Misogyny New and Old: The Darkest Corners of the Web... and Euripides.

Zuckerberg makes this clear, but without the emphasis that I believe it deserves (165).[14] This play is very much about the goddesses Aphrodite and Artemis, both utterly despicable, both present in person, both presented as real forces.[15] Moreover, the oath that in I Hippolytus i II Phaedra's arrogant but pious victim takes and fatally honors may be unique among the five tragedies in this thematic collection.[16] To his stepmother's Nurse when she reminds him that (off stage) he took an oath not to disclose what she was about to tell him, i.e., about her mistress's desire for him, his retort is famous. What may be lost in an approach such as Zuckerberg's to I Hippolytus i II is the drama, the tragedy among persons in what may be Euripides' finest play, but hardly his easiest. However, on the same page she explains why Phaedra's accusation in I Hippolytus i II was taken seriously: "A close reading of Phaedra's story [in I Hippolytus i II] shows that her successful false accusation depends upon the fact that she is the "right" kind of accuser with the "right" kind of alleged rapist." Zuckerberg quotes this exchange.[20] On that earlier line 497 Zuckerberg quotes Aristophanic scholar Alan Sommerstein, who suggests that "Phaedra's particular villainy (revenging herself, by a false accusation of rape, on a man who had spurned her) is not one that women now habitually practice.". [Extracted from the article]