When I first felt love�s dart, I tried to find the best way to endure the wound. This, then, was how I began: I said nothing about this illness, kept it secret. For there�s no trusting the tongue� My second course was to win the battle by self-discipline: this was how I planned to live through this madness decently. Thirdly� I decided to die, the best course � no one can deny it � I could have devised. For just as I wouldn�t want my right actions to go unnoticed, I wouldn�t want my sins witnessed for the world.
(p. 141)
The last passage of the speech above encapsulates Euripides� Phaedra�s regard for s�phrosure; she considers it not just in the context of concealing, but more generally in reference to the virtuous deeds she does and that she would wish others to see. This Phaedra doesn�t just want to �keep up appearances�, but has a heartfelt wish to be the kind of person who others regard as virtuous, to meet the standards Athenian society sets for her.
This opens up a further dimension to Euripides� play, that of the woman in an Athenian society. Phaedra professes that she is �well aware of being a woman, something hated by all men� (p. 141), and the belief that women are the source of vice in society is vehemently upheld by Hippolytus in his misogynistic tirade (p. 146-7) . The impression that women�s position in society is a precarious one, and especially for those women in prominent positions, makes Phaedra�s concern for her own public image, and so her initial refusal to speak to the Nurse about the exact details of her passion, all the more understandable. Knox affirms that �Phaedra�s purpose and way of life can be summed up in one word � eukle?s, �honourable�. She has a code of honour proper for a princess, an aristocrat� . Phaedra�s valuation of social propriety thus helps explain her apparent certainty that a relationship with Hippolytus is impossible in an Athenian society.
The choice between speech and silence is a highly significant one which is continually posed to Phaedra. At the beginning of the play, she had attempted to keep silent about her passion, with only the Nurse�s continual coaxing finally getting a reaction. She then attempts to stand her ground and �silence� the Nurse�s inquiries through her moralising address to the chorus who are made up of the Ladies of Trozen. This huge speech, where Phaedra explains and justifies all her actions thus far, also permits her paradoxical wish to suffer in silence but insure �my right actions� are noticed. The chorus give Phaedra the opportunity to have her nobility acknowledged and praised, and so Phaedra, at this stage, �can have her cake and eat it� (as Segal puts it ).
At no point does Phaedra explicitly sanction telling Hippolytus: this is an important difference from Seneca�s version. But Phaedra�s susceptibility to her servant�s words, an explicit symptom of her psychological turmoil, is hinted at by a number of her reflections. When the Nurse mentions Hippolytus, Phaedra immediately cries �You spoke that name, not I� (p. 140), and beforehand she had made the cryptic reflection that �If only you could say to me what I must say myself� You may prove too clever for me, that�s my fear�. As Segal observes, �Phaedra tries to evade responsibility by a verbal fiction� . Euripides, through masterful control of the dialogue between the two, gives the impression that despite her high moral position, there is part of Phaedra (overcome by passion) that is willing to resign responsibility to another. The Nurse recognises this susceptibility, and professing concern for her mistress, tricks her mistress by promising to deliver a cure for Phaedra�s passion. It is debatable whether Phaedra knows what the Nurse actually means when she promises the delivery of a �love charm� to solve the situation, but it would require an unexpected stretch of the imagination to contemplate the situation could be rectified so simply by the Nurse�s (suddenly recognised) skill for alchemy:
Nurse: In the house I have a charm that is a spell for love � it only came into my mind this moment � it will rid you of this sickness and do no harm to your wits and your reputation, provided you don�t turn coward. But we need to get some token from him, the one your looking for, a lock of hair, or something from his clothes, and the join the two � token and spell � for a happy result.
Phaedra: This charm � is it an ointment or a potion?
Nurse: I don�t know; a cure is what you should be after my girl, not answers to questions.
Phaedra: Oh, you may prove to clever for me, that�s my fear!
Nurse: You fear anything, that�s your trouble! What�s your worry?
Phaedra: That you may pass any of this on to Theseus� son.
Nurse: Leave it to me, my girl; I�ll take good care over this�
(p. 144)
Phaedra herself speculates that the Nurse�s true intention might be to tell Hippolytus. Either way, it is significant that at this point, the woman who prized herself for her �self-discipline� should abdicate responsibility to another. Phaedra never openly gives in to the Nurse�s plot, but her psychological frailty in the face of her passion doesn�t render her entirely blameless. Rather, �she is now a child again, and the Nurse does for the grown woman what she had always done for the child � evades her questions, makes light of her fears, relieves her of responsibility, and decides for her� (Knox ).
The Nurse then proceeds to tell Hippolytus offstage (though admittedly after securing an oath of silence from him). His violent rebuff of Phaedra�s affection hits her hard, but even more importantly puts her final resolution to die with honour intact gravely at risk. Earlier, the chorus were witnesses who Phaedra requested to hide and be silent: like all the characters at some point , they had to decide between silence and speech and they chose the former, binding their silence with an oath. But Hippolytus, the other witness to her weakness, appears a much more uncertain proposition after his misogynistic speech, in which case he must be silenced forcibly:
Phaedra: You could not hold your tongue and so no longer shall I die with honour.
No! New plans are what I need now. This man [Hippolytus], roused to fury,
will denounce me to his father for your crimes; he will tell old Pittheus
what has happened and fill the whole land with his tale of shame!
(p. 148)
Phaedra�s subsequent and almost immediate suicide confirm the genuineness of her previous sentiments, and her suicide note (which proves instrumental in damning Hippolytus to his fate) can be rationalised in such a light. Phaedra doesn�t possess the psychological strength to live any more, and her note is designed to counter anything Hippolytus might reveal for the sake of her children�s honour. For Phaedra perceives in his cruel and unrestrained rejection a distinct lack of her much prized s�phrosure, and this is enough to justify her taking events into her own hands:
