Hippolytus’s Family Tree

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Family

• Hippolyta(parent),Theseus(parent)— Consort

  Theseus took the Amazon queen Hippolyta as his consort, and she bore him Hippolytus, the chaste hunter devoted to Artemis whose rejection of Aphrodite brought his tragic death at his own father's curse.

  ⚠ The Amazon mother's identity is disputed: Apollodorus (Epitome 1.16) names her Antiope, while Plutarch (Theseus 26-28) discusses both Hippolyta and Antiope as traditions for the same figure.

Enemy of

• Aphrodite

  Aphrodite destroyed Hippolytus for his refusal to honor love and desire, engineering his death through Phaedra's doomed passion as told in Euripides' Hippolytus.

Slain by

• Aphrodite,Poseidon,Theseus

  Aphrodite destroyed Hippolytus for his devoted chastity and rejection of her worship, inflaming Phaedra with forbidden desire for her stepson. When the catastrophe unfolded, Theseus cursed his own son using one of Poseidon's granted wishes, and the sea god sent a monstrous bull that wrecked the young hunter's chariot and killed him.

Equivalent to

• Virbius(Roman)

  In Roman tradition, Hippolytus was resurrected by Asclepius and taken by Diana to the sacred grove at Aricia in Italy, where he became the minor deity Virbius.

Associated with

• Amazons

  As the son of the Amazon queen Hippolyta, Hippolytus inherited the Amazons' devotion to the wild and to chastity, traits that defined his character in Euripides' play.

• Artemis

  Hippolytus was the most devoted mortal follower of Artemis, swearing eternal chastity in her honor. His rejection of Aphrodite's domain caused the love goddess to destroy him through his stepmother Phaedra's doomed passion.

• Asclepius

  Asclepius resurrected Hippolytus after Theseus's son was killed by Poseidon's sea monster. This act of raising the dead was one of the transgressions that provoked Zeus to strike Asclepius down.

• Phaedra

  In Euripides' Hippolytus, Phaedra fell hopelessly in love with her stepson Hippolytus, driven by Aphrodite's curse. When he rejected her in horror, she hanged herself and left a tablet falsely accusing him of rape.

• Pittheus

  Hippolytus was raised at Troezen in the household of his great-grandfather Pittheus, where he became a devoted hunter and follower of Artemis.