Phaedra Study Guide & Essays

by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Seneca’s Phaedra was modeled on Euripides’ Hippolytus, which told roughly the same story. It is not clear whether Phaedra was ever performed on stage in Seneca’s time. It seems likely that it was meant instead purely for recitation, as would befit its emphasis on long speeches, its small cast of…