Gods and Fate Theme Analysis

Many ancient Greek tragedies, including those by the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (the author of Hippolytus), tell a similar tale: a character’s greatness, however impressive, violates a law of fate set by the gods, who in turn punish the transgression. Aeschylus’ play about Prometheus, who brings the invention of fire to the human race and is punished for it, provides a useful comparison. Hippolytus’ superhuman resistance to the force of desire, just like Prometheus’ transgression, causes the gods to take notice. Desire itself is the law or fate of human life, and the audience watches it destroy Phaidra from within before seeing Hippolytus killed for his arrogant rejection of it.

Aphrodite herself enforces this law. Appearing above the stage before the action begins, she tells the audience that Hippolytus will suffer because his chastity goes so far that it scorns her. The conclusion – the death of Hippolytus – is therefore never in doubt. In this view, the entire sequence of Phaidra growing sick with desire, committing suicide, and framing Hippolytus simply represent Aphrodite’s power and will. “All three of us,” says the dying Hippolytus of himself, Phaidra, and Theseus (Phaidra’s husband and Hippolytus’s father) “owe our ruin to that lone goddess” (2118). Why couldn’t Artemis, whom Hippolytus revered, rescue him? At the play’s end, Artemis tells us that there is an even higher law, maintained by Zeus, which prohibits one god from interfering with the plans of another. But she also promises the dying Hippolytus vengeance against Aphrodite, which makes the audience think of other myths and other conflicts between human characters and the gods that oversee them. In this way, the personal struggle with desire and chastity grows into a struggle between the gods, even as the gods control mortal’s fate.