Phaedra’s Family Tree

About Phaedra →

Family

• Minos(parent),Pasiphae(parent),Androgeus(sibling),Ariadne(sibling),Catreus(sibling),Deucalion of Crete(sibling),Glaucus son of Minos(sibling)— Marriage

  Minos and Pasiphae, king and queen of Crete, bore Ariadne, Phaedra, Androgeus, Deucalion of Crete, Catreus, and Glaucus son of Minos — a royal line shaped by tragedy from Androgeus's death in Athens to Ariadne's betrayal.

• Theseus(spouse),Acamas(child),Demophon(child)— Marriage

  Theseus married Phaedra, daughter of Minos and sister of the Ariadne he had abandoned. They had two sons, Acamas and Demophon, who later fought at Troy and rescued their grandmother Aethra from the fallen city.

Associated with

• Aphrodite

  Aphrodite cursed Phaedra with an uncontrollable passion for her stepson Hippolytus as revenge against the young hunter for his exclusive devotion to Artemis and contempt for love. Phaedra was an innocent victim of the goddess's wrath.

• Hippolytus

  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.

• Theseus

  After Phaedra hanged herself leaving a tablet accusing Hippolytus of rape, Theseus believed the accusation and used one of Poseidon's three granted wishes to curse his own son to death.