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Introduction

Phaedra, sometimes known as Hippolytus is a play by Seneca the Younger, telling the story of Phaedra and her taboo love for her stepson Hippolytus. It is an adaptation of Hippolytus by Euripides; in Seneca's version, Phaedra is more sensual and shameless, deceiving her nurse in order to gain her as an accomplice.

According to Pierre Grimal, it seems that this work is the result of the "contamination" of several sources, including Sophocles (a lost tragedy), Lycophron and Ovid.