Curse and Oath in Euripides' Hippolytus

Abstract

Curses and oaths play an interesting and important role in the tragic action of theHippolytuswhich is generally overlooked. They dominate two of the play's most powerful scenes, Theseus' imprecation of doom upon his son (885-98) and Hippolytus' defense (1025-31). I shall begin with the latter passage. Here the hero's solemn oath of self-destruction (ἐξώλεια ) forms a dramatic climax to his denial of the charges against him (1025-31): Now I swear by Zeus, God of Oaths, and by the soil of the earth that I never touched your marriage-bed nor would have conceived the wish or the thought. May I perish without honour, without city, without home, an exile wandering over the earth, and may neither sea nor earth receive my flesh when I am dead if I have been a base man.

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