Hanna Roisman

Euripides’ Hippolytus usually finds its way into the curriculum as part of a general

literature course, a course on Greek tragedy in translation, or a course in Greek

Language. The latter’s audience is the one toward which this commentary is geared.

Hippolytus is a fascinating play about passion, rejection, innocence, betrayal, revenge,

and the breaking down of a family. It is my hope that this commentary will help students

— whether graduate or undergraduate — to delve into the Greek text and read it

fluently, not only overcoming hurdles of vocabulary and the various syntactical

structures, but also appreciating the literary and rhetorical devices Euripides used to

enrich the characterization of the characters, from Phaedra to the nurse, and from

Hippolytus to his father, Theseus, each one with their own set of moral, ethical and

religious beliefs.