Phaedra is a Roman tragedy written by philosopher and dramatist Lucius Annaeus Seneca before 54 A.D. Its 1,280 lines of verse tell the story of Phaedra, wife of King Theseus of Athens and her consuming lust for her stepson Hippolytus. Based on Greek mythology and the tragedy Hippolytus by Euripides, Seneca's Phaedra is one of several artistic explorations of this tragic story. Seneca portrays Phaedra as self-aware and direct in the pursuit of her stepson, while in other treatments of the myth, she is more of a passive victim of fate. This Phaedra takes on the scheming nature and the cynicism often assigned to the nurse character.
Phaedra and Hippolytus, c. 290 AD
Phaedra hands to her nurse the letter accusing Hippolytus.
Alexandre Cabanel - Phèdre
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
Ancient bust of Seneca, part of the Double Herm of Socrates and Seneca
Modern statue of Seneca in Córdoba
Nero and Seneca, by Eduardo Barrón (1904). Museo del Prado
Death of Seneca by Peter Paul Rubens