The play "Hippolytus" revolves around the central theme of "the quarrel between sacred and profane love, represented by Artemis and Aphrodite". Hippolytus who is an ardent and committed believer of sacred love considers Artemis (goddess of all wild things, the protector of youth, and the patroness of hunters, childbirth, moon, fisherman, and unmarried girls) "greatest of the Gods in heaven" as she stands for sacred love. On the other hand he considers the goddess Cypris (Aphrodite) "vilest of the Gods in heaven as she represents profane love. Thus Cypris is angry and jealous and in order to attain retribution causes Hippolytus's stepmother to fall in love with him. Hence Phaedra is viewed in this play as a victim of Aphrodite's revenge, as is the protagonist Hippolytus. Phaedra's passion for her stepson causes great emotional trauma and conflict in her mind and her speeches in the play bring out her rational, intelligent, moral and philosophical side as well as her traumatized, confused and helpless side. However in the end her emotional, passionate side has the final say when she commits suicide causing the advent of the rest of the tragedy.
             We first encounter Phaedra in the play when the chorus speak of her and mention that she is full of sorrow, pale with fever and hasn't eaten in three days. We see that she is very weak and frail but at the same time very restless and melodramatic about her illness and sorrow. She raves and rants about "lying beneath the poplars in the tufted meadow", "going to the mountains" and being "among the pine trees" and hunting with the hounds. The nurse attributes her "tossing out wild demented words" to "madness." Phaedra's "whirling, frenzied, senseless words" which talk of her longing for the wilderness and hunting are obvious to the audience who realize that she wants to be more l...