[Aristotle's Poetics: Introduction] [Aristotle's Poetics: Seminar Notes]
Aristotle himself never refers to this play, or to the Hippolytus or Phaedra in general. (He alludes to line 989 at Rhetoric 1395b28-30, and at Rhetoric 1416a32 mentions someone quoting line 612 - ‘my tongue swore: my heart is not bound by oath’ - against Euripides.)
1. The most obvious candidate for a reversal in this play is the Nurse's approach to Hippolytus: her overriding aim throughout is to save Phaedra's life, but the outcome is to make her death even more imperative and to bring about Hippolytus' death as well. (Note how, as in Oedipus, the pivotal role of the reversal is reflected in a change of agenda. Up to this point Phaedra has wanted to conceal her secret by her own death; now she also needs to bring about Hippolytus' death.)
2. If this identification of the reversal is right, then in Hippolytus the reversal arguably does not coincide with the change of fortune (or with the beginning of the change of fortune); it might be better to say the reversal sets in motion a further chain of events which leads to the change of fortune. So we should not assume that reversal and change of fortune necessarily coincide (as is arguably the case in Oedipus).
3. Note too that in Hippolytus reversal and recognition are separated (assuming that the main recognition is that of Theseus towards the end of the play).
4. Thus in Oedipus Sophocles builds up to a big climax in which all the Aristotelian elements (reversal, recognition, change of fortune) come together; but in Hippolytus Euripides spreads those elements out. Each element has tragic impact as it occurs, but it is not as concentrated as in Oedipus.
5. It might be argued that there is also a minor reversal in Theseus' homecoming: he comes home with good expectations and finds disaster. (The overturn of his expectations is given visual emphasis: he arrives garlanded, and discards the garland when he finds Phaedra's body. Is this a point which Aristotle, with his lack of interest in spectacle, might find hard to appreciate?)
6. What of the outcome of Theseus' curse? Admittedly he did not mean to kill an innocent son. But it would surely be stretching the term too far to say that this implies a reversal (if it did, then recognition would always involve reversal - and we know that Aristotle did not think that). Still, it is worth noting how Euripides secures astonishment in the outcome of the curse: after the curse is uttered it is forgotten about (Theseus assumes that Hippolytus will go into exile, and even says that death would be too mild a punishment) until it takes effect. The supernatural element of the curse in itself evokes astonishment, and the dramatic sleight-of-hand enhances the effect.
7. Though Theseus' recognition is the main one, recognition does occur more widely in the plot: the Nurse discovers Phaedra's secret; Hippolytus discovers Phaedra's secret; Theseus discovers Hippolytus' guilt. But the latter two are false recognitions: Hippolytus and Theseus are misled. Oedipus starts with everyone in ignorance; in Hippolytus the ignorance is constructed in the course of the play. Thus the polarity of knowledge and ignorance which Aristotle discusses in ch. 14, and the associated idea of recognition, are basic to the whole structure of the play.
8. Is Theseus' recognition technically a good one by Aristotle's standards? It is concerned with someone closely connected to him; this means that it is emotionally potent (see ch. 11, 52a31). (Admittedly Theseus already knew that Hippolytus was his son; what he now discovers is that Hippolytus had not in fact violated the father-son relation, so that the son he had destroyed was innocent. So it is not the fact of connection that is brought to light, but its current status. But the effect is much the same.) The separation from the reversal, though not Aristotle's ideal (ch. 11, 52a32-33), is not a fault.
9. However, Artemis' intervention is arguably not necessary or probable: if so, this would be an instance of the second least artistic form of recognition (ch. 16, 54b30-37), in which the disclosure is not entailed by the plot, but just meets the poet's needs. On this view Euripides has constructed the pattern of ignorance at the human level so well that he can only bring the truth to light by divine intervention. (The Nurse is the only character in a position to confirm Hippolytus' innocence: and she has a strong motive to keep the truth - or the part of it she knows - hidden, to protect Phaedra's reputation.)
10. Is there an Aristotelian defence against this criticism? Aristotle is tolerant of the use of gods to convey information which the human characters cannot know (ch. 15, 54b2-6); but does that concession go beyond filling in the gaps at the end of the plot, and apply to such an important element in the plot as the recognition? A different approach might be to argue that Artemis' intervention to protect her protege's reputation and instigate the hero- cult in his memory is well-motivated, simply because of her attachment to Hippolytus.
11. One device which makes Artemis' involvement seem natural to the audience is the balance between Aphrodite in the prologue and Artemis in the epilogue. This formal patterning in the structure of the play is something which Aristotle's theory, with its focus on the structure of the plot rather than the play, does not seem able to take account of.
13. Poseidon's role, though less prominent, is also important and (on the face of it) well-motivated; as noted above, the curse introduces an extra element of astonishment into the plot.
15. As well as a less concentrated plot-structure, Hippolytus is less narrowly focused in terms of characters. In Oedipus (though Jocasta has a momentary highlight when she realises the truth and goes off to her death) the focus on one individual is very intense. But in Hippolytus sympathy is spread between Phaedra, Hippolytus and Theseus. In ch. 13 Aristotle writes as if he assumes there will be one tragic character; the analysis in ch. 14 (which turns on the nature of an interaction between people) implies a number of tragic characters. Hippolytus does not have the kind of plot which is ranked highest in ch. 14 (since the recognition follows harm done to a close connection, rather than averting it), but it does have many of the features on which the ch. 14 analysis is based.
16. The movement of emotional focus from one character to another which we find in Hippolytus occurs in many Greek tragedies. A good example is Sophocles' Antigone, in which (as in Hippolytus) the movement is from a female to a male character; and this pattern is common. It may be relevant that for Aristotle status is important in tragedy, and women are 'inferior' (ch. 15, 54a20-22). But this point should not be exaggerated; it is clear that often female characters do sustain central and emotionally commanding tragic roles.
17. Is Hippolytus' provocation of Aphrodite so obviously suicidal as to make it difficult to pity him for its consequences? He is not a wicked person: he shows great integrity in keeping to his oath. So perhaps we should see his behaviour as an understandable error. It is important in this connection that he is a young man - and thus (in Greek eyes) prone to rash and foolish actions. (In Bacchae Pentheus' youth is stressed, and contrasted with the old men Cadmus and Teiresias, who prudently work on the assumption that the new god Dionysus is genuine.)
18. Phaedra initially might be seen as too innocent to fit Aristotle's theory, on the grounds that her passion for Hippolytus is imposed on her for no fault of her own. (Some, however, might argue that the passion does reflect her own character: she herself assumes that she has inherited a tendency to misdirected passion.) When she tells the Nurse her secret (against her own better judgement) she displays a certain weakness. (This perhaps is an example of an error which has some moral element, but which has disproportionately serious consequences. A woman of unqualified virtue would not have given way; but giving way does not mean that Phaedra deserves what follows. It is a trivial mistake with a disastrous outcome.) By the time of her death she has done things (the false condemnation of Hippolytus) which make it difficult to see her as wholly innocent; equally, the pressures she is under (and the fact that passion is seen as a form of madness, tending to lead to extreme and irrational acts) imply that she is still not to be seen as wicked.
19. Near the end of the play Artemis says that she will retaliate against a favourite of Aphrodite. This briefly opens up the prospect of further human suffering in the future. Euripides does this in several of his plays. Can this open-endedness be reconciled with Aristotle's concept of closure?
[Aristotle's Poetics: Introduction] [Aristotle's Poetics: Seminar Notes]