ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Truth, Falsehood, and Reputation appears in each section of Hippolytus. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
section length:
Get the entire Hippolytus LitChart as a printable PDF.
Hippolytus PDF

Truth, Falsehood, and Reputation Quotes in Hippolytus

Below you will find the important quotes in Hippolytus related to the theme of Truth, Falsehood, and Reputation.
Lines 1-425 Quotes

Because I prize my purity
I keep clear of [Aphrodite]…

Related Characters: Hippolytus (speaker), Aphrodite
Page Number: 164-165
Explanation and Analysis:

I must have said terrible things.
I’m so humiliated! I feel as though
I’m being violently shoved somewhere I must not go.
Where? My mind’s going, I feel unclean,
Twisted into this madness
By the brawn of a god who hates me.

Related Characters: Phaidra (speaker)
Page Number: 350-356
Explanation and Analysis:
Lines 426-816 Quotes

I must hide it. Shame may be purified,
And it may be made completely noble

Related Characters: Phaidra (speaker)
Page Number: 503-504
Explanation and Analysis:

I knew that my passion, indulged or not,
Would make me repulsive to others, especially since
I am a woman – our very sex is a disgrace.

Related Characters: Phaidra (speaker)
Page Number: 625-627
Explanation and Analysis:

Your passion is what the god
Has chosen you to become. Accept it.
And though you suffer, be gallant about it.

Related Characters: Nurse (speaker), Phaidra
Page Number: 735-737
Explanation and Analysis:

Aphrodite,
Sea goddess, share this adventure with me,
Though I have my own tactics
And these, once set in motion,
Once I share them inside with a certain young friend,
Will carry our affair to its climax.

Related Characters: Nurse (speaker), Hippolytus, Aphrodite
Page Number: 811-816
Explanation and Analysis:
Lines 817-1119 Quotes

Mother Earth and Great Sun, whose light
Unfolds the freshness of the clear blue depths –
Could anything spoken be more repulsive?

Related Characters: Hippolytus (speaker)
Page Number: 914-916
Explanation and Analysis:

You couldn’t keep your mouth shut.
Because of you, after I die
My name will stink of depravity.

Related Characters: Phaidra (speaker), Nurse
Page Number: 1045-1047
Explanation and Analysis:
Lines 1120-1368 Quotes

That is her signet, set in an arc
Of hammered gold, inviting me
To open it, a gesture full of her charm –
I’ll unravel the windings and crack
The seal. Let me just take in
Her last words to me.

Related Characters: Theseus (speaker), Phaidra
Page Number: 1307-1312
Explanation and Analysis:

The truth is hideous. It sears and wrenches
And will not stay clenched in my throat.
To speak it out excruciates me,
But it must come. Ahhh!
Hear it, men of the city!
My wife was raped – by Hippolytus!

Related Characters: Theseus (speaker), Hippolytus, Phaidra
Page Number: 1337-1342
Explanation and Analysis:
Lines 1728-2208 Quotes

King, I am your slave, but don’t ask me
To believe that your son was guilty.
I couldn’t, not if the whole female sex
Hanged itself,
And all the timber on Mount Ida
Were sliced up to write suicide notes.
I know he was a good man.

Related Characters: Messenger (speaker), Theseus, Hippolytus
Page Number: 1902-1908
Explanation and Analysis:

I will reveal and you must face
The sexual passion of your wife,
Though what she did, seen in its own strange light,
Burns with her soul’s nobility.

Related Characters: Artemis (speaker), Theseus, Phaidra
Page Number: 1974-1977
Explanation and Analysis:

And the maidens’ spontaneous songs
Will dwell on you with endless care.
And fame will find musical words
For Phaidra’s terrible love for you,
And that too will be known.

Related Characters: Artemis (speaker), Hippolytus, Phaidra
Page Number: 2159-2163
Explanation and Analysis: