up a prayer to Neptune,
in compliance with which the god destroyed Hippolytus. But Diana declared
to Theseus every thing that had happened, and blamed not Phaedra, but
comforted him, bereaved of his child and wife, and promised to institute
honors in the place to Hippolytus.

The scene of the play is laid in Troezene. It was acted in the archonship
of Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides first,
Jophon second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that name, and
is called [Greek: STEPHANIAS]: but it appears to have been written the
latest, for what was unseemly and deserved blame is corrected in this play.
The play is ranked among the first.

* * * * *

HIPPOLYTUS.

* * * *

VENUS.

Great in the sight of mortals, and not without a name am I the Goddess
Venus, and in heaven: and of as many as dwell within the ocean and the
boundaries of Atlas, beholding the light of the sun, those indeed, who
reverence my authority, I advance to honor; but overthrow as many as hold
themselves high toward me. For this is in sooth a property inherent even in
the race of the Gods, that "they rejoice when honored by men." But quickly
will I show the truth of these words: for the son of Theseus, born of the
Amazon, Hippolytus, pupil of the chaste Pittheus, alone of the inhabitants
of this land of Troezene, says that I am of deities the vilest, and rejects
the bridal bed, and will have nothing to do with marriage. But Dian, the
sister of Phoebus, daughter of Jove, he honors, esteeming her the greatest
of deities. And through the green wood ever accompanying the virgin, with
his swift dogs he clears the beasts from off the earth, having formed a
fellowship greater than mortal ought. This indeed I grudge him not; for
wherefore should I? but wherein he has erred toward me, I will avenge me on
Hippolytus this very day: and having cleared most of the difficulties
beforehand,[1] I need not much labor. For Phaedra, his father's noble wife,
having seen him, (as he was going once from the house of Pittheus to the
land of Pandion, in order to see and afterward be fully admitted to the
hallowed mysteries,) was smitten in her heart with fierce love by my
design. And even before she came to this land of Troezene, at the very rock
of Pallas that overlooks this land, she raised a temple to Venus, loving an
absent love; and gave out afterward,[2] that the Goddess was ho