Goddesses, a Whore-Wife, and a Slave

Abstract

This chapter argues that Phaedra’s false accusation of rape, laid against her stepson in Euripides’ tragedy Hippolytus, has contributed to the widespread belief that women frequently lay such false allegations. The classic status of this play, as of its famous adaptations by Seneca and Racine, has kept the story of Phaedra’s lie at the center of the cultural radar and produced many imitations in popular culture. The gender stereotype that women are unreliable witnesses and custodians of truth has, however, been challenged recently both by the philosopher Miranda Fricker and by campaigns against workplace sexual harassment. By making Phaedra in this play virtuous in other respects, compared with her portrayal in Euripides’ lost Hippolytus Veiled and that of Stheneboea in his lost Stheneboea, Euripides threw the spotlight sharply on her vindictive act of perjury. But when studying and performing these ideologically laden dramas, we must remember that they are fictions.