ヒッポリュトスの「有罪性」 : 彼に罪はあるか？

• 堀川 宏

書誌事項

タイトル別名

• Hippolytus’ culpability : Is he to be seen culpable?
• ヒッポリュトス　ノ　ユウザイセイ　カレ　ニ　ツミ　ハ　アル　カ

抄録

Why is Hippolytus to be destroyed? Many readers of Euripides’ Hippolytus will have such a question. A repeated answer: because he has some abhorrent defect in his character and for the defect he is justly destroyed –– he is culpable. This view has been supported by many critics, but I think that it misses the mark. This article aims to show some points that make us hesitate to take Hippolytus to be culpable. First, Hippolytus appears on the stage as an extraordinarily beautiful adolescent, who is a special companion of the goddess Artemis. This companionship is not only recognized by her but also the goddess Aphrodite, which will mean that he really has a special relationship with Artemis. And the adversarial relationship between the two goddesses is shown to us throughout the drama. This should lead us to consider Hippolytus’ rejection of Aphrodite as understandable –– he is not to blame. He cannot admire Artemis and Aphrodite. Secondly, Hippolytus’ notorious criticism of Phaedra, whose extraordinary severity is often explained as suggesting his narrow-mindedness, tells us that he has very similar characteristics to his stepmother. This similarity is shown through many echoes of their words, which will lead us to think 134 of the way we see the two characters –– if Phaedra is to be seen as virtuous, Hippolytus also seems to be seen from a positive viewpoint. Thirdly, we should note how the scene of confrontation between Hippolytus and Theseus is constructed. In that scene, Theseus believes that his wife is saying the truth in her slandering letter (deltos) which he has just discovered, and will not listen to his son at all. Theseus’ reproach is totally based on misunderstanding of his son and Hippolytus has no choice but to resort repeatedly to his characteristics, which have been shown to us in the course of the play, to assert his innocence. This situation will lead us to have great sympathy for Hippolytus, who is exceptionally beautiful and has many characteristics common to Phaedra, who is very virtuous woman in this play.

収録刊行物

• 神話学研究

  神話学研究 1 62-78, 2017-05-31

  ギリシア・ローマ神話学研究会

詳細情報

• CRID: 1390572174763177344
• NII論文ID: 120006354146
• NII書誌ID: AA1279576X
• DOI: 10.18910/66576
• HANDLE: 11094/66576
• ISSN: 24333964
• 本文言語コード: ja
• データソース種別:
  • JaLC
  • IRDB
  • CiNii Articles