Euripides' Hippolytus

Euripides, according to Sophocles' famous dictum, depicted men as they are, whereas Sophocles depicted them as they ought to be.1 The observation summarizes not only the peculiar excellence of each dramatist but also the essential cause of Euripides' unpopularity among his fellow Athenians, which culminated in his self-imposed exile in old age. Euripides was the first realist in the drama; the heroes and heroines of his plays, ostensibly drawn from the traditional myths, were in reality based on his observations of contemporary men and women.

As he possessed a remarkable insight into human motivations and did not hesitate to portray the baser side of human nature as well as its nobler aspects, his Athenian public was disquieted and alienated. Their disquiet was exacerbated by his probing of abnormal behavior—Hercules in madness destroying his wife and children, the prurient scopophilia of Pentheus, Canace's love for her brother, even Pasiphae's passion for a bull. Moreover, he outraged public opinion by his depiction of women, and especially of women in the grip of strong passions—the jealous and murderous rage of Medea, or the sexual craving of Phaedra for her stepson. In fact, it was felt that Euripides' portrayal of human characteristics endangered the morals of his audiences. Such is the criticism of Euripides that Aristophanes puts into the mouth of Aeschylus in The Frogs.

To those who are acquainted with the history of psychoanalysis, Athenian attit