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Theseus, who was actually the son of Poseidon,
begat a son Hippolytus from Hippolytê the Amazon
and took a second wife, Phaedra, the daughter of
Minos, who thus became a stepmother. Phaedra
fell in love with her stepson, and sent her nurse to
him ; but he left Athens and, coming to Troezen,
devoted himself to hunting. But when the wanton
woman failed to obtain her cherished desire, she
[p. 307]
indited a false letter against the chaste youth and
ended her life with a halter. Theseus believed the
letter and asked from Poseidon the destruction of
Hippolyto as fulfilment of one of the three wishes
which he had as a concession from Poseidon. The
god sent a bull to confront Hippolyto as he was
driving along the shore in his chariot and terrified the
horses, which crushed Hippolytus.1
Comminius Super of Laurentem begat a son
Comminius from the nymph Egeria and took a second
wife Gidica, who thus became a stepmother. She
fell in love with her stepson and, failing to obtain
her desire, put an end to her life with a halter, leaving behind her a lying letter. Comminius read the
accusations, believed the invidious charge, and called
upon Neptune, who placed a bull in the youth's path
as he was riding in a chariot; and the young man's
horses ran away with him and killed him. So
Dositheüs in the third book of his Italian History.
1 Cf. Stobaeus, Florilegium, lxiv. 38 (iv. 474 Hense), and Euripides, Hippolytus.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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